John Mill - A Washington Territory pioneer

“The Mill House”

John Mill, birth name John Mills, was born 1837 in Richland County, Ohio, of parents who both immigranted from Scotland where his father was a basket weaver and ditch digger.

In 1852 at the age of 15, John, his dad Robert, sister Mary Jane and brother William moved from Bowling Green, Ohio, near Scotch Ridge, Ohio, to the Oregon Territory. In 1872 John, a man named Lee L. Lewis and others rode on horseback to the Cheney-Spangle area in the Washington Territory.

John bought an existing homestead of 160 acres and got married to a neighbor girl, Emma Catherine Forsyth, in 1876. Emma’s parents were both descendants of Scottish parents.

Robert, John, wife Emma, first son Roy and second son Boone arrived at the 160-acre homestead of Robert and John Mill in September 1880, and moved onto the land in October 1880. The family moved into a 16-foot-by20-foot frame house built by a man named Henry Linton, who John paid $300 for the house.

In 1885 John’s dad Robert lived up to a promise he had made to John’s wife Emma years earlier. Robert filled out the proof papers and filed for the adjoining 80-acre homestead that sat to the west of the 160-acre homestead, 20 acres on the east side of Wells Road that was mostly springs and pasture land, 15 acres. The other 60 acres sat on the west side of Wells Road. The 60 acres had only prairie grass growing on it, no trees.

As with the purchase of the 160-acre homestead, Lee L. Lewis helped John and Robert by making a statement for a Homestead Proof-Testimony of Witness, which Lee L. Lewis signed on Sept. 2, 1885. Robert also hand wrote his Homestead Proof-Testimony of Claimant for the 80-acre homestead and signed it on Sept. 2, 1885.

These proofs along with the Homestead Claim and Certificate as to Posting of Notice were filed at Spokane Falls on Nov. 5, 1885 by Robert Mill. Robert Quit Claimed the 80-acres to Emma on Nov. 26, 1885. Robert did this because Emma had been so good to him and took care of him for so many years. Robert Mill died on Dec. 29, 1886 a happy Scotsman. Robert is buried in the Mill Family Lot in the Spangle Cemetery.

John continued to work the two homesteads and on Aug. 5, 1887 filed proof papers for the 160-acre homestead at Spokane Falls. Two neighbors, Patrick McDowell and Marcellus Wright signed the Homestead Pre-Emption and Commutation Proof, testimony of witness. John signed the Homestead Pre-Emption and Communication Proof, Testimony of Claimant. Also, John published a Notice for Publication, fulfilling the requirements of the Homestead Act of 1862, in the Cheney Sentinel, a weekly newspaper published in Cheney, for six consecutive weeks.

The publication ran from May 27 through July 11, 1887. On May 26, 1888, President Grover Cleveland signed the Homestead Deed for the 160-acres John and Robert Mill filed for in October 1880. The Homestead Deed was issued in the name of John Mill.

On July 22, 1889, John and Emma C. Mill took out a loan from The Oregon Mortgage Company Limited in the amount of $550 to buy farm equipment. John had taken his oldest son, Roy, out of school to help on the farm. John bought a portable thrasher, a steam engine tractor to run the thrasher, a water tanker to haul water for the tractor, wagons, horses, scythes, pitch forks and a buggy for the family.

It is unknown how many acres of land John and his son Roy had cleared on the 160 and 80-acre homesteads by 1889. The 160-acre homestead was used as collateral for the loan.

Then in early August 1889, harvest time, it started raining. It continued raining through September, ruining the wheat crop. John and Emma were broke. They did not even have the money to pay the interest on the $550 loan.

A doctor that lived in Cheney was good friends with John and Emma and helped them pay the interest, so they would not lose the farm to The Oregon Mortgage Company Limited. The doctor also helped them get the wheat seed needed to plant another crop in the spring of 1890. This crop was a bumper crop. They paid back the doctor for his generosity and made the payment on the loan in the fall of 1890.

