My Genealogy Hound

Charles B. Mills is the efficient circuit court clerk of Monroe County, Ark., and was born in Ralls County, Mo., in 1839, being the eldest of five children born to James M. and Mary (Kelly) Mills, who were born in the State of Tennessee about 1816. They were married in Missouri and made that State their home until 1866, when they came to Monroe County, Ark., where Mr. Mills died in 1878 and Mrs. Mills in 1872, both being consistent members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Mills was a cabinet maker by trade, but at the time of his death he was engaged in farming and stock-raising. He served a short time in the Confederate States army, and socially was a member of the A. F. & A. M. His father, James Lee Mills, was born in Maryland and died in Ralls County, Mo., a farmer and of Welsh descent. Charles B. Mills, the immediate subject of this sketch, was educated in the schools of Hannibal, Mo. In 1861 he left the school-room to join Grimshaw’s command of Missouri State Troops, and operated with him until the winter of 1861-62, when he joined the First Missouri Regiment, Confederate States army, afterward designated as the Second Missouri Infantry, and served until he lost his left arm at the battle of Corinth. He was soon after placed in the commissary department under Maj. John S. Mellon, and remained thus employed until the close of the war, when he returned home. In 1866 he came to Monroe County, Ark., and was engaged in merchandising and stock dealing at Aberdeen, which place, having been cut off by change in county lines, is now in Prairie County. From 1874 to 1882 he served as circuit clerk of that county. In 1883 he was again cut off into Monroe County, of which he has since been a resident, and here he was engaged in farming and stock raising until 1886, when he was elected clerk of the county and re-elected in 1888, being chosen by the Democrat party, of which he has been a member since the death of the Whig party. He is Treasurer of Clarendon Lodge of the K. of H. and was a charter member of Des Arc Lodge, of which he was Dictator two terms. In 1870 he was united in marriage to Miss T. W. Gean, a daughter of John and Nancy Gean, who were born, reared and married in Chatham County, N. C., and in an early day removed to Hardeman County, Tenn., where their daughter, Mrs. Mills, was born. In 1859 they came to Arkansas, the father dying in Monroe County and the mother in Prairie County. Mrs. Mills belongs to the Methodist Church, and she and Mr. Mills are the parents of one son and four daughters. Mr. Mills is a Cumberland Presbyterian in his religious preferences.