Husband James Milliken, Esq. 1 2
Born: 23 Jul 1826 - Mifflin Co, PA 1
Christened:
Died:
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Father: Foster Milliken ( - ) 3
Mother: Nancy Thompson ( -Aft 1871) 3
Wife
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Children
General Notes: Husband - James Milliken, Esq.
He was a business man, of state-wide reputation. He was a great traveler and was an accomplished, self-taught scholar. He resided in New York City.
He was but four years of age when his father died, but his prudent Christian mother kept her family together as long as she could before sending the boys out to engage in the business of life. He was very young when placed as a clerk with the Messrs. Valentines, of Centre County, Pennsylvania. Before he was of age he was intrusted by the Messrs. Valentines with the agency for the sale of their iron in the State of New York, and was located for that purpose at Elmira, New York, for several years. When this agency closed, his uncles, who were leading commercial men of Mifflin County, persuaded him to join them in business at Lewistown, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged when the engineers of that grand improvement, the Pennsylvania Railroad, reached Lewistown. Making an acquaintance with John Edgar Thomson, then chief engineer, at the latter's solicitation Mr. Milliken took entire charge of the business of the company at that point for some years.
Not being satisfied with the limited sphere of business at Lewistown, Mr. Milliken removed to Philadelphia in 1850, and engaged in the flour and grain commission business, in the firm of Richardson & Milliken, but after a few years he engaged in a business more suited to his taste, the manufacture of iron. He was associated for a number of years with the firm of Reeves, Buck & Co., which became the Phoenix Iron Company, of Philadelphia and Phoenixville, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
While he resided in Philadelphia, Mr. Milliken took an active part in public affairs, and by his persevering ability, intelligence, and high character took a prominent position among the leading men of that city. At the outbreak of the war of 1861 he was especially prominent. He was a member of the Board of Trade, director of several railroad companies, and was one of the originators of the great Union League that did so much in behalf of the country in suppressing the Rebellion. He was made a member of the committee, of which the mayor was chairman, which distributed a bounty of several millions to the volunteers. On the occasion of the great city meeting to take action upon the firing upon Fort Sumter, when excited masses of men surged through the streets, Mr. Milliken mounted a temporary platform in front of the old National Hall and made a remarkably able speech, commencing, "Fellow-citizens,-With this calamity upon us we have ceased to be Republicans, we have ceased to be Democrats; we have ceased knowing party lines or recognizing party ties, for in this trying hour, as patriots and citizens, we should rise above them all, and stand firm for our country, and for a government, for ourselves."
In this vein he dwelt at length upon the issues forced upon the nation by the Rebellion, and when he closed a mass of men that blocked Market Street as far as the eye could reach made response to his patriotism in cheers that resounded far and wide upon the midnight air through the city.
Mr. Milliken's excessive labor in business and in public affairs told powerfully upon his health, and by the time the war closed he had to retire altogether from business. He then devoted a number of years to study and travel. Diligent in everything he did, he traveled several times over most of the countries of Europe, also spending two winters in the tropics, one in Spain and Italy and one in Egypt. He crossed the
great Arabian desert, scaled Mount Sinai, visited the ancient city of Petra. Subsequently he traveled through the Holy Land, Greece, and Turkey, and later passed one winter in Mexico.
The straitened circumstances of the family deprived Mr. Milliken of even a common-school education, and, of course, classical training. Nevertheless he acquired several foreign languages, and the fluency of his style and his force of diction were on that account surprising, and suggest a man of genius and brain power.
His address in the State Convention May 10, 1882, in nominating Gen. James A. Beaver as the Republican candidate for Governor, was described by the public press of the day as "a model, and one of the most eloquent ever delivered in a political body of that character." Mr. Milliken was the author of several brochures, to be found in the public libraries of New York and Philadelphia, notably, "A Tour of Travel in Lower Egypt and the Desert of Sinai;" "A Voyager's Letters from Mexico," etc., etc.
His characteristic as a business man was never to enter upon any work his head and heart did not approve, consequently he never relinquished anything he set out to do. An example of this was his resuscitation of a prominent railway and coal company of Philadelphia, whose fortunes seemed to be abandoned by nearly all deeply interested in it. Resisted even by many whose interests he was serving, he fought its officers in court and out of court, and made the corporation one entitled to the confidence of the people. At the close of the controversy the stock-holders presented Mr. Milliken, as a testimonial, stock of the company and a service of silver, of value altogether of ten thousand dollars. He declined the stock, but accepted the silver service as a souvenir of their regard.
On the death of M. T. Milliken, his older brother, in 1871, his good mother was left without a home, and Mr. Milliken gave up his residence in Philadelphia and again became a citizen of Centre County, that he might be a companion to his mother and a sister, where he thereafter resided.