On Feb. 5, 1891 John Mill purchased Lot 44 in the Spangle Cemetery. John buried his dad Robert there in August 1891. After that John purchased a marble family marker for the lot. The family marker sailed from Scotland in 1891 or 1892. It was used as the ballast for the ship, moved by train to Spangle and then placed in lot 44 by many men. It is a very large piece of marble.

In March 1892, John received the Homestead Deed for his father’s homestead of 80 acres filed for on Nov. 5, 1885. Robert had filed all necessary documents for the Homestead Deed to be issued, so it was an automatic issue made by the government.

The Homestead Deed was signed by the President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, on Feb. 23, 1892. The Homestead Deed is issued in the name of Robert Mill. The Mill family was prospering. They all had very snappy dress clothes, a place to live and plenty of food to eat, but John still wanted to do better for his family.

In the spring of 1903 John decided that it was time to build a bigger house. The house was built on a clay hill on the northwest side of the 80 acres on the east side of Wells Road which belonged to Emma. The lumber was purchased from one of the two mills operating on Hangman Creek, near Spangle. They were Joe Henry’s Saw Mill and The Heaton Saw Mill.

The main floor and upstairs are a total 2,234 square feet. The entire house has a rock and mortar foundation. There is a full basement under the kitchen with a dark room. John’s wife Emma and daughter Mary wanted to take up picture taking and develop their own pictures. John wanted to make the women in his life happy, so he built a dark room.

The kitchen and basement are the largest rooms in the house, taking up close to two thirds of the floorspace. There is a chimney running from the basement up through the kitchen and upstairs bedroom on the east side of the house. In the kitchen the chimney was used for their big wood stove and upstairs it was used for a small wood stove that helped heat the upstairs in the winter.

The kitchen, living room and master bedrooms had 10-foot ceilings. There is a full cellar under the living room and master bedrooms. The kitchen also had a gun cabinet. There were notches for six rifles or shotguns, probably some of each along with handguns which were kept in the cabinet.

The cabinet was to the east beside the south door going outside the house, the back door. The cellar had an outside entrance on the west side of the house. The living room is on the northwest side of the house. It has a bay window in the north side of the house with three separate windows in it. There were weights on ropes hooked to all the windows on top to help balance the weight of windows. That is how they kept the windows open during the spring and summer months. Ah, fresh air.

On the southwest side of the house are two bedrooms, the master bedrooms. When John built the house, Emma insisted on having her own room, and John gave in.

There were two rooms built, two closets built and two doors installed on the south end wall of the living room. Emma had the room on the east and John had the bedroom on the west. There is a second chimney that runs from the cellar up along the south wall between the living room and master bedrooms and up through the dance hall. There was one wood stove in the living room for heat and two wood stoves in the dance hall to help heat the upstairs in the winter time.

On the east side of the upstairs there were three bedrooms. The far east side bedroom had a chimney running up through it a wood stove and closet. It was the big bedroom. There were also two smaller bedrooms. On the west side of the upstairs John Mill built a dance hall that ran north to south, the same size as the living room and master bedrooms.

The kitchen, living room, stairway going up to the bedrooms and the hallway all had oak paneling four inches wide and one-quarter inch thick. The panels were stood vertically up the lower three and a half feet of the wall. There was oak trim topping the paneling running horizontally. All seven of the doors and their frames on the main floor were oak. The 11 windows on the main floor also had oak framing. There are only four doors upstairs and 11 windows, all framed in oak. The dance hall has six windows.

John stained all the oak a dark reddish brown. All 11 doors in the house had black porcelain door knobs and skeleton key locks. One key fits all. The front and back porches were open porches with hard wood floors. The entire house had hardwood floors. John and his family moved in the fall of 1903. The house was so beautiful inside. They had never lived in such a fine place. The house was built for happiness and love.

Part two of this installment will appear in next week’s issue of the Cheney Free Press.