Biography and Genealogy of

EDMUND OSCAR MILLS

Ed's parents, Alice and Charles Mills

Contents

Ed's Ancestry
   Maternal line
   Paternal line

Ed's Biography

Genealogical research and photos compiled by Ed's sister, Jean Wilson (nee Mills), Ken and Gail Wilson
(Ed's nephew and his wife), Bill McLatchy, and Ed's son, Michael Mills (email: memills@gmail.com) 

Also see a brief biography of Ed's sister, Jean Wilson (nee Mills).

Ed's ancestry -- maternal line.

Circa 1855    Ed's maternal grandmother, Mary Jane McLatchy (nee Harris) (1833-1893).  She had 8 children, the last one, at age 49, was Ed's mother Alice (born in 1882).  Mary was born in Nova Scotia and died in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

On the right, Ed's maternal grandfather, Samuel Harris McLatchy (1831 - 1912) .  He was born in Weldon, New Brunswick and died in Oxnard, California.

On the right, Ed's maternal grandfather Samuel Harris McLatchy later in life. The child in the photo is unidentified.  Photo was most likely taken near Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

The name "McLatchy", is a shortening of the name of a Scotch Clan, living, for many generations, in the mountainous highlands of Scotland, known as the "MacLatchie" family.

The first McLatchy immigant to New Brunswick was John McLatchy, who emigrated in 1783 and settled in Weldon. He was born in Shire of Ayr, Scotland. He is Ed's great, great, great grandfather.

In December, 1812 John purchased over three thousand acres of timber land on the south shore of the Peticodiac River, of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, about ten miles from the mouth of that river, where it empties into the Bay of Fundy. John purchased the 3464 acres from Joshua Hauger, paying him 1,380 pounds. John's occupation was shown as a blacksmith, so where managed to scrape together that large sum of money is a mystery. John married a woman named Rebekah and they had four children, two of which were named "James" -- the second, James McLatchy, 2nd is Ed's great great grandfather. 

John McLatchy constructed a shipyard at what is now the village of Hillsborough and he and his sons became shipbuilders of wooden sloops and schooners for coastal navigation, down the coast of Canada and the United States as far south as the West Indies. Some of his descendants became ship captains or sailors.

When John McLatchy died, the family property was divided between two of his (surviving?) sons, John Jr. and James, 2nd. The property transfer was made on April 14, 1825.

James 2nd married Jannet Scott. The 5th child of James and Jannet McLatchy was Edmund Mills' maternal grandfather, Samuel Harris McLatchy. Samuel Harris McLatchy was born in 1831 in Weldon, Albert County, New Brunswick, Canada. He resided in the family home and farm in Weldon with this family, and then with his widowed mother, Jannet, until his marriage.

Samuel Barnes Smith, who was married to one of Samuel's daughters, wrote in 1936 to his son that: "Samuel Harris McLatchy, the youngest and youthfully well-to-do, good looking, member of his immediate family, "ditched" school before finishing." He courted Mary Jane Harris of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. They married on 9/21/1861 and had 8 children. The last of which was Ed's mother, Alice McLatchy. Alice was born on November 24, 1882. On Edmund Mills' birth certificate, her last name has a different spelling: "MacLatchy".

Samuel Barnes Smith wrote that:

"Samuel built a fine big home on his own land at Hillsborough, living the life of a country gentleman, until their home caught fire and was destroyed, with no insurance upon it. The family then lived temporarily in the original McLatchy homestead. During my own several visits at Moncton, N.B. I have been entertained at this fine old residence on the bank of the Peticodiac River, by your Mother's (Mary Eugena McLatchy) Aunt Jane and Vinie (Lavinia), the maiden sisters of your Grandfather (Samuel Harris McLatchy)."

Apparently, however, Mr. Smith's recollection of "Aunt Jane" is incorrect because Samuel had no daughter by that name. Other than Lavina, the only other daughter was named "Mary Janet" (perhaps she was nicknamed "Jane"?). According to another source, Lavina was a teacher, who eventually had to give up her career to care for Mary who had a mental illness. The family house that was the original McLatchy homestead (to which Mr. Smith refers above) apparently also caught fire, a fire perhaps started by Mary.  Lavina apparently attempted to rescue Mary, but Mary died a few days later.

