By George D. Millar, Jr. '49
December, 2005
Most of my memories about my grandfather are not as poignant as others may have about their grandparents. This is because we lived in Searcy and my grandparents lived in Little Rock. Transportation was not as it is now when you might drive to Little Rock just for lunch. My parents did not visit as often as they might have wished. More importantly, my grandmother, Elizabeth, died in 1924, three years before I was born. My grandfather then married Susie McKinnon, a former Hendrix student and the daughter of a Methodist minister. “Miss Susie” was the editor of the Woman’s Missionary Department of the Arkansas Methodist. Then my grandfather died in 1940 when I was just 13 years old. Much of my memories come from family stories, letters, and articles written about my grandfather of which I became aware as I grew up, graduated from Hendrix, married and became a businessman. It was then I began to realize how influential his life had been in the educational growth of Arkansas and the Methodist Church.
Alex, born 1861, was the oldest of three boys and became a Methodist minister; his brother Charles, born 1864, a Presbyterian minister; and brother George, born 1870, a professor at Hendrix College. Shortly after the Civil War in 1867, their parents, William John and Ellen Caven Millar of McKeesport, Penn., moved to Brookfield, Mo., where they had bought a farm. Alex was a horseman and was very strong as he could hit a fence post only three times to install it. A tall man of great bearing, he harvested the crops and helped with all the farm chores. After graduating from Central College, Mo., in 1885, Alex became a professor of English and German at Grove’s High School, Dallas, Texas. Later, he became the President and teacher of Latin and philosophy at a school in Neosho, Mo. The Arkansas and Little Rock Methodist conferences bought Central Collegiate College, Altus, Arkansas, in 1884 and Alex was made President three years afterwards [1887] when Isham Burrow, who founded the school, resigned. In 1889, the name was changed to Hendrix College to honor Bishop Eugene Hendrix. The next year the school was moved to Conway.
On June 27, 1887, Alex married Elizabeth Frances Harwood. They had three children, Ethel Key, the Hendrix College librarian for many years; Paul Harwood; and George Dana. All three children were graduates of Hendrix College. Alex served as President of Hendrix two different terms, 1887-1902 and 1910-13. After leaving Hendrix, he became the Editor and Publisher, along with James C. Anderson, of the Arkansas Methodist in Little Rock and served in that capacity until his death on Nov. 9, 1940. During the time when he and Elizabeth were living on the Hendrix campus, Alex’s parents, William John and Ellen Caven Millar came to live with them. His parents also moved to Little Rock when Alex became associated with the Arkansas Methodist. While residing on the Hendrix campus his parents were active in school affairs. They were affectionately knows as “Mother and Father Millar” by the students and were honored by them with a plaque placed on the right hand side of the front door of the President’s home [1914] which says:
“To the first home makers for the students of Hendrix College to
William J. Millar and his wife, Ellen C. Millar.
This home was erected and dedicated by Hendrix College alumni and ex-students.
June 9, 1914.”
It was during the period of my grandfather being editor of the Methodist that Elizabeth died on May 22, 1924. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Feb. 22, 1865. Her parents had come from Ireland and had later settled in Brookfield, Mo., where Alex’s parents had moved. She attended the Brookfield Academy and later graduated from Price’s College, Nashville, Tenn.
The President’s home at Hendrix was also the home of the young lady students of the college. There were nearly as many girls as boys in those days and Mrs. Millar, although a young bride, was a friend of all the students. She had the finest command possible of herself, and had learned to be contented and happy in the midst of the duties and work of life.
When she died, Alex wrote a tribute to her which was published in the Arkansas Methodist. I believe it is quite evident he had a deep affection for her and their life together. He said, “By her Christian patience, full co-operation, and utter unselfishness, she enabled me to do my work. Freely and joyfully she gave herself to the interest of Hendrix College and the Arkansas Methodist. She was a true friend to her friends, trusted them, and was trusted by them. Students as old as herself came to her for counsel and comfort. She never claimed credit for anything, but generously gave credit for any good deed. She had deep convictions and would not yield an iota of principle, but she was tolerant and charitable of the opinions of others. With a keen sense of humor, she was intensely human and enjoyed life. She was the intimate companion of her children and the stay of her aged parents. Unaware of the insidious disease sapping her vitality she had returned from a helpful visit to parents and to her brother and sister only to precede them on the last journey of the soul. We are poor because she has departed, but rich because she was and is ours, since she blessed every life that she touched.”
I know that my father, George, and his mother, Elizabeth, were very close. They wrote to each other every day while he was a student at Hendrix. He lived with his aunt and uncle, Margaret and John Reynolds, on the campus in the President’s home. Elizabeth and Margaret were sisters who both had married presidents of Hendrix. On August 22, 1935, in the left upstairs front bedroom of the President’s home, my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Mchurter Harwood, died at the age of 103.
According to Volume X, “Who’s Who in America,” 1918, my grandfather participated in many different ventures. In 1899, he was head of the good roads movement, which resulted in the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution of Arkansas, authorizing counties to levy road tax. He led another movement to secure legislation regulating college charters and degrees. And he was a member of the Education Commission, the Arkansas History Commission, and was president of the Arkansas State Teachers’ Association in 1911. He also conducted a special investigation of the Arkansas penitentiary in 1908.
He was instrumental in securing 400 acres on top of East Mountain in Fayetteville for the site of the Western Methodist Assembly in 1922 and it was renamed Mount Sequoyah by Elizabeth Harwood Millar. And my other grandfather, J. L. Bond, a Hendrix graduate, became the first assembly superintendent. His daughter and my mother, Minta Lee Bond, married in 1925 to George Dana Millar, son of A.C. Millar and Elizabeth Harwood Millar. My grandfather Alex conducted their ceremony.
In going through old family papers we discovered that Rev. A.C. Millar had conducted the marriage of my wife’s grandparents, James Madison Ligon and Lula Carroll Gist on April 17, 1901, in Conway. Her father was James Carroll Gist of Conway, a prominent businessman whose name is on the original cornerstone of the administration building of Hendrix College, where he gave much time and money to the college. He was killed in a train/street car collision in Little Rock, Nov. 26, 1890, at the age of 42.
When I was a child, my family visited in the Arkansas Methodist home. I remember playing on the front porch of the home on Scott Street with my cousins and being told to “not get dirty.” [Probably my mother told me that!] It was a treat to see the printing press in the building located at the back of the house where hopefully the press might be in use. Through the years on birthdays and Christmas, my grandfather would send me books appropriate for my age. I saved them and gave them to my children and grandson.
In the mid-sixties, I was the Executive Director of the Little Rock Housing Authority, which carried out the Little Rock Urban Renewal Program. One of these projects was “Central Little Rock” and we were acquiring the right of way for what is now I-630. As a result, unfortunately, the Arkansas Methodist office/residence/printing press property is now the North lane of I-630 as it cuts across the central Little Rock area.
During the thirties, my father owned an automobile business in Searcy. To the best of my knowledge, my grandfather, A. C. Millar, never owned or drove an automobile in his entire life.
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