Cause of death Heart attack Role Banker | Name Darius Mills Religion Episcopalian | |
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Born September 25, 1825 ( 1825-09-25 ) North Salem, New York, United States Resting place Sleepy Hollow Cemetery,
Sleepy Hollow, New York Occupation Banker, investor, mining & railway executive, philanthropist Relatives Sister: Adeline Mills Easton Died January 3, 1910, Millbrae, California, United States Spouse Jane Templeton Cunningham (m. 1854) Children Ogden Mills, Elisabeth Ogden Parents James Ogden Mills, Hannah Ogden Mills Similar People Whitelaw Reid, Ogden L Mills, William Chapman Ralston, James Bowen, Cornelius Vanderbilt | ||
Siblings Edgar Mills, James Mills | ||
9 Q&A with DARIUS OGDEN MILLS | How They Succeeded by Orison Swett Marden | Animated Book Summary
Darius Ogden Mills (September 25, 1825 – January 3, 1910) was a prominent American banker and philanthropist. For a time, he was California's wealthiest citizen.
Contents
- 9 QA with DARIUS OGDEN MILLS How They Succeeded by Orison Swett Marden Animated Book Summary
- Early life
- Career
- Later life
- Personal life
- Legacy
- References
Early life
Mills was born in North Salem, in Westchester County New York, the fifth son of Hannah Ogden (1791–1850) and James Mills (1788–1841), a Supervisor, Postmaster and Justice of the Peace for the town of North Salem. His maternal grandfather was William Ogden (1767–1815), who was from Dutchess County and a member of the prominent Ogden family of New York and New Jersey. He was educated at North Salem Academy and Mt. Pleasant Academy.
Career
Shortly after his father's death in 1841, he began working as a clerk in a small general store in New York City at the age of 15. At age 21, he moved to Buffalo, New York, at the invitation of his cousin, Elihu J. Townsend (the son of Malinda Ogden Townsend, his mother's sister), and became the cashier of the Merchants' Bank of Erie County, and later a one third owner.
In December 1848, he took an exploratory trip to California, through the Isthmus of Panama, where he joined the California Gold Rush, following two of his brothers, James and Edgar Mills. By November 1849, he had made $40,000 and decided to make California his permanent home. Therefore, in 1850, he returned to Buffalo where he sold his interest in the Bank and returned to Sacramento, where he founded his own bank, the "Gold Bank of D. O. Mills & Co." He never invested in gold mining or silver mining directly, as he considered mining to be too speculative. He rather started ancillary businesses that supported the mining industry, such as banks and railroads. He was a part owner of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, which was the only link from the Comstock Lode to the Central Pacific Railroad. The major share holder in the railroad was William Sharon, whom William Ralston had sent to Virginia City as representative of the Bank of California.
In 1864, with other investors, he founded the Bank of California, which grew large in the 1860s and 1870s, but collapsed due to financial irregularities involving its chief cashier, William Chapman Ralston. Mills used his personal fortune to revive the bank, along with Sharon, and attract new investment, and within three years, the bank was again strong.
Later life
In 1880, two years after resigning from his second term as the president of the Bank of California, Mills returned to New York, where he participated in the development of a number of buildings in Manhattan, including 160 Bleecker Street, or "Mills House No. 1". He also invested in the Niagara Falls Power Company, one of the first large power companies organized in the United States. His devotion to philanthropy involved sitting on the boards of a number of charitable and cultural institutions.
Personal life
On September 5, 1854, he married Jane Templeton Cunningham (1832–1888), the daughter of Elizabeth Griffiths (1809–1869) and Scottish born James C. Cunningham (1801–1870), who was a pioneer and shipowner. Together, they had a son and a daughter:
Mills bought part of Rancho Buri Buri and built an estate named Millbrae, which gave its name to the present town that grew up around it. The 150 acres (0.6 km2) of the original estate bordering San Francisco Bay were leased by his grandson Ogden L. Mills to be used for Mills Field, now known as San Francisco International Airport.
He died of a heart attack in 1910 at his Millbrae home, leaving an estate worth $36,227,391.
His remains were returned to the East Coast for burial in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Legacy
A number of local institutions are named for him, include Isabella I of Castile Mills Hospital, the Mills Estate housing subdivision, San Francisco's Mills Building, and Mills High School. The city of Millbrae, California, is also named after him, as well.
The California State Capitol rotunda houses a statue donated by Mills that depicts Queen Isabella financing Christopher Columbus's initial voyage.
The San Francisco airport, was formerly named Mills Field, after him.