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Submitted by David Gode
The Corsicana Observer, Dec 13, 1889
Dallas Times Herald, page 1,
September 3, 1911
HOLD SERVICES ON
TUESDAY
MANY EXPECTED TO ATTEND FUNERAL OF ROGER Q. MILLS
HOST OF FRIENDS
MANY SEND MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE TO FAMILY AT CORSICANA
TRIBUTE OF DALLASITES
Prominent Citizens Who Knew Former Senator Mills Tell of His Life
and His Brilliant Career.
Special to The Times Heald.
Corsicana Tex., Sept. 2. -- The
funeral of former United States Senator Roger Quarles Mills, who
died Saturday morning, will take place next Tuesday if it is
possible for relatives including Mrs. C. H. Mills, a
daughter-in-law, to reach here by that time from New York.
Hundreds of people called at the
Mills home today to extend their sympathy to the family of Senator
mills, and a shadow of gloom has been cast over the entire city by
the death of this famous Texan. Senator Mills' death was not
entirely unexpected as he had been suffering from Bright's disease
and hardening of the arteries for many months.
In May of this year Colonel Mills
went to Canada in the hope that a change of climate would be
beneficial. He returned home less than one month ago and
gradually grew worse until he collapsed following an attack of
apoplexy yesterday, and was unconscious until death came this
morning.
Of Colonel Mills' family who
survive him there are: Major Charles H. Mills, a son; Mrs. Richards
and Mrs. J. D. Wood, a daughter. Mrs. Richards is now in
Europe and it is impossible for her to attend the funeral.
Mrs. Woods and Major Mills were at their fathers bedside when he
died. Mrs. C. H. Mills has been in New York, having been
called there by the serious illness of her own father.
It is expected that the funeral
of Senator Mills Tuesday will be the most largely attended by
prominent Texans than any that has taken place in Navarro county.
Colonel Mills' body will be interred beside that of his wife in the
cemetery here.
Already scores of telegrams of
condolence have been received from prominent citizens and friends in
all parts of the country.
TRIBUTES OF OLD
FRIENDS
EX-SENATOR CHILTON AND OTHERS TALK OF CAREER
OF ROGER Q. MILLS
News of the death of former
United States Senator Roger Q. Mills, which occurred yesterday at
Corsicana and which was told of in The Times Herald, was received
with a great deal of regret in Dallas. The former statesman
had many warm personal and political friends in Dallas, some of them
who followed the political fortunes of Mr. Mills immediately
following the Civil War and who regarded him as one of the really
great statesmen of Texas. Expressions of regret, however, were
not confined to the elder friends of the deceased, but many who knew
his record only from what has been written and said about him,
joined in expressions of sorrow.
Ex- Senator Chilton's Tribute
Former United States Senator
Horace Chilton of Dallas, was a member of the senate in 1899 when
Senator Mills retired from the senate. In speaking yesterday
of his former colleague, Senator Chilton said:
"I have long regarded Roger
Q. Mills as belonging to the highet class of American statesmen.
When the Republican domination was being lifted from Texas, from
1872 to 1877, the best men in the state were called to active duty.
Then men sent to congress constituted a body of talent and
leadership which has never been surpassed in the history of any one
state at any period in the national life. The roll was made up
of such men as Hancock, Throckmorton, Herndon, Sleicher, Giddings,
Culberson, Reagan, McLean, Willie, Mills, Maxey and Coke.
"Colonel Mills entered the
house in 1873, and served in that chamber and in the senate for
twenty-six years, without a break. He made himself a master of
economic questions, and stood in the front, with Wm. R. Morrison and
John G. Carlisle in the earlier battles for tariff reform which
opened up immediately after the settlement of the sectional issues
which had afflicted the Southern states.
"When he left the senate in
1890, I was a member of that body and this was the dominant thought
which occurred to me in connection with his return to private life:
Here is a man who has preserved the simplicity of his private life,
his fondness for Texas, his sympathy with the Democratic masses
during a quarter of a century passed a midst the temptations and
magnificence of a great capital city. No lobbyist can lay his
finger on him to call for a return of favors. No corporation
owes him anything for special services rendered. After
twenty-six years of beneficial service he is the same free and
uncorrupted man that he was on the day he first entered congress.
Such a record is not to be lightly scanned. It is to be
pondered, it is to be preserved; it is to be commemorated as long as
truth and integrity deserve to command the veneration of ourselves,
our children and our grand-children.
General Davidson's Tribute
Former Attorney General R. V.
