My Genealogy Hound

ANDREW J. MILLARD, an enterprising citizen, for ten years a Constable of New Buffalo Township, Berrien County, Mich., is also one of the leading general farmers and horticulturists of the county, and is widely known as a man of high business ability and upright character. Mr. Millard has been a dweller in Berrien County for over a quarter of a century, but is a native of the Empire State, and was born in Allegany County, June 21, 1838. His parents were William C. and Polly (Ripenbark) Millard, life-time residents of the State of New York, where they commanded high respect as useful and industrious citizens and descendants of honored ancestry. The father was a native of Berlin, Rensselaer County, and was born in 1798. His father, Elijah Millard, born in Rhode Island, was of English and Welsh descent. The paternal great-grandfather, Elijah, was a native of England, and having resided for some time in the United States returned to his native land to dispose of his property, seven business blocks, which he owned in the city of London, but upon the trip across was lost at sea. The father, William Millard, was a man of resolution and unusual strength of character, and lived to a good old age, passing to his rest in 1874.

The excellent mother, likewise a native of Allegany County, N. Y., was a daughter of Adam and Phoebe (Sears) Ripenbark, and was reared, educated and married in her native county, and there passed her entire life, dying in the home of her youth in 1869. The maternal grandfather, Mr. Ripenbark, and the maternal great-grandfather, Mr. Sears, both served with courage in the War of the Revolution, and transmitted to their descendants an enviable record of heroic patriotism. The father and mother of our subject were the parents of three children, who all lived to adult age. Andrew J. was the eldest-born and attained to manhood in the old Allegany County home. He enjoyed advantages of instruction in the school of the neighborhood, and was early trained into habits of self reliance and industry. In 1863, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Huldah Younglove, a resident of the Empire State. This estimable lady survived her marriage about eleven years and passed away in 1874. She was the mother of seven children, four of whom are now living. Emma, the eldest-born, is the wife of John Davis; Lewis, Mary and Warren complete the surviving sons and daughters who once gathered around the family fireside.

Mr. Millard, many years after the death of his first companion, again entered the bonds of matrimony, and upon June 25, 1888, married Mrs. Carrie (Hudson) Whitford, daughter of Richard and Betsey Hudson, and a native of Trumbull County, Ohio. The parents of Mrs. Millard are now both deceased, passing to their rest in Ohio. Our subject emigrated from New York State to Michigan in 1867, and at once located in Berrien County and purchased sixty acres of the land he now owns. To this tract he has added until he has under a high state of cultivation a fine farm of one hundred and thirty-eight acres, which he has himself cleared from heavy timber and made one of the best and most productive pieces of farming property in this locality. The homestead is likewise improved with excellent buildings and an attractive residence, and presents a scene of thrift and plenty. Aside from grain and similar products, quantities of berries are raised upon the place, which also has an orchard of choice fruit. Politically, Mr. Millard is a Republican, and cast his first Presidential vote for Lincoln.

He has occupied his present official position for a half-score of years to the great satisfaction of his fellow-townsmen, by whom he is esteemed as a man of ability and a liberal-spirited and progressive citizen. Our subject is not connected by membership with any denomination, but his good father was a devout Baptist, and the mother adhered to the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Millard is a man who never refuses aid to any worthy work, religious or benevolent, and is a sincere friend and excellent neighbor.