McDonough ILGenWeb

McMillan, Hugh, who has spent nearly sixty years of active life in McDoncugh County, Ill., during a large portion of which he was successfully engaged in farming in Scotland Township, is now living in leisurely retirement in Macomb, that county. He was born in Campbelltown, Argyleshire, Scotland, March 15, 1831, a son of John and Margaret (Watson) McMillan, natives of the country named. Duncan McMillan, his paternal grandfather, and Hugh Watson, the maternal grandfather, were also of Scotch nativity. In 1843 John McMillan brought his family, consisting of his wife and five boys and three girls, to the United States. The family crossed the ocean in a sailing-vessel and consumed nine weeks in reaching Cincinnati, Ohio, in the vicinity of which the father applied himself to farming. There he remained five years, and then, late in 1847, moved to McDonough County, Ill. Here he bought a farm in Scotland Township, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. He and his five sons paid $100 each in an effort to get the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad through Macomb, but the project failed. Of their children Hugh McMillan was the sixth in order of birth. He grew up on the home farm, attending in his boyhood the public school, assisting his father in his farm work. The latter divided the farm among his children before he died, the share of Hugh McMillan being sixty-five acres, on which he made his home after his marriage. To this he added as opportunity afforded, until he is now the owner of 228 acres of very choice land. Here he was engaged in general farming and stock-raising until the fall of 1892, when he built the fine residence, No. 821 East Carroll Street, Macomb, where he is passing his days with his wife in retirement from toil, enjoying the respect and esteem of numerous friends.

On May 27, 1858, Mr. McMillan was married to Jane Kelley, who was born and schooled in Argyleshire, Scotland. From this union has resulted a family of six children, namely: Catherine (Mrs. D. A. Watson), Margaret (Mrs. Prank Dallam, of Iowa), Robert D., John S., Hugh William, and Peter A. Religiously, the subject of this sketch unites in worship with the Presbyterian Church. His political views are in harmony with the policies of the Republican party. He has lived an industrious and useful life, and has done his share toward building up the material prosperity of the township with which he was so long identified.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907, volume 2, page 955, extracted 12 Sep 2019 by Norma Hass.