this is considered, it is interesting to observe that if there are any differences probably the most pronounced is the extent to which our family dispensed its hospitality. For while the MacMillans as a whole are hospitable, yet for some reason our family has been blessed with the spirit of hospitality which must have seemed amazing even to our closest relatives, particularly when it is remembered the circumstances in which the hospitality was often shown. For better or for worse, it can be truly said that the MacMillan home on the Columbus Pike was truly “a house by the side of the road” which proved itself to be “a friend of men.” If we seek to discover a reason for the above statement, it would probably be found in the fact that when David McMillan moved to Ohio in 1828 and built his pioneer home, he built it by the side of the road, which happened to be then as it is today, one of the most heavily travelled highways in western Ohio, being the road over which thousands of pioneers travelled from the east to locate in the middle west and the regions beyond. Whether David McMillan built his home with the thought of ministering to these travelers, we do not know, as there is no authentic record. We do have a family tradition that at this earlier period the old homestead was often spoken of as the “Half- Way House” between Columbus and Cincinnati, doubtless due to the hospitality that was shown to travelers, especially in entertaining them as week-end guests. There is a tradition to the effect that grandfather David McMillan had strong convictions on the subject of Sabbath day travel. When any of the early settlers traveling west would pass his house on Sabbath, Grandfather would go ou,t to protest. To show his sincerity, he would invite them to be his guest, without charge, until the following morning, reminding them of what was often commented on in that early day in the pulpit and out of it, and proven by everyday experience, that those travelers who from religious convictions practiced the good habit of stopping for the Sabbath, invariably got farther on their way by the weekend than those who without religious convictions travelled day after day, disregarding the demands of the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship. But, that all the hospitality of the home was not of this religious character is evidenced by what we know of this home at a later period. In the first volume of Mother’s Journal, which she 36
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