The Samuel McLatchy family remained in Weldon, New Brunswick until 1889 when they moved to Moncton, New Brunswick for Samuel to accept a position of caretaker of the "Almshouse" (?).  He held this position until April 30, 1896.  

In October, 1907, Samuel McLatchy followed three of his children who had moved to Oxnard, California.  

These children were:

1. Oscar J. McLatchy (7/22/1871 - 8/21/1940).   This uncle of Ed's is apparently  the source of Ed's middle name, "Oscar".  Oscar was  reported by one source to have worked as a fireman.  However, his obituary in 1940, below, suggests otherwise:

OBITUARY Oscar Inglis McLatchy was born in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, Canada, July 22nd, 1871. His father was Samuel Harris McLatchy, and his mother Mary Jane Harris McLatchy. In his early youth he decided to settle in the United States, and entered the machinists trade in New York City. In 1900 he was married to Fannie Louise Hamilton, after which they went to Virginia and resided until 1905. At that time they moved to Los Angeles, California, where the first child, Edith May, was born. In 1906, Mr. McLatchy connected with the American Beet Sugar Company in Oxnard. The second daughter, Dorothy, was born there in 1909. Between the years of 1925 and 1932, he was employed by the Oxnard Municipal Water Department, where his brother, Reginald, has served for many years. About seven years ago, Mr. McLatchy purchased property near Ojai, where he was residing at the time of his death. Mr. McLatchy for the past three years had been working during the campaign season only at the American Crystal Sugar Company in Oxnard. On the night of August 21, 1940 on his way home from work at 10:15 P. M., a few miles east of Ventura, an accident occurred involving his automobile and a stage driving in the opposite direction. The collision threw him from his car onto the pavement, causing a brain concussion, from which he never regained consciousness. At an inquest held August 23rd, the driver of the bus was exonerated from all blame and the death declared accidental. His loss is mourned by his wife, Mrs. Fannie L. McLatchy, who has been ill for a number of years; two daughters, Mrs. Ray Chapin of Oxnard. and Miss Dorothy McLatchy of Glendale; two grandchildren; a son-in-law, Ray Chapin of Oxnard; a sister, Mrs. Alice Mills of San Francisco; a brother, Reginald McLatchy of Oxnard; several nieces and nephews, other relatives, and many friends. He was ever a loving husband and father, and his friends knew him as one whose word was "as good as his deed," loyal and true under every condition and circumstance.

 

2. Reginald W. McLatchy (1877 - ?).    According to Oscar McLatchy's obituary above, Reginald worked for the Oxnard Municipal Water Department "for many years".  According to Ed's sister, Jean, she recalls her mother, Alice, saying that Reginald was one of her mother's favorite brothers.  He taught Alice how to ice skate on a frozen lake by first pushing her around in a chair with her ice skates on.

3. Mrs. Lillian Parker (nee McLatchy).

Samuel Harris McLatchy died in 1912 at Oxnard, CA.  According to Samuel Barnes Smith, he died of pneumonia  after his leg was broken from a kick by a horse.

At right, Ed's mother, Alice with her father, Samuel Harris McLatchy, mostly likely in San Francisco or Oxnard, circa 1908.

Ed's maternal grandmother, Mary Jane McLatchy (nee Harris) later in life, circa 1890.

Excerpt of letter from Samuel Barnes Smith to his son, Linton Hinds Smith
relating his knowledge of the ancestry of his wife, Mary Eugnia ("Jennie") McLatchy .

" (she)  ...was of the Harris family of Grand Ere, Nova Scotia. Her Father owned the farm on which was located the famous spring of water around which the poet Longfellow builded his great poem "Evangalin".   

According to Smith,   Mary Jane's father, Robert Laird Harris, had two prominent brothers.  One of the  brothers was the Queen's Council of the Province of Nova Scotia during the reign of Queen Victoria.  

