Albert C. Millspaugh

The entire career of Albert C. Millspaugh has thus far been marked 
with many honors, which as a public man the people have bestowed upon 
him. As city clerk, city attorney, mayor of his city for two terms, 
then chief clerk of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary for a number 
of years and clerk of the appellate court since 1902, Mr. Millspaugh 
has been a man of affairs since he began the practice of law in 1889. 
In addition to the many public offices he has filled so admirably he 
has been honored in divers ways as a private citizen, and the esteem 
in which he is generally held in his community is evidenced by the many 
important positions of trust he holds in connection with financial and 
other organizations in Mount Vernon. 

Albert C. Millspaugh was born on September 26, 1858, in White County, 
Illinois. He is the son of John and Sarah (Bogan) Millspaugh, of Dutch 
and Irish descent. John Millspaugh was a native of Orange county, New York, 
born there in 1815. He was a member of the medical profession and passed 
his life in the practice of medicine. He was the son of Daniel G. Millspaugh, 
born December 26, 1781, in Orange county, New York, and the grandson of 
John Millspaugh, born January 22, 1758. The latter was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war, and fought and was wounded at Bunker Hill, and his father 
was Peter Millspaugh, who immigrated from Germany to America in about 1750. 
When quite a young man Dr. John Millspaugh went to Kentucky, thence to White 
county, Illinois, where he remained for some years engaged in the practice of 
medicine, and later, in 1876, he removed to Gallatin county, where he spent 
the remainder of his life, passing away there in 1898. Dr. and Mrs. Millspaugh 
reared a family of nine children, including: J. W., in Shawneetown; Mrs. Margaret 
A. Joyner, of Equality; Daniel, a farmer in Gallatin county; Mrs. Emma Fowler, 
also of Gallatin county; Robert L., of Shawneetown; J. M., a farmer and stock 
breeder of Equality; William L., of Equality; and Albert C., clerk of the 
appellate court of the fourth district. The preliminary education of Albert 
C. Millspaugh was obtained in the schools of Shawneetown, which he attended 
after he was twenty-one years of age, paying for the privilege five cents per 
day as tuition. After leaving his studies he was employed for some years in 
the offices of the circuit clerk and the county sheriff, reading law in his 
spare moments. In 1889 he had so far advanced with his studies that he was 
admitted to the bar, and in that same year he was elected to the office of city 
attorney. For a number of years he served the city as clerk, and in 1894 he was 
elected mayor of Shawneetown. He discharged the duties of his office in such a 
manner that he was again elected in 1896, serving from April of that year to 
January, 1897, at which time he was appointed chief clerk of the Southern 
Illinois Penitentiary at Chester, and he resigned from the mayoralty to assume 
the duties of his new position. He held that office for a period of six years, 
and was still in office when he was elected clerk of the appellate court of 
the fourth district, which comprises the thirty-four southern counties of the 
state. He resigned his position as clerk of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary 
to assume, as in former years, the place higher up, and after six years of 
praiseworthy service in that berth was reelected in 1908. He bears the honor 
and distinction of being the first and only Republican ever elected to that 
office since the court was established in 1877. Following his resignation at 
the State Penitentiary and his election to the clerkship, he moved to Mount 
Vernon, where he has since been a resident. In January, 1912, Mr. Millspaugh 
was elected to the directorate of the Third National Bank of Mount Vernon, and 
he has been variously connected with the leading enterprises of that city since 
he established his residence in it. In 1906 he was one of the leaders in the 
organization of the Jefferson County Fair Association, and served as president 
of that organization until 1911, when he resigned, owing to the pressure of 
other matters of a more portant nature. Mr. Millspaugh is a member of the Poultry 
Raisers Association, which he has assisted very materially in financial and 
other ways. He bears an enviable reputation not only in Mount Vernon and 
Jefferson county, but throughout all Southern Illinois, where he has a wide 
acquaintance. Mr. Millspaugh is in line for further honors at the hands of the 
people and his party, if popular sentiment is any criterion as a guide to the 
future. In addition to the many calls upon his time and attention he has been 
able to give some consideration to the claims of the many fraternal organizations 
extant in Mount Vernon and has become affiliated with the A. F. & A. M., being a 
member of the Blue Lodge, H. W. Hubbard Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons, and 
Patton Cornmandery, No. 69, Knights Templar, of Mount Vernon. He is also a 
member of the Knights of Pythias of Mt. Vernon and the Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks of East St. Louis, and a member of the Council at Mt. Vernon. 

On January 14, 1894, Mr. Millspaugh married Miss Julia Scanland, of Shawneetown, 
the daughter of William Scanland, at one time a leading businessman and prominent 
citizen of that city. 


Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith, 
M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED 
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
Page 1354 - 1356

Submitted by Robert W. Loman