Davidson, who was very much grieved on hearing of Senator Mills'
death, said: "While I did not have the honor and pleasure of an
intimate association with Senator Mills, yet I have known him for
many years. I knew him when he was a member of congress, and
afterwards as a senator from Texas. He was a man above
reproach, and without suspicion. As a public servant he was
always a friend of the people, and his every effort was to relieve
them from tax burdens, and from extortion and governmental
oppression. No man in the last fifty years did more for them
than Senator Mills. He was a leader in congress and in the
senate, and was honored by his colleagues in many ways and how well
and ably he discharged his duty as chairman of the committee on ways
and means is a part of the history of our country.
"He was not a man who
changed his views with every passing political cloud, or arranged
them to catch popular approval, or to get or hold a public office.
The principals and policies he advocated and stood for when in
congress and in the senate, are at last to be put in force by his
party. His personal and official life are worthy of emulation
by the young men of our state."
Former Neighbor Pays Respect
Hon. Bryan T. Barry, resided at
Corsicana for many years, and was intimately acquainted with Senator
Mills, said: "I am pained to hear of Col. Mills' death. I
was born and raised in the county of his residence and have known
him all my life, and the first political speech I ever heard was
made by him during the trying times of reconstruction just after the
Civil War. For many years I followed him closely in matters
political, and he was always my ideal of the brave, brilliant and
wise statesman. And all his political life was free from any
taint whatever. He had pointed views upon every question of
his time, and always the nerve to stand for them and he was
outspoken and forceful that he encountered much opposition which he
generally overcame by his own force and genius. He was the
best grouped public man I ever knew in pure Democracy. He
believed the people competent to govern themselves and always
favored trusting them and took no stock at all in the idea that they
should be protected by others who assumed superior wisdom in
governing and taking care of them. That basic idea of
government run through all his political utterances and no man in
his day presented them more forceful or eloquently."
Commissioner Nelm's Tribute
"It was with deep regret
that I read of the death of Roger Q. Mills this afternoon,"
said Water Commissioner Richard R. Nelms yesterday. "He
was a type of public man worthy of great admiration. I have
known the former senator for thirty years or more, I suppose.
He was a friend of the family and in that way I got to know him
well. In private as in public life, he was a man whom one
could not help respecting and admiring."
Caroline Mills
- Oct 28, 1897 MRS. MILLS ID DEAD.
Wife of Former United States Senator from Texas Dies at Corsicana
Mrs. Roger Q. Mills, wife of the former United States Senator, died
this morning at 2 o'clock, surrounded by the members of her family.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock.
In her time Mrs. Mills was one of the best known women in Texas. She
manifested great interest in all her distinguished husband's
affairs, and had a wide acquaintance both here and at the National
Capital.
Mrs. Mills had been married nearly half a century-forty-nine years,
to be exact-she having become the wife of Hon. Roger Q. Mills on
Jan. 7, 1858. She was Miss Caroline R. Jones, daughter of Henry
Jones of Navarro County. Three children survive her-Charles H. Mills
and Mrs. Woods of Corsicana and Mrs. Richards of Washington, all of
whom were with her when the end came.
Her health had been bad for many months. Some time since she was
taken to Washington, D. C., for treatment in a sanitarium there, but
this failing to prove efficacious, she was brought back to Corsicana
a short time ago.
Notes:
FUNERAL OF COL. MILLS.
Corsicana Suspended Businesses to Pay Respects to Distinguished
Citizen.
The remains of Col. R. Q. Mills, Corsicana’s most distinguished
citizen, were laid to rest this afternoon at 4 o’clock. The services
were conducted on the broad veranda of the stately and typical old
southern home, hundreds of admirers, sympathizers and friends being
seated in chairs beneath the tall trees that add beauty, comfort and
dignity to the stately home, the architecture of which was so much
in vogue in the earlier history of the south. The casket was almost
hidden from view by floral offerings, many of them elaborate, while
Confederate flags appropriately arranged told of southern loyalty
and the flag of the Union bespoke the love of nation on the part of
the man who slept peacefully beneath them.
Rev. Dr. Horace Bishop, a staunch friend of fifty years, conducted
the services. Following a song service scripture reading and prayer
Dr. Bishop began his remarks in which he touched with words of
modest yet sincere and eloquent praise upon his friend’s life as
citizen, soldier, lawyer and statesman. A profound silence fell upon
the audience when Dr. Bishop began his tribute in which he said: “I
met Col. Mills first in 1861 in Palestine when he was commanding
Col. Nelson’s regiment. I met him again during the war at Camp
Nelson, north of Little Rock, where he was with Deshel’s brigade,
Col. Mills’ regiment in the brigade was there detached from Camp
Nelson and sent to the relief of Arkansas Post. Gen. McCullough’s
division to which I belonged, followed not long after, Gen.