"That office is similar to that of the Attorney General of California. Another (of her father's brothers)  was the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist-Episcopal Church for the Province of Nova Scotia."

Smith writes that Mary Jane "... McLatchy died very suddenly during 1893. It was thought from an error of a physician from an over-dose of morphine as she was subject to severe attacks of neuralgia. She was sixty years old at her death."

Additional information about the McLatchy family:

• To see some letters written by Mary McLatchy that she mailed to her children, click here.
• A history of the McLatchy Family, written by Bill McLatchy, can be seen here.
• My email correspondence with Bill McLatchy can be seen here.

Circa 1888.    Ed's mother, Alice Thaxter McLatchy (1882 - 1968).    

Alice McLatchy was born in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and died at the Playa del Rey district of Los Angeles, California.   After her mother, Mary Jane McLatchy (nee Harris) died in 1893, Alice was sent to be raised by her older sister, Lilly, in New York city.  There Alice attended nursing school.   Lilly moved to San Francisco, and Alice followed in 1906.

Bible given to Alice by her mother, Mary Jane McLatchy.  Dated 1888 (?)

Circa 1899.   Ed's mother, Alice.  

When Alice was a child, she was taking glass jars of jelly that her mother had made for storage to their cellar.  She tripped down the stairs, the jars broke, and she cut a gash in her face on the right side.  Note that in pictures Alice usually turned her head to the right of the camera to conceal the scar.

Charles Mills.  Circa 1906.

Alice moved to San Francisco in October 1906.  There she met Charles Mills when he was a patient in a hospital in San Francisco where she was working as a nurse. He had been hospitalized with typhoid fever that he contracted during the epidemic after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Ed Mills regarding how his mother and father met:

My mother worked as a nurse -- apparently that's where she and my father met, when he was in the hospital. That was their first meeting place, because they didn't seem to have anything else in common that would have brought them together.

Alice McLatchy and Charles Mills were married October 27th, 1907.

Ed's ancestry -- paternal line.

Ed's paternal grandparents were James Albert Mills (1852 - 1907) and Amy Emma Mills (nee Toner) (1869 - 1946).  There apparently are no photographs in which James Albert Mills is identified.   

Emma was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and died in Oakland, CA.

Photo is believed to be of Ed's paternal grandmother, Emma ("Nanna") Mills (nee Amy Emma Toner).
Photo circa 1880 in Whitesboro, CA.  Note the cut trees -- Whitesboro was a very small,  isolated lumbering and
milling village established by Lorenzo E. White on the coast of Northern California.

Whitesboro, circa 1880. Trees were felled, milled, and the lumber was sent 
down the coast to San Francisco in schooners.

The lumbering operations of Whitesboro are gone today -- above is how the area appeared in 1998.  
Photo was taken James and Emma Mills' great grandson, Ken Wilson and his wife Gail when they
visited the area in search of genealogical records.

The Salmon Creek Hotel in Whitesboro, circa 1882.

Whitesboro, looking inland.  From these photos, apparently there
were few amenities -- life there must have been pretty difficult at times.

L.E. White Lumber Company & Mill (circa 1885)

Emma and James Mills had their first child here Whitesboro  in 1883, Charles
Albert Mills (Ed's father).

Looking inland from the area where Whitesboro used to be, as the area appeared over a century
later,  in 1998.  It appears that many of the trees that were cut down have still not yet been replaced 
with new growth.

Note: Given that James Mills' date of birth was 1852, his age should have been 28 in 1880.  Perhaps the number "8"
was mistaken for a "3"?  His occupation is listed as "lumberman".

Ed's sister Jean's research notes re James Mills, and any possible relatives in the area at the time..  In 1882 James would have been 30.

Inscription in a book, Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, given to James Albert Mills as a
Christmas gift by "Nellie" in 1887.

A photo found in Emma's photo album -- the date and people are unidentified.  The hills in the background and the style of dress suggest that this photo taken at Whitesboro.  Is Emma in the center?  The man on right has a passing resemblance to Emma's son, Charles Mills -- could that be her husband, James Mills?  Below, note the similarity in facial features, particularly in the chin, mouth and eyes.

