What Good Farmers Think of It
We, the undersigned, farmers residing in DeWitt county, having used Weir’s Improved Corn Plows, take pleasure in recommending them to the farming community generally. For simpliciyt and durability it cannot be surpassed. It readily adjusts itself to the ground, however uneven it may be, and by means of a double joint, by which the plows are attached to the frame, the operator is enabled to reach every hill of corn, however irregular it may stand. It is light draft, and will plow in low, wet or foul ground, where all others fall that we have seen. It is so constructed that by means of a temper screw it can be easily regulated to plow any depth desired, and is easily managed. It will throw the earth to or from the corn equal to a moldboard plow, and we assert that we can do better plowing with a Weir Plow than can be done by a double shovel or bar plow.
Smith Fuller, Jacob Hassinger
David McClimans, Daniel Fuller,
J. R. Hall, A. A. Eads,
Rodney P. Hill, Peter Selier,
D. A. Rosencrans, P. M. Day,
David Bell, W. T. Watson,
T. W. Cain, R. Buchanan,
Wm. H. Storts, C. A. Stewart,
Jacob L. Fort, N. Munseh,
John H. Mills, Wm. J. Henry,
H. L. Ives, Amos Winegardner,
Peter Bowles, Nicholas Burkerd.
For sale by WOLF & McHENRY, Clinton
John Henry Mills was my great, great, great-grandfather. His legacy still lives on today. My family still farm and lives on the land that he bought in Barnett Township, Dewitt County, Illinois, as a young man.
JOHN HENRY MILLS DIED LAST NIGHT
Pioneer Resident of County Passed Away at Home in Green Valley Neighborhood After Brief Illness
John Henry Mills, a pioneer resident of this county, died in his home in the Green Valley neighborhood west of Clinton, Monday night at 11 o'clock after a very brief illness of complication of diseases.
Mr. Mills was 89 years, 1 month and 26 days old at the time of his death and had been a resident of Clintonia and Barnett township for over eighty years. He was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, December 10, 1827, to Nathan and Catharine Mills, pioneers of Scottish decent, who had followed the rapid westward emigration from old Virginia to the green fields of Kentucky. When the deceased was six years of age his father with the desire to seek newer and better fields came to Illinois where he entered 200 acres of land in Clintonia and Tunbridge townships. He was taken ill with the fever while in Illinois and died soon after his return home. His wife courageously gathered her family about her and it was in Mr. Mills' seventh year that he was brought from his Kentucky birthplace to a new home in Illinois.
The trip overland was made in covered wagons drawn by horses and with the bad roads and other drawbacks, over a month was required to make the journey. The family arrived the latter part of October in 1835 and settled on the farm entered by the husband and father. Those who made the trip were the mother who died in 1876; Bentley, Pascal, Rufus, Thomas, Washington, Nancy, Ann, and J.H. Mills. A sister Margaret Barnett had come to Illinois three years previous and a brother arrived two years later.
Mr. Mills grew up in the rugged pioneer life of central Illinois gleaning his education from his mother, and from the meager courses of study enjoyed in the pioneer schools of that time. He passed through the early struggles of the family to farm their land without the aid of their father, and assisted his older brothers in farming the home place. In the year 1847, he entered eighty acres of land in Barnett township in section 24 which is still his home.
He set up a small house on this land and on September 20 of that year he was united in marriage to Ruth J. Sprague. To this union was born two children, a girl who died in infancy, and a boy, Charles, who was drowned in a well at the age of 11 years. This wife died in October 1850. He was married a second time this wife being Talitha Cushman. This wedding took place on February 27, four years after the death of his first wife. Five children were born to this union, two girls dying in infancy. The following survive: Henry C. Mills, residing on the home place, Ara Mills Sprague, and Lora Mills McKinney, and a step-son Frank Cushman of Clinton. Mrs. Mills passed away on February 2, 1903.
Mrs. Catharine Mills, the mother died in 1876 at the advanced age of 91 years. She was born in 1785.
Since the death of his wife Mr. Mills had given up active farming operations and had made his home with his three children, spending much time with his son, Henry, upon the home farm, at the home of B.C. Sprague in Clinton, and with J. Howard McKinney, in Barnett township.
Mr. Mills spent his active life on the farm and had from time to time added to his eighty acres of homestead land until he now owns 160 acres on the home farm, and some valuable timberland in Tunbridge township.
He was a man of rugged, sturdy character, a typical pioneer, a man who enjoyed the friendship of every acquaintance, of a kindly charitable nature and his death will be sincerely mourned by hundreds of relatives and friends in DeWitt county and central Illinois. Mr. Mills had been a member of the Christian church at Clinton for a long term of years and applied active Christianity to his daily life. He had been a life long Republican, and voted this ticket at the last election.
Mr. Mills, aside from his children, is survived by ten grand children and eleven great-grandchildren as follows: Frank Mills, Blanche Purcell McKinney, Fern McKinney Brinkman, Mary McKinney, Hattie Sprague McConkey, Alva H. Sprague of Clinton and vicinity, and Nora Sprague of Oklahoma City, OK, Orval Sprague, and Edgar Sprague of Clinton. The following are his great-grandchildren: Bernard Mills, Opal Mills, Hazel Mills, Kenneth Purcell, Guernsey McConkey, Bernadine McConkey, Helen Sprague, Marie Sprague, Wayne Sprague, and Evelyn Sprague
The funeral services will be held in the First Christian church in this city Thursday morning February 8, at 11 o'clock. Reverend E.A. Gilliland, former pastor of the local church, but now of Normal, will officiate. Internment will be made in Woodlawn Cemetery.
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