PROF. CLEVELAND W. MILLS, Superintendent of Schools for Clay County, and Principal of the Louisville Schools, was born in Youngstown. Mahoning County, Ohio, December 22, 1842, and is a son of Simeon H. Mills, of New London, Ohio. He was brought up in Painesville, Ohio, and educated in the Lake County Academy at that town. As an educator, the Professor has been eminently successful. He uses the most approved normal methods in his work. The writer had the honor of visiting his well-regulated and orderly schools while in Louisville. In 1882, he was elected to the office of County Superintendent of Schools for Clay County, and has discharged his duties faithfully and with entire satisfaction to the people of the county. On the 19th day of October, 1867, he married Miss Arena Oliver, of Mt. Vernon, Ind., a daughter of William Oliver. This union has been blessed with two children, one living, William H. Mr. Mills taught eight years in the district schools of Posey County, Ind. He then took charge of the New Harmony Schools, Ind., and in 1875 came to Mt. Cannel, Ill., where be was Principal of the schools for three years. In 1878, he took charge of the Louisville Schools, in which capacity be is still employed. He was a soldier for three years in the late war, in Company K, Tenth Indiana Cavalry, and participated in the battles of Pulaski, Tenn., Franklin, Nashville and others. He was taken prisoner at Nashville, and confined at Andersonville three and one-half months, when he was paroled. He returned on the steamer Sultana, which exploded near Memphis, at which time over 1,300 lives were lost. Our subject clung to an empty barrel, on which he floated for four hours, when he was picked up thirteen miles below where the disaster occurred. He is a member of the G. A. R. and of the Masonic fraternity at Louisville, and of the Chapter at Mt. Carmel, Ill.
Transcribed by Laurel White from 1884 History of Wayne and Clay Counties, Illinois, Part IV, page 153.
| Fayette | Effingham | Jasper |
| Marion |
 |
Richland |
| Wayne |
Clay County ILGenWeb Copyright
Design by 