Is this James Albert Mills?

Charles Albert Mills, James Albert Mills' son.

Photo in Emma's photo album -- location and persons are unidentified.

James A. Mills' signature -- one of the few remaining traces of the man...

This photo was found  in Emma's photo album, but the individuals are unidentified.  Since these were time-exposure photographs at the time (where the subjects had to remain still for a minute or two), note that the eyes of the man in the center are seen as both open and shut. Could one of them be James Albert Mills?  (Ed's sister, Jean Wilson, nee Mills, suggested that James Mills might be the man on the left, and the woman sitting might be Emma -- although there isn't too much resemblance to other the photos of James or Emma.  However, Jean  remembered the jacket the woman is wearing.  She recalled that It was given as a gift to her (Jean) by Emma.)

Notice of the death of Emma's brother, William F. Toner.

Given the letter above, the marriage between Emma and James Mills was close to ending in 1893.    

Apparently the reconciliation between Emma and James was, as the attorney above  predicted, short lived.  Above, James Mills transfers over mortgage and property ownership to Emma Mills.  It reads: "San Francisco, Nov 16, 1894.  For valuable consideration I hereby sell, assign, transfer and set over all my right, title, and interest in and to the within contract and to all money paid thereunder to Emma Mills.  J.A. Mills."

I never met my grandfather on my father's side (James Mills) -- by that time he and my grandmother, Emma, had divorced. I don't recall my father ever speaking of his father. My grandmother, Emma, lived in Oakland, and I remember her quite well. She was quite experienced in the matrimonial field, and had been through a couple of marriages, the last name that I remember she had was Tilgner.

Apparently the mortgage was either cancelled between the parties, or paid off.

Emma marries Frank Tilgner on August 8, 1899.  Note that the witness is "Nettie Keating" -- could this be
the "Nellie," above, who gave the book Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier to James Albert Mills in 1887?

However, the plot thickens: 

The receipt for a cemetery plot for the grave of "J.E. Mills" child.  For "grave 1, Sec C, Infants".   Apparently Emma lost an
infant in early September 1899.   However, if she married Frank Tilgner a month earlier, why was the child given the surname
of Mills?   Was Emma pregnant with James Mills' child when she married Frank Tilgner?

1891   James and Emma Mills' son (Ed's father), Charles Albert Mills (1883 - 1925), far right, 2nd row from top.  He was born in Whitesboro, Mendocino County, California and died while on a business trip to Detroit, Michigan.

1891

Charles Mills collected stamps.  Apparently, he requested that postcards be sent to him from various countries.  The above postcard is dated 1898.

Ed's father, Charles Albert Mills, circa 1903

My father was a very intelligent, ambitious businessman who was a self-made man. He took a correspondence course for salesmanship, and eventually he set up his own business as a manufacturer's agent selling equipment to hospitals -- sterilizers, surgical equipment, etc. He had his own office in downtown San Francisco, on Market Street, the Charles Mills Company. I remember that very well. He would drag me down there and I would help open up the crates that the equipment came in.  And every once in a while he would take me with him on his sales trips to hospitals in the San Francisco area. He was a very ambitious guy, and apparently he did very well financially. It seems to me that he was very successful -- he worked strictly on a commission basis. He had only one employee -- a stenographer.

From Charles Mills' business envelope.

Charles' mother Emma (Ed's maternal grandmother).   Photo was probably taken by her son, Charles (Ed's father), who had taken up photography as a hobby.

Notice of the death of Emma's last husband, Frank Tilgner in 1904.

James Albert Mills passed away in July, 1907 at the age of 55. The cause of his death is not recorded.  His son, Charles, who was 24 at the time, purchased his grave plot.

Notice of the death of Emma's daughter (Ed's father Charles' sister), Rosella.

Photo taken by Charles Mills, circa 1910.

Notice of the death of Emma's father, Hugh Toner in 1911.   Note that he was born in County Tyrone, Ireland.

To continue, click here.

All text and photos copyright (c) 2001 Michael E. Mills (memills@gmail.com).  All rights reserved