Ogden Livingston Mills children

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I am looking for information about J. Ogden Mills. I was told by close friends of the family that he is my grandfather and, that he was associated with the Mills hospital and Mills Building. I have photographs and leter from him and he looks a lot like O. L. Mills. Please help by contacting me through e-mail.

Thanks ahead of time!

Heidi Patton

-- Heidi Patton (heidipatton@sbcglobal.net), January 31, 2004

Answers

Hi Heidi,

I will post what I know about this here so that others may see it as well.

Your grandfather came from a famous early California family and you should not have too much trouble finding information about him.

Your grandfather and one of his brothers heard about the gold rush and didn't waste a second. They were one of the very first who left the East coast to seek their fortune. The trouble was that they decided to go the long route around Cape Horn which took like 6 months or more. The third brother Darius at first didn't want to go but after his two brothers left and he heard and read more about it, he decided to leave as well. In order to catch up to his brothers, Darius decided to take a different route across the Panama Canal to get there faster. Even though Darius left a month later than your grandfather, he arrive 2 months earlier than him. Since Darius was one of the first people there he managed to make a fortune in selling goods to miners they so desperately needed.

By the time your father and his other brother arrived, Darius had already made a huge fortune. Darius hired your father and his other brother to help. However, other people saw how successful Darius had become and before you knew it hundreds of people were trying to sell products to miners so the profits became very slim.

However, most people who are successful in life never stick with one type of job or career and Darius was no exception. He had worked at a Bank in New York and understood the need those miners had for keeping their gold in a safe place. So Darius opened up a bank and hired his brothers as assistants. The bank was a smashing success and Darius and his brothers became very wealthy. But Darius was the brother that became the most famous banker in all of California for his great success and outstanding reputation.

A number of years later, it came to pass that another banker in San Francisco saw how many new businesses were being set up each day and understood the opportunity of lending money to businesses at a high interest rate. There were no such banks established for that purpose so he decided to organize such a bank. He needed resources and he needed a man that everyone would trust in to run the bank and so he met with the most famous banker Darius and persuaded him to become the President of this bank called the "Bank of California." The name itself stood for investing or loaning in California.

Darius became extremely wealthy and no one even had to pay taxes then. He didn't even know what to do with all that money so he gave gifts and established a college called Mills, Mills building was bought and Mills hospital was set up. And there were other things as well.

I'm sure your grandfather James got a nice piece of the pie too. I just hope that it wasn't squandered and that a lot of it was left over for you to get a good private school education, private lessons or private lessons in whatever your interest and money for your college education which sadly is going to cost near half a million dollars before too long.

-- Harry Murphy (harrymurphy*@bigmailbox.net), February 01, 2004.


More discussion on Darius Ogden Mills et al can be found here.... [http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001pFd]

-- will (willstaiger@yahoo.com), February 01, 2004.

Still, more discussion on the Mill Building.... http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007zh7

-- will (willstaiger@yahoo.com), February 01, 2004.

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