Lucius E. Mills, farmer, section 31, Garfield Township, and Postmaster of Brooks (post-office), was born March 28, 1823, in Chittenden Co., Vt., and is a son of Daniel C. and Dolly (Farrand) Mills. His parents removed to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, when he was 11 years old and settled at Cleveland, where the family resided eight years and the father was employed as a carpenter. The son acquired a knowledge of that branch of mechanics and pursued it as a vocation, in company with his father. The family removed to Branch Co., Mich., in 1843, where they settled on a farm of 4o acres.
Mr. Mills remained in Branch County until 1835, working at his trade, when he went to Gibson Co.,
Tenn., and established a carriage and wagon factory in the village of Yorkville. He was doing business
there at the period when the Rebellion made itself known and felt in all its hideous proportions, and
Mr. Mills, who regarded the whole infamous scheme and proceedings with all the aversion he had inherited from his ancestors, and cherished under the influences which had molded his opinions, abandoned his property in Tennessee and made his escape to a region of security and immunity from the threats and venom of rebels. His father was a soldier of 1812, and his paternal grandfather was a participant in the French and Indian war. The southern anarchists found no tolerance in a man of his lineage, and he made no compromise with them for any advantage whatever. He bought 110 acres of land in Casnovia, Muskegon County, in 1861, where he was engaged in agriculture until the civil war had assumed formidable proportions, and he determined to enlist, which he did Oct. 4, i864, at Grand Rapids, enrolling in Co. K, i6th Mich. Vol. Inf. He participated in the battle of Five Forks and in numerous minor engagements until the close of the war when he enjoyed the culminating scene of Southern Rebellion in the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox Court-House. He received honorable
discharge at Jeffersonville, Ind., in July, 1865.
He returned to his farm in Casnovia, where he was a resident until 1877, in which year he came to Garfield Township, where he owns 200 acres of land, besides 150 acres adjoining Ashland Township.
Mr. Mills is a successful and thrifty farmer, representative of the industrious frugality of the people of New England, of whom he is a worthy type. He has proved his capacity for usefulness in public life by the manner in which he has discharged the duties of the various incumbencies to which he has been summoned by his fellow citizens in Casnovia and Garfield. He was twice elected Justice of the Peace in the former place, besides to minor offices, and has been elected Superintendent of Schools one term in the latter.
Mr. Mills was married in Casnovia, Dec. 31, 1861, to Mrs. Helen M. Thomas, a native of New York, by whom he has two children, Jesse E. and Lincoln D. The family includes Lafayette Eugene, a son of Mr. Mills by a former marriage, and Myron Q. and George Henry, two sons of his wife by her first husband. Mr. Mills is a member of the Masonic Order, in which he has taken ten degrees, and of the Knights Templar.