Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/409

 MILLS

MILLS

labor aiitl many delays and was completed at a personal loss to Mr. Millsof $7,000, which congress afterward repaid out of an appropriation of ^20,000 voted for a copy to be erected in New Orleans, La. His second conunission, a colossal equestrian statue of Wash- ington at the battle of Princeton, for which con- gress appropriated $50,- 000, was unveiled at Washington, Feb. 22, I8- 60. He also cast a colos- sal statue of "Liberty" from Crawford's design, to surmount the dome of the capitol at Washing- ton, and it was placed in position in 1863. He took a life mask of Lincoln a short time before the assassination. He died in Washington, D.C.. Jan. 12, 1883.

MILLS* Cyrus Taggart, educator, was born in Paris, N.Y., May 14, 1819 ; son of William and Mary Mills, and grandson of Henry Mills. He was graduated from Williams college in 1844 ; attended the Union Theological seminary, 1844- 47, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister, Feb. 2, 1848. He was married, Sept. 11, 1848, to Susan Tolman of Ware, Mass. He went as a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. to Ceylon in 1849, having studied the Tamul language in college, and met with remarkable success, but his health failed, and he returned to America in 1855. He supplied a pulpit at Berkshire, N.Y., 1856-58, and in 1860 he went under the auspices of the A. B.C. F.M. to the Hawaiian islands as president of Oahu college, near Honolulu, a college for the education of the children of missionaries and foreign residents, and during his administration he greatly improved its financial and educational standing. In 1864 he returned to California, and in 1865 purchased a school known as Mary At- kins Seminary, and conducted it as the Benicia Seminary for Young Ladies, 1865-71, when he re- moved to Seminary Park, Alameda county, and erected new buildings, the institution becoming known as Mills Seminary. He eventually deeded tlie entire property to a self-perpetuating board of trustees to be held by them as a permanent institution for the higher education of women. In 1885 it was chartered as a college and became known as Mills College and Seminary. The hon- orary degree of D.D. was conferred on President Mills by Williams college in 1870. He died at Mills colloge, Cal., April 20, 1884.

MILLS, Darius Ogden, philanthropist, was born in North Salem, N.Y., Sept. 25, 1825 ; son of James and Hannah (Ogden) Mills and a descend-

ant of a North of England family of that name which settled on Long Island about 1750, and afterward removed to Connecticut. He attended North .Salem academy and Mt. Pleasant academy, Sing Sing, until 1841, when owing to the death of his father he was obliged to help sup- port the family. He was a clerk in New York city, 1842-47, and cashier of the Merchants' Bank of Erie County, at Buf- salo, N.Y., 1847-48, and business partner with his cousin, Er J. Townsend, who in December, 1848, agreed to extend the partnership to any business he could do in California, where,

during 1849, he succeeded so well that he returned to Buffalo, closed out his business and settled in Sacramento as a merchant and banker in 18.')0. The growth of his banking business soon crowded out merchandise, and with his brothers James and Edgar he established a branch at Columbia, Cal. The bank of D. O. Mills & Co., was still under his ownership and control in 1902, as the National Bank of D. O. Mills & Company, the oldest bank of continuously unbroken credit in the state of California. In 1864 he organized and became presidentof the Bank of California, in San Francisco, with W. C. Ralston as cashier. In 1873 he resigned and went abroad, leaving the bank with a capital of $5,000,000 and a large surplus, which, by 1875, was lost and the bank in debt near- ly $20,000,000, and Mr. Mills was asked to settle the affaira. He personally subscribed over $1 ,000,000 ; raised nearly $7,000,000 more, and in a short time reopened the bank. He retained the presidency until 1878, when he resigned, the bank being again on a firm basis. He was a large owner in the mines of the Comstock lode, held a control- ing interest in the Virginia and Truckee railroad leading to the mines in the vast forests above Lake Tahoe, which supplied timber for use in mining ; held a controlling interest in the great quicksilver mines of the Pacific coast ; and owned a large ranch near San Francisco, on which he built " Millbrae." his country residence. In 1880 he removed to New York city. He was a regent and treasurer of the University of Cali- fornia, 1868-80, and gave ^5.000 to found the Mills professorship of moral and intellectual phi- losophy. He also presented to the state Larkin G. Mead's large marble groun, " Columbus be- fore Queen Isabella," placed in the rotunda of the