MORRIS HENRY MILLS, of Fort Worth, was born at Mount Morris, New York, a son of Colonel Wm. A. and Alice (Brooks) Mills. His grandfather, General William A. Mills, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and after its close became a prominent official in the New York state militia. With General Wadsworth he was one of the early pioneers of the Genesco country of western New York, where they took up large tracts of land and became very wealthy. Colonel William A. Mills was a prominent business man and farmer of Livingston county.
Morris H. Mills received his education in the public schools, while for many years thereafter he was connected with railroad work, starting originally as a messenger boy in the telegraph office at Clinton, Iowa. After three months’ service as messenger he became an operator for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Maquoketa, Iowa, while later he became connected with the Union Pacific as train dispatcher at Laramie and also as dispatcher and chief clerk in the office of the general superintendent. Leaving the Union Pacific, Mr. Mills became an employee of the Northern Pacific, for about ten years filling the positions of dispatcher, chief dispatcher and superintendent, and on the expiration of that period connected himself with the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad Company at Fort Worth, filling the positions successively as chief clerk, purchasing agent and trainmaster. After seven years spent in this work Mr. Mills left the railroad to embark in the lumber business in Texas, and was prominent in the organization and development of the National Lumber Company, one of the most prominent concerns of its kind in the state. He was vice president and secretary and later became president of the company. This company erected extensive works at Texarkana for chemically treating lumber, principally railroad ties. They also did an extensive business, conducting a general wholesale lumber trade, with railroads and yards in Texas and Oklahoma. Mr. Mills subsequently retired from the lumber business to engage in other interests, and in 1904 erected a beautiful residence near Fort Worth, on the Interurban railroad. He is now general manager of the Fort Worth Iron & Steel Manufacturing company, in which he is a stockholder. He was married in Laramie, Wyoming, to Miss Alice Brockway, in 1879, and they have one son, Fred Mills.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas, Vol. II (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), pp. 326-327.