I. FOREWORD The first reference to the MacMillan name in Scottish history is so remote, its members so numerous, the ideals of the family so divergent, that any idea of thinking of the family as a whole is without meaning. The most casual observation shows that members of this family have become well known in such widely varying fields as ministers, as educators, explorers, statesmen, philosophers, publishers, men of letters, as well as warriors, athletes, and business executives. What is more to the point, these several branches show a strong tendency along with the rest of humanity, to reproduce after their own kind. It should be the source of profound gratitude to those who bear this ancient and honorable name, that though it seems to be the prevailing tendency to drift toward the purely secular, and in some cases wholely worldly pursuits, there are other branches which have been just as zealous in seeking to maintain the family’s original ideals and traditions. The branch of the family with which this narrative deals, is of the latter class, which traces its origin not back to the more remote past, but to John MacMillan of Balmaghie, Scotland, who lived and labored during the time of religious persecution in that unhappy realm and era. So far as the present writer has ascertained, no definite attempt has been made to record this religious background for the American branch of the family. This present narrative is such an undertaking, in tracing the descendants of Hugh and Jane Harvey McMillan, staunch Covenanters of County Antrim, Ireland, and Chester District, South Carolina, and of their fifth child David, and his wife, Nancy Wright McMillan, of Chester District, South Carolina, and Green County, Ohio, and particularly of their youngest son, James, and his wife Martha Elizabeth Murdock MacMillan, who with their descendants, have occupied the pioneer home of David McMillan for more than a century and a quarter, a home that was carved out of a pioneer wilderness, and is now occupied by the fourth generation of this family. Jason L. MacMillan. Norfolk, Virginia, January 1953. 5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=