My Genealogy Hound

Thomas J. McMillan, LL. B., attorney at law, notary public, farmer, etc., of Brush Creek Township, was born in that township in 1861, and is the younger of two children born to Daniel and Eliza J. (Burchard) McMillan. The father was born in Patrick County, Va., in 1821, and when eleven years of age he, with his brother Edward, a boy of eighteen, came from Virginia to Mount Sterling, then the county seat of Gasconade County, where they had an elder brother, Thomas, living. They made part of the Journey on foot (walking to the falls of the Kanawha River), and the remainder by boat. Daniel worked on the farm during the summer, attended the common school in winter, and became a fair scholar. He was married in 1849 in Gasconade County, and settled one mile west of Bern, where he improved a good farm and passed the remainder of his life. He died in 1876, and was well known throughout the county as an honest, enterprising citizen. He was postmaster at Bern for some time. He was a Democrat, an active politician, but not an aspirant for office. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from youth. His father, William McMillan, was born in Patrick County, Va., and was under Gen. Harrison in the Indian War. His father, Thomas McMillan, was born in Scotland and came to America prior to the Revolutionary War, and was killed at the battle of Trenton. The mother of Thomas J. was born in Brush Creek Township, in 1828, and is living there at the present. She has been teaching in the public schools of the county for thirty-five years and has been but twice out of the State. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South since youth. Her parents, Judge Samuel and Barbara Burchard, were natives of Maryland and South Carolina, respectively. Mr. Burchard came with his parents to St. Louis County, but afterward moved to Gasconade County, where he married and settled in Third Creek Township, but afterward in Brush Creek Township, where he died in 1868. He was sheriff of Gasconade County, also assessor and county judge. Mrs. Burchard died in 1859. Thomas J. McMillan remained in the common schools until 1877, when he entered and spent two years at the Missouri School of Mines, at Rolla. He then taught until 1883, at which time he entered the law department of the State University, at Columbia, and graduated in 1885 fourth in the class of twenty-three; was admitted to practice the same year by Judge A. J. Seay. He has been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession since and has a bright prospect opening before him. He teaches school during the winter months, and has charge of a farm in the summer. He has been notary public since 1887. May 18th, of the same year, he married Miss Charlotta Wacker, who was born near Drake, and who is the daughter of August and Charlotta Wacker, natives of Westphalia, Germany. Mrs. McMillan was educated at Hermann and was also a teacher of considerable prominence. Mr. McMillan has 200 acres of land in the old farm, and 130 in the farm on which he is living. He is a Democrat, politically, and has been a delegate to the county conventions of his party since sixteen years of age, was a delegate to the State convention at St. Louis in 1886, and is an active worker for the party. He is secretary of the Gasconade County Teachers’ Association, and one of its best educators.