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Below is a family biography included in History of Union County, Iowa published by S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., in 1908.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Judge J. M. Milligan, who for years has figured as one of the prominent citizens and public men of Union county, leaving the impress of his individuality upon its material development, its substantial growth and its legal history, took up his abode within its borders in 1868. Honorable in purpose, fearless in conduct, and stainless in reputation, his life record is inseparably interwoven with its annals.

Judge Milligan is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred in Washington county on the 22d of May, 1833. His father, Robert Milligan, was also born in Ireland and was a son of John Milligan, who was likewise a native of the Emerald Isle. The family, however, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Crossing the Atlantic with his parents in boyhood days, Robert Milligan was reared in Pennsylvania and served his adopted country as a soldier in the war of 1812 and in the Indian wars, devoting five years to this military experience. He was married in Washington county, Pennsylvania, to Rebecca Adams, a native of that state, and a daughter of William Adams, who served for seven years as a member of the patriot army in the Revolutionary war. Robert Milligan followed the occupation of farming in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and there remained throughout the residue of his days. In his family were five sons and three daughters who reached years of maturity and of these John and James Milligan were soldiers of the Civil war, serving throughout the period of hostilities between the north and the south, while a brother-in-law, Mr. Walker, was a member of the same company to which John and James Milligan belonged. Like the others, he continued at the front through the period of hostilities and participated in the engagements of the Army of the Potomac. The fourth brother of the family was William Milligan. Only two of the sons survive, J. M. and James.

In the county of his nativity Judge Milligan was reared and the public schools afforded him his preliminary educational advantages. He is, however, largely a self-educated man, who has learned many lessons in the school of experience, while reading and observation have constantly broadened his knowledge and a retentive memory has stored his mind with facts which are continually brought into requisition in his social and professional relations. He was for a time a student in the Waynesburg College, of Pennsylvania, completing a scientific course by graduation.

In early life he began teaching in Washington county and subsequently taught in Ohio prior to completing his collegiate course. He then secured a state certificate and for four years was in charge of the schools of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. While thus engaged he devoted his leisure hours to the study of law and was admitted to the bar in his native state, but regarding the west as the land of opportunity, he came to Iowa in 1868 and made permanent location in Afton. For two years after his arrival he engaged in teaching in the schools of this city. He then took up the practice of law and for several years was active in the profession, becoming recognized as one of the prominent members of the bar in southern Iowa. Called from public to private life through the appointment to the position of superintendent of schools of Union county, he was later elected to that office and served for two terms. He was a well known educator and for years was very active in school work, the public-school system of the state finding in him a stalwart and acceptable champion whose labors were effective and far-reaching.

Politically Judge Milligan has been a life-long republican, never wavering in his allegiance to the party since casting his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont in 1856. He has taken an active part in politics and has been called to various positions of honor and trust. He served on the town council of Afton, was also mayor of the city for a number of terms, became a member of the school board and acted as its president for several terms, filling that position at the time of the erection of the present fine public school building here. He is now justice of the peace, in which position he has continued for a number of years, and thus has become widely known as judge. He has ever regarded a public office as a public trust, and in performing his duties is actuated by a spirit of loyalty and devotion that none question.

In 1861, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, Judge Milligan was married to Miss Sarah F. Throckmorton, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania. She died in Afton, November 20, 1897, and was laid to rest in the Green Lawn cemetery. There were five children of that marriage: Bert, who is now a prosperous merchant of Afton; Robert, a successful farmer of Union county; William, a railroad bridge contractor of Nebraska; Fannie, the wife of W. S. Spencer, a business man of Oklahoma; and Nancy T., the wife of Professor W. M. Bell, a prominent educator, who for some years was at the head of the Creston Business College and is now president of the business college at Chariton, Iowa.

Judge Milligan is a member of the Presbyterian church of Afton and was reared in the faith of that denomination. He is now serving as one of the elders of the church and has been a most active worker in the Sunday school, serving for some time as superintendent while now he is teacher of the Bible class. His labors in behalf of the church have been most effective, contributing in large measure to its upbuilding and development. He has been sent as a delegate from his church to the general assembly in New York city. Fraternally he is also prominent, becoming a member of the Odd Fellows society in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, later transferring his membership to the lodge at Afton. He has passed through all of the chairs here and is a past grand. He was also a member of the encampment for years, filled all of its offices and is a past chief patriarch.

He is numbered today among the early settlers of Union county and his labors have been an important factor in the growth of Afton and this part of the county. Although seventy-five years of age he holds himself erect and is active in mind and body. He has never been under a doctor’s care but once, and his life is proof of the fact that nature is kind to those who do not abuse her laws. He has been ever found true to the unchangeable rules which govern the physical development and at the same time has shown the utmost loyalty to the rules which govern upright, honorable manhood and work for progressive citizenship. To know Judge Milligan is to esteem and respect him and Afton’s history would be incomplete without this mention of his record.

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This family biography is one of 247 biographies included in The History of Union County, Iowa published in 1908.  For the complete description, click here: Union County, Iowa History and Genealogy

View additional Union County, Iowa family biographies: Union County, Iowa Biographies

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