Churchill in command of Arkansas Post surrendered to the Federals
and Col. Mills was taken prisoner. The advance guard of Walker’s
division was in sight of the post when the white flag went up. We
learned from Texans who escaped that Mills wanted to take his
regiment and cut through the enemy’s line to join our division. This
was not allowed and he was surrendered along with the Arkansas
troops
“I next saw him after the war had closed. He was in Corsicana then,
disfranchised, working with his hands to make a living. We became
intimately acquainted about that time. He made fame as a lawyer
immediately after he was re-admitted to the bar here after the war.
Ever thereafter he was on one side of every prominent case. When
Edmond J. Davis came to Corsicana to speak at a great barbecue
surrounded by the state police he had already murdered many. At the
close of the speech Mills mounted the platform and flung such
defiance at Davis and the police that they qualled before him. Davis
abandoned the Clark campaign and never made another speech. I
considered Mills our leader for I believe before Coke was elected
governor that Mills had broken the backbone of the Davis
administration.
“We were thrown together in church relations, the most intimate
relations possible. I was his pastor for four years. During that
time we built the first church in Corsicana and Col. Mills was the
largest contributor. When the state democratic convention met in
Corsicana it convened in the unfinished church and Mills and Asa
Willie were nominated for congress for the state at large and Col.
Mills was elected. Judge Reagan, whose disabilities had not then
been removed, was present at the convention and congratulated the
democracy of Texas on the nomination with these words: “I have known
Roger Q. Mills from his boyhood and I know that all the gold in
Washington cannot corrupt him.” Since that time some times we have
been together—sometimes our lives have drifted apart. We have not
always agreed on public issues but we have often corresponded and I
am prepared to say that we have never differed in heart, and now
that his life is ended I know that Judge Reagan’s statement has been
vindicated. Roger Q. Mills was an honest and incorruptible man.
There has never been a break in our friendship that begun in 1861.
He contributed of his means liberally as long as he was in active
life and he died believing in the principles of Christianity and
passed away honored and respected for his unswerving integrity and
loyalty to his convictions of truth and duty.”
The procession that followed the remains to the cemetery was the
longest ever seen in the city. All the stores were closed during the
funeral hour and business was at a complete standstill. Camp Winkler
of Corsicana turned out in a body and Roger Q. Mills camp of Frost
was also here in its full strength tough death has reduced its
membership to a mere handful. This cam tendered the services of the
Frost band, but Major Mills, out of respect to his father’s well
known love for the simple life, declined the kindly offer with
assurances of appreciation. Comrades from Blooming Grove and other
points in the county were also present in goodly numbers.
Among the prominent men from other parts of the state who were
present were former State Senator O. P> Bowser of Dallas, Dr. Tabor
of Dallas, Hon. Scott Field of Calvert, Judge Green of Dallas,
District Attorney Atwell of Dallas, Judge C. K. Bell of Fort Worth,
J. K. Parr of Hillsboro and others.
Among the contributors of flowers were Mr. and Mrs. Wood of Dallas,
Mr. and Mrs. Groce of Waxahachie. No more elaborate collection of
floral offerings was ever seen in Corsicana.
Following were the pall bearers:
Active—E. H. Church, W. J. Gordon, F. N. Drane, J. E. Butler, J. D.
Cunningham, C. T. Banister, B. L. Davis, F. P. Wood, E. O. Call, Wm.
Clarkson, W. M. Peck, Upton Blair, J. C. Allen, Geo. Carr, A. N.
Justiss, Douglass Jackson, Jno. H. Rice, W. H. Young, Aaron
Fergusson, Jarvis Whiteselle, Steele Clayton, J. E. Blair, Gus
Hoover, G. C. Kirven, Jr., H. B. Daviss.
Honorary—Jas. Garitty, S. A. Pace, W. M. Tatum, R. S. Neblett, Geo.
H. Green, W. N. Kenner, G. A. Rakestraw, E. E. Dunn, Jno. Duren, L.
T. Wheeler, A. F. Wood, A. M. Milligan, A. Fox, Chas. H. Allyn, J.
E. Whiteselle, J. F. Stout, J. M. Blanding, G. T. Jester, J. A.
Townsend, B. F. Lisman, Rufus Hardy, O. P. Bowser, Tom Conner, R. E.
