My Genealogy Hound

ROBINSON McMILLAN, attorney at law, is a son of Frank P. and Jane F. (Robinson) McMillan, and was born March 25, 1857. The parents were both native Tennesseeans, the father having been born in 1829, and the mother in 1832. Of their seven children but three are living: Robinson, Edward E. and Frank P., Jr. Frank P. McMillan was a farmer in Giles County before the war. Having lost all his property he moved to Rutherford County in 1870 to begin life anew. It was then that he took Robinson from school, and put him in the cotton field, where he worked with the negroes till his twenty-first year. At this age young Robinson was a pretty fair scholar, notwithstanding his lack of opportunities. He had improved every spare moment by studying standard works of various kinds, especially works of mathematics, history and poetry. On obtaining his majority he came to Wilson County to try his luck at pedagogy. After teaching a school in the Seventeenth District he went to the Twenty-fifth, to Hamilton Academy, where he began with sixteen pupils. At the end of four years he ended his school at that point with 115 pupils present. He afterward taught at Gladeville with similar success. His precarious state of health continually interfering with his duties as a teacher, he entered Cumberland University to study law. In 1885 he graduated with honor, representing the entire senior class by their unanimous choice. In the year 1885 he was elected superintendent of public schools for the county of Wilson. As county superintendent he has exerted himself to disentangle the county finances, to raise the standard among teachers, and to rouse the people on the subject of education. At the beginning of the year 1886 he associated himself with Rufus P. McClain, of the Lebanon bar, with whom he has since been practicing his profession. In April, 1883, he was married to Josephine Hewgley, daughter of C. W. Hewgley, of Nashville, Tenn. Mrs. McMillan was born January 13, 1861. They have one son — Murray. Mr. McMillan is a Democrat in politics, and a liberal Methodist in religion. He is a Good Templar, a Pythian knight and a Free Mason.