" He is a descendant, on his father's side, from a family of farmers, of moderate means, who have resided and filled farms in the town of Thompson, Windham Co., Connecticut, prior to the Revolutionary War. On his mother's side, he is descended from a family of Rhode Island Quakers, residents of that State for many generations, to a branch of which family General Greene, of Revolutionary fame, belongs. Mr. Mills was born in the town of Thompson, Conn., September 10, 1851, and is, therefore, thirty-two years of age. At the age of seventeen he decided to become a lawyer and entered the Providence Conference Seminary, at Greenwich, R. I., to j)repare for college. In the winter of 1869 and 1870 he taiigiit » a district school for a term, near Newport, at the same

«

THE BENCH AND BAR.

5:53

time working evenings, in order to keep up his | studies in ills ehiss iit tlie seminary. In the sununer j oC 1870 Mr. ^lills gniduated from the seminary with 1 the hijrhest rank in his class. That same fall he en- ! tered Auiherst College, where, during the four years course, several prizes for excellence in Latin, Greek, philosophy, physiology, debate and extemporaneous speaking were awarded to him. In 1874 he graduated as the valedictorian of his class -- a class numbering in all ninety-five members, out of which seventy-five graduated. Of that class, two of the graduates are now professors in Columbia College, one is a professor at Williams College and several others are prominent in other professions. Mr. Mills then entered Columbia Law College, of New York City, from which he graduated in 187<). In October, 187G, he came to Mount Vernon and became a member of the law-firm of Mills & Wood. He continued as such, in the active practice of law, until May, 1882, when that firm was dissolved by mutual consent.