Gideon Mills I (1715 - 1772)

Born 15 Aug 1715 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Higley) Mills — married 23 Nov 1748 in Simsbury, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 4 Aug 1772 at age 56 in Canton, Hartford, Connecticut

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Biography

Gideon Mills, the son of Peter Mills and Joanna Porter was born Aug. 15, 1715, in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. ^[1][2][3] Another child of Peter and Joanna Mills was named Gidian who most likely died in childhood. Both Gideons have credible birth and/or death records.

His brother, the Rev. Jedidiah Mills (Yale, 1722) prepared him for entry into Yale College, from which he graduated in 1737. He preached in several congregations before joining the First Congregational Church in Simsbury, Connecticut, in October, 1743. Because the community was unable to support him (Dexter does not say whether support was financial or theological), he was dismissed in August, 1754. He preached in several nearby communities until he was installed as pastor for the Ecclesiastical Society of West Simsbury February 18, 1761. His preaching may have been influenced by his interest in the “great revival” of 1740. ^[3]

On November 23, 1748, Gideon Mills married Elizabeth, daughter of Brewster and Esther (Holcomb) Higley of Simsbury. A cousin of Governor Trumbull, she spent much of her early life with his family.They had three sons and three daughters. The second son graduated from Yale in 1776 and the second daughter married the Rev. William Robinson, (Yale 1773). She died in Simsbury in 1774 at the age of 51.^[3]

Gideon Mills died August 4, 1772 in Canton (West Simsbury), Connecticut at the age of 56 from a cancer of the face. Unable to work during the last year of his life, he had to depend on charity for support.^[3][2]" Gideon was buried in the Dyer Cemetery, Canton, Hartford County, Connecticut. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Find A Grave: Memorial #40331513, Record added: Aug 06, 2009.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772-1934," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F72X-WNR : accessed 10 July 2015), Rev. Gideon Mills, 04 Aug 1772; citing Connecticut, reference p 164; FHL microfilm 3,326.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (Holt, 1885) Vol. 1: October 1701-May 1745, Pt. 2, pp. 585-586.

• Memoir of the Rev. William Robinson: Formerly Pastor of the Congregational Church in Southington, Conn. with Some Account of His Ancestors in this Country (Google eBook) J.F. Trow, printer, 1859 - Clergy Memoir of the Rev. William Robinson: Formerly Pastor of the Congregational ... By Edward Robinson
• Ullman, Helen S. Descendants of Peter Mills of Windsor, Connecticut: Formerly Named Pieter Wouterse vander (i.e. van der) Meulen. Page 42. Person #20.
• Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (Holt, 1885) Vol. 1, Page 585 Dexter mentions several sources used to write Gideon Mill's biography:
  • L. W. Bacon, Hist. Discourse at Hopkins Grammar School, 58.
  • A. Brown, Genealogical Hist. of Canton, 86, 87, 99-101.
  • Contributions to Eccl. Hist. of Conn., 359.
  • Memoir of Rev. Wm. Robinson, 203.
  • Phelps, Hist. of Simsbury, 72, 141.
  • Savage, Geneal. Dict. of N. E. iii, 214.
  • Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 229.
  • Stiles, Hist. of Windsor, 704.
  • Tracy, Great Awakening, 201.
• Genealogical history, with short sketches and family records, of the early settlers of West Simsbury, now Canton, Conn. by Abiel Brown. 1899. Page 99.
• Marvin, Rev. Sylvanus P., Early Woodbridge, Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society (1900) Vol. 6, Page 109. "Settlement of a Minister"