Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE WASHINGTON McMILLAN
GEORGE WASHINGTON McMILLAN.—Owing
to the long period of his residence in Butte
County, and to his close
identification with its interests, George Washington McMillan has become known
among a large circle of friends in this region. Like so many men who have
helped to develop this state, he is the son of pioneer parents, and himself a
pioneer, and was born on the McMillan ranch in Hurleton
Precinct, Butte County,
April 1, 1859.
His father, William Wallace McMillan, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and educated in one of the colleges there. He
learned the business of manufacturing cotton and woolen goods in Rhode Island, whither he had come when a lad of seventeen, and where
his valuable services soon made him overseer of the mills in which he was
employed. He was the inventor of the spring-screw tension for a shuttle in
a loom, and which also is used in a sewing
machine. W. W. McMillan was married in Rhode Island
to Sarah McCoy, who was born in the north of Ireland. Soon after gold was discovered in California,
W. W. McMillan sailed, via the Isthmus, and arrived in San Francisco in the spring of 1852. He came direct to Butte
County and engaged in mining at a place known as Evansville,
at that time a prosperous mining camp named after Josiah Evans, a pioneer who
later moved to the vicinity of Milpitas, Santa Clara County. After Mr. Mc McMillan had established himself in California
he sent back East for his family, who joined him in the fall of 1855, they also
coming via Panama. Mrs. McMillan brought her two sons, William James,
aged six years, and John G., aged four. After a season at mining at Union
Bar, on the Middle Fork of the Feather
River, Mr. McMillan moved with
his family, in the fall of 1856, to what is still known as the old McMillan
homestead. Here he erected a house and set out an orchard, some of the
apple trees being still on the place. He followed mining on the Rocky Honcut and looked after his farming interests until 1870,
when he engaged in teaching school, but finally went back to mining and
continued that occupation until his death, at the age of eighty-one
years. He discovered and successfully operated the Phoenix Mine until he
sold it. He was a man of diversified talents and had learned the trade of
blacksmith when he was sixteen, and he followed this trade when he was not
engaged in farming and mining.
To Mr. and Mrs. McMillan six children were
born. William James and John G., who have already been mentioned, were
born in Rhode Island. They grew to manhood and both engaged in teaching
school for a number of years. William James died at the old homestead in
1878. John G., now a resident of Santa Clara County, served for many years as county surveyor of that
county. He has a wife and three children. His sons, Bruce and Percy,
enlisted when the first call came for soldiers to serve in the United States
Army in France and both saw active service at the front in the Battle of
the Marne. Bruce is a lieutenant and Percy is a
corporal. The other child is a daughter and lives in Santa Clara County. The other children of the parental family were
born on the old McMillan homestead; they are: Sarah, who died at the age of two
years; George W., of this review; Lizzie, now Mrs. Sehorn
and a teacher in Placer County; and William W., who is foreman of the Phoenix Mine, and
lives in Hurleton Precinct, Butte
County.
George Washington McMillan received his
education at Evansville school and attended the Lincoln
night school in San
Francisco. From
1882 to 1883 he worked for the Pacific Improvement Company as a blacksmith with
their crew of men in the construction of the McAllister Street cable-car line in San Francisco. His brother, John G., a civil engineer, did the
engineering work on the Market, Haight and
McAllister, and Valencia
Street cable
lines, and for the construction of the buildings of the Leland
Stanford University. George W. McMillan returned to the place of his
youth, in Butte County, and engaged in the stock business. He and his wife
own nine hundred twenty acres at the home place, where they have several acres
planted in orchard and are engaged in fruit growing. He has a flock of one
hundred high grade Angora goats, and keeps about sixty head of stock cattle on
the Forest Reserve in Plumas County. His place is enclosed by seven and one-half miles
of three-strand barb wire and wire netting, making it goat, hog and
cattle-tight. He also owns the Brown’s Hill gold mine, Plumas
County, which is a promising drift-gravel prospect.
George W. McMillan was married the first
time, in 1895, to Miss Alice Eachus, of Butte
County. They had one child that died in infancy. His wife
also died a short time afterward, and he was married the second time, in 1901,
to Miss Mary Maack, of Oroville, and they have one
daughter, Georgia, attending the high school at Oroville. Mr. and Mrs.
McMillan are highly esteemed for their generous hospitality. Mr. McMillan
is a man of exceptional executive ability and has the fine qualities of
integrity and perseverance of the true pioneer.
Transcribed 1-27-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 642-644, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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