SAMUEL CRAWFORD MILLS, for many years one of the leading business men of Newburgh, was born in Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, N. Y., March 9, 1839. He died at his home in Newburgh in 1904. Mr. Mills came to this city in 1857 and entered the dry-goods house of Stephen Hayt & Co. as a salesman, continuing with this house for nearly six years. In 1863 Mr. Mills formed a partnership with John Schoonmaker and A. Y. Weller to conduct a dry-goods establishment. The enterprise proved very successful, and Mr. Mills retired from the firm in 1885. For many years he was a director of the Quassaick National Bank and a trustee of the Newburgh Savings Bank.
Mr. Mills was twice married. His first wife, Miss Elizabeth Vail, died in 1868. For his second wife he chose Sarah, daughter of Hon. Stephen McDonald, of Elmira. Two children were born, Stephen McDonald and Mary Duryea. The latter is the only surviving member of this family. She is a member of Quassaick Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In 1908 Miss Mills married Mr. Luther Winthrop Faulkner, of Lowell, Mass., where she now resides.
SAMUEL WICKHAM MILLS, D.D., was a native of Orange County, born in the town of Wallkill, April 5, 1820. The Mills family came to America from England. At the age of fifteen he entered Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N. J., where he graduated at the age of eighteen. In 1842 he graduated from the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick.
At Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, Dr. Mills began his pastoral work in 1843. At the end of fifteen years he located at Port Jervis, where he was engaged in preaching for fourteen years. He was married January 17, 1844, to Miss Amelia J. Bailey, daughter of Nathaniel Bailey, of Middletown, N. Y. She was born February 28, 1822, and died March 12, 1867. By this union there were six children. On the 29th of November, 1870, Rev. Dr. Mills was again married to Miss Amira St. John, of Port Jervis. He died November 27, 1902.
STOTT MILLS, postmaster at Warwick, N. Y., was born at Paterson, N. J., June 26, 1840. His parents were John and Sarah (Briarly) Mills, and both were of English extraction. The subject of this sketch acquired his education at the public school at Paterson. He was identified with the Rogers Locomotive Works for a period of four years. He enlisted in May, 1861, in Company A, Second Regiment, N. J. Vols., and was honorably discharged. He participated in all the important engagements in which his regiment was engaged, and became first lieutenant. After the close of the war he removed to Port Jervis, N. Y., and was connected with the Erie Railroad as foreman in the shops for a period of fourteen years. He went west for three years, after which he removed to Warwick, N. Y., and filled the position of master mechanic of the Lehigh and Hudson Railroad for sixteen years. In 1898 he was appointed postmaster at Warwick, which position he still holds. He was united in marriage to Melvina Jackson, of Amity, Orange County, May 17, 1865. To this union five children were born—Sarah, Anna, Isabel, John and Charles. In politics Mr. Mills is a republican. He is a member of Lincoln Post, G. A. R., of Newark, N. J., and attends the Episcopal Church of Warwick.
DR. THEODORE DENTON MILLS was born June 9, 1852, in Bloomingburgh, Sullivan County, N. Y., and is the son of Dr. Samuel Wickham and Almeda Jane (Bailey) Mills. The former, who was a clergyman, was descended in a direct line from George Mills, who was born about 1605, came from Yorkshire, England, in 1665, and died in Jamaica, Long Island, in 1694, at the age of eighty-nine. His son, Samuel, was born in 1631, and died in Jamaica, L. I., in 1726, at the age of ninety-five; he was the father of Jonathan, who was born in Jamaica, L. I., and had four sons, Timothy, Samuel, Isaac and Jonathan. Timothy, who was born at Jamaica in 1677, left that place and settled at Mills Pond, L. I., in 1693; he died March 30, 1751, aged seventy-four. His son Jonathan, who was born in 1710, at Mills Pond, L. I., and died in 1798, at the age of eighty-eight, was the father of Jacob, who was born in 1746 at Mills Pond, L. I. (near St. James); he moved to New Windsor, Orange County, N. Y., in 1768 or 1770, and soon after to the town of Wallkill, Orange County; he died in 1841, aged ninety-five years. His son Samuel, who was born in 1776 and died in 1860, at the age of eighty-four, was the father of the Rev. Samuel Wickham, mentioned above, who was born in 1820 and died in 1902, aged eighty-two. The maternal ancestors of Dr. Mills were old residents of Orange County, New York, his grandfather, Nathaniel Bailey, having been the son of Captain Daniel Bailey, a soldier in the Revolutionary army.
Dr. Mills was prepared for college at the private school of Professor A. B. Wilbur, of Port Jervis, N. Y., and in 1874 graduated as bachelor of arts from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J., being junior orator and commencement orator, and receiving, in 1877, from the same institution, the degree of master of arts. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities. He studied medicine with Dr. Henry R. Baldwin, of New Brunswick, N. J., and Dr. Henry Hardenbergh, of Port Jervis, N. Y. In 1876 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University with the degree of doctor of Medicine, and from April of that year to October, 1877, was house surgeon in the first surgical division of Bellevue Hospital. He practiced medicine at Port Jervis, N. Y., from October, 1877, to January, 1881, when he removed to Middletown, N. Y., where he has been located since. He is attending surgeon to the Thrall Hospital and surgeon to the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad Company. He has been a trustee of the Middletown Savings Bank and of the Orange County Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and was for six years president of the Orange County Telephone Company and is a director of the Stivers Printing Company. He is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, the American Medical Association, the New York and New England Association of Railroad Surgeons and the International Association of Railroad Surgeons. He is a member of the Middletown Club and in politics independent. He is also a member of the Sons of the Revolution.
Dr. Mills married Christina, daughter of Hon. M. D. Stivers, of Middletown, October 20, 1867. They are the parents of the following children: Theodore Denton, Jr., born November 10, 1888, died January 14, 1889; Samuel Wickham, born January 4, 1892, and Elizabeth Stivers, born August 29, 1893.
GEORGE HENRY MILLSPAUGH was born in Goshen, Orange County, October 9, 1872. He received his education at the public school at Goshen, where he has since resided. He engaged in the laundry business in 1897 and now has the only steam laundry in Goshen, it being fully equipped with every modern convenience. In politics he is a republican. He is a member of Goshen Lodge No. 365, F. & A. M.; Goshen Social and Athletic Association, Cataract Hose Company and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Millspaugh is active in all matters relating to the highest interest of the town in which he lives.