Prince, W. J. McKie, Hon. Scott Field of Navasota, Dr. Geo. R. Tabor
of Dallas, L. C. Alexander of Waco, J. S. Cullinan of Houston, Hon.
Jack Beall of Waxahachie.
Among the many telegrams received were the following:
ADD Mills.
J. L. Doggett of McKinney; “He, next to my family, was my greatest
benefactor.”
Tom Randolph of St. Louis” “I esteemed him as one of Texas’ most
brilliant, patriotic statesmen.”
Walter B. Scott of Fort Worth: “Texas has lost one of her greatest
men who fought for what he thought was right and had the courage of
his conviction.”
Hon. C. B. Randell, Sherman: “The death of your noble father grieves
me much. I tender my heartfelt sympathy.”
Geo. H. Green, Dallas: “Please accept my deepest sympathy. Will
attend funeral.”
Dr. S. W. Johnson, Dallas: “Accept my sympathy for the loss of your
distinguished father whose honesty to a public heritage to all who
love their country.”
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Fleming, Dallas: “ Just read of the death of your
distinguished and honored father. Accept our sincerest sympathy and
love.”
Judge O. C. Kirven, Sr., Austin: “The great chieftain has fallen. In
his time the biggest of them all. Am proud he was my friend for
nearly fifty years.”
Senator Culberson telegraphed from Atlantic City, N. J.: “You and
the family have my deepest sympathy in the death of your
distinguished father.”
W. H. Pope, Beaumont: “He was so brave, so pure, so great.”
J. S. Cullinan, Houston: “In the passing away of your father the
state and nation lose both a statesman and a sterling character.
Your many friends here join Mrs. Cullinan and myself in extending
our most sincere sympathy.”
S. W. Fordyce, St. Louis: “I mourn with you the death of your good
father, my friend. No braver soldier, no more patriotic citizen or
abler statesman ever served his state and country. His life is an
inspiration to those he has left behind.”
Clarence Ousley, Fort Worth: “Accept assurance of deep sympathy in
the death of your father. His was a noble and useful life,
remarkable for high courage and high thinking. His achievements will
always be esteemed as a blessing to his country, and his character
as an inspiration to youth.”
W. H. Atwell, Dallas: “Your father, Senator Mills, was my friend
when I needed one and I grieve with you because of his passing.
Texas never had an abler representative in or out of national
congress. Big, brave, true, fearless. With bowed head I sorrow with
you.”
J. F. Wolters, Houston: “The death of your distinguished father
removes from us the greatest contribution made by Texas to the
statesmanship of the Union during her entire history. His courageous
fight for human liberty and those inheritant rights of mankind will
remain a part of history of our state and nation so long as the
deeds of man have remained a part of our country’s records. While I
and your thousands of friends mourn with you and your loved ones in
your personal loss the spirits of the embattled heroes of Texas are
acclaiming his welcome in heaven now.”
Hon. Cone Johnson, Tyler: “A life of probity, public and private
devotion to his country’s welfare, gallant services as a soldier,
brilliant as an orator and eminent talents combined to make your
father one of our country’s great men. I extend my sympathy to
yourself and family.”
Lamar Davis, El Paso: “Accept my sincerest sympathy in the death of
your illustrious father.”
O. Paget, Galveston: “One of God’s grandest, noblest and truest
soldiers has answered his last roll call.”
Many other messages of sympathy were also received by telegram and
letter by Major Mills, some of them also being addressed to Mrs. J.
D. Wood, Col. Mills, daughter. These came from in the city and those
living here who are away. Many relatives and personal friends living
at various points in and out of the state sent messages of
condolence. Among these are the following: R. D. Templeman of
Navasota, Col. Eber B. Peters of Calvert, Judge H. B. Daviss of
Corsicana, Otto Reeves of Greenville, L. C. Alexander of Waco, Col.
P. C. Townsend, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. McQueen of Bryant, R. T. G.
Matthews of Kansas City, Mo.; Cliff A. Adams of Bryan, Mrs. F. J.
Halbert and Miss Hallie Groce, who were visiting in Corpus Christi;
Mrs. Wm. Vater and family of Cleburne, Mrs. Julia Smith of San
Diego, Cal.; J. E. Whiteselle, who is in Denver, Colo.: Charles
Davis of Bryan, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie of Bryan, Claude Wiley of
Tyler, Mrs. F. N. Stears of Hyde Park, Ill.
Notes:
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