Friday, August 3, 2012

Photograph of Rev. Charles Blunt Mills of Maine and Michigan


Cabinet photograph taken by the Baker studio of Mayville, Michigan of an elderly man identified on the reverse as "Rev. C. B. Mills".  


From online research, hopefully correct: [corrections welcome]

Charles Blunt Mills was born 5 May 1823 at Waterboro, Maine, son of Luke and Betsey (Goodwin) Mills, who were born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Wells, Maine, respectively.

His paternal grandparents were Elligood and Lucy (McLucas) Mills.  His maternal grandparents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Hobbs) Goodwin.

Charles Blunt Mills wrote about his grandfather Elligood's experiences during the Revolutionary War.

"Espousing the cause of liberty, he entered very heartily into the cause of the colonies, and when the Privateer "Grand Turk", commissioned by the Continental Congress as a Letter-of-Margue, was fitted out at Portsmouth, he became one of its officers.  On the second voyage she was captured by a British frigate and was taken into Halifax, N.S., where all of the crew remained in jail five years, who did not die of brutal treatment.  At the end of that time they were informed that the colonies were subdued, Washington and the members of the Continental Congress were hung, and that the very few prisoners were to be taken to Boston and were to be transported thence to England to be hung for piracy on the high seas.  On the way to Boston, Capt. Mills with two others escaped overboard on a dark night and swam three miles, reaching the shore near a fisherman's hut below the mouth of the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire.  Here they heard for the first time that the colonies had gained their independence."

About 1835 the Mills family moved to Morse's Corner, Corinna, Maine, where Charles became a member of the Free Will Baptist Church.  Within five years, he was preaching in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, lecturing on temperance and slavery.

In 1848, he was ordained at Fort Ann, New York and subsequently returned to Maine, where he ministered at Kennebunk, Springvale and Doughty Falls, North Berwick.

On 18 September 1851, he married Ann Maria Morrison, daughter of John and Anna (Littlefield) Morrison.  She was born 10 July 1826 at Sanford, Maine.

In search of better health, Charles moved his family to Ohio in 1854 and then to Tuscola County, Michigan in 1856.  He became an influential citizen of Tuscola County, as a minister, a state senator, state representative, judge and professor and treasurer at Hillsdale College.

Charles and Ann raised a family of, I believe, nine children.  Sadly, it appears that several of their children died before the date of Charles' death, at Mayville, Michigan, on 11 March 1896. 

Their daughter Cynthia Rowena Mills, who married Edgar E. Moss, was the first of their children to be born in Michigan and the first child to be born in the new settlement of Fremont.

Much of the information above derives from an article by Charles Blunt Mills himself, entitled The Mills Family of Portsmouth, which was included in a 1921 issue of The Granite Monthly, New Hampshire State Magazine.

If you have any corrections or additions to the above information, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Waterboro, Maine


View Larger Map


Corinna, Maine


View Larger Map


Mayville, Michigan


View Larger Map


Thanks for stopping by!




3 comments:

  1. lfreeland@netonecom.netAugust 18, 2012 at 9:06 AM

    Can someone help me out here... I just came upon this website via a Google search. Are these heirlooms available for claiming by purchase or what? I know the Mayville Museum would love the cabinet of Rev C B Mills!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, many of the items are available for purchase. Will be in touch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete