James McMillin (abt. 1806 - 1857)

Born about 26 Jul 1806 in Pennsylvania, United States

Husband of Elizabeth (Webb) McMillin Yancey — married 21 Dec 1842 in Mason County Kentucky

Died 23 May 1857 at about age 50 in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

James married Elizabeth Webb Yancy.

Gravestone inscription reads: "My Husband. James McMillin. Born July 26, 1806. Was murdered in the city of Memphis by Isaac L. Bolton. May 23, 1857. Aged 50 Yrs, 10 Mo 27 da."^[1]

In May, 1857, Isaac L. Bolton killed a Kentuckian, named McMillan. This occurred at the slave mart of Bolton, Dickens & Co, Clinton street, near Howard Row, Memphis. The offense of McMillan was the selling to Bolton of a negro boy brought from Kentucky, as a slave for life. The boy was sold by Bolton to Thos. B. Crenshaw, of this county, who learned that the boy was, by the terms of his Kentucky master, to be made free if carried out of the state. The boy sued for his freedom and gained it. McMillan was violently assailed by Bolton for his conduct, and the quarrel ended in Bolton's taking the life of McMillan.

The trial of I. L. Bolton was one of the celebrated criminal cases of Tennessee. His imprisonment lasted one year, and his trial took place in Covington, Tipton county. He was acquitted by a jury, every one of whom was bribed.^[2]

Isaac L. Bolton, the murderer, was a member of the wealthy cotton and slave trading firm of Bolton, Dickens & Co. The murder trial resulted in enormous expenses, said to be over $100,000, for Isaac L. Bolton's murder of James McMillin at the slave pen in Memphis, in May 1857. The expenses of the trial resulted in a feud between family members and business partners and six deaths, Thomas Dickens being assassinated near Memphis 30 July 1870.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/128645156/james-mcmillin
2. ↑ "The Dickens-Bolton Feud of Shelby County, Tennessee," http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/shelby/news_feud.html
3. ↑ History of Kentucky, vol. 1, by Lewis and Richard H. Collins, p. 205. Online at Google Books.

• Marriage records of Mason County Kentucky

Federal Census records

Information taken from Page 113, Kentucky Pioneers and their Descendants, by Ila Earle Fowler, For the Kentucky Society, Daughters of Colonial Wars.