McMillen, Robert N., M. D.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Robert N. McMillen, M. D. Doctor McMillen began the practice of medicine in Kansas thirty-five years ago, and was among the first physicians in Pratt County. Much of his early practice was among the pioneer homes of that section. For seventeen years his home and offices have been at Iola, and he still carries the burden of a heavy practice at that city.

Doctor McMillen represents Scotch ancestry, who came to America many years ago and were pioneers in the State of Kentucky. His grandfather Robert McMillen was a native of Kentucky, was a farmer there, and met his death as a result of accident.

Isaac McMillen, the father of Doctor McMillen, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1826. He grew up in that state, and was early attracted into a profession which engaged the services of many men in the early half of the last century just as railroading does today. He became a steamboat captain, piloting boats up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from St. Louis to New Orleans and also from Pittsburg to St. Louis. For a number of years he had his home at Bellaire, Ohio, in Belmont County. He married there, and his death occurred at Bellaire March 23, 1857. The cause of his death was smallpox. In politics he was a democrat. Captain McMillen married Margaret J. Davis, who was born at Bellaire, Ohio, in 1836. By her marriage to Captain McMillen she had three children: Doctor McMillen; Jacob, who is a plasterer living at Preston in Pratt County, Kansas; and Charles Vincent, who died in 1857, at the age of six months, of smallpox, dying at the same time as the father. After the death of her husband Mrs. McMillen married Dr. J. C. Beam, who was born in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, and for many years practiced his profession in Somerset and Cambria County, Pennsylvania. He died in January, 1914. During the Civil war Mrs. J. C. Beam removed from Eastern Ohio to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She lived there for a number of years, but finally went to San Diego, California. The great flood at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, occurred on May 31, 1889, and when the news of the disaster reached Mrs. Beam the shock was such as to prove the immediate cause of her death. She died June 7, 1889.

Dr. Robert N. McMillen was born at Bellaire in Belmont County, Ohio, March 4, 1850. Bellaire is a city on the west bank of the Ohio River near Wheeling, West Virginia, and its chief importance when Doctor McMillen was a boy was due to the fact that it was a river port and also the point at which the pioneer railway over the Alleghenies crossed the river. Doctor McMillen grew up in that river town, attended the public schools, including high school, and also lived for a time in Western Pennsylvania. He pursued his medical studies in the Louisville Medical College of Kentucky, where he was graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1875. His early professional experience was in the ill fated City of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he practiced until 1882. He then came out to Kansas, locating in Pratt County, and remained there giving his service to the early settlers for thirteen years. In 1895 Doctor McMillen moved to Marceline, Missouri, but in 1900 returned to Kansas and located in January of that year at Iola. He is an active member of the Allen County and State Medical societies, the Southeast Kansas Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His offices are at 10 South Washington Avenue, and his home, which he owned, at 309 West Madison Avenue.

Doctor McMillen had served as county coroner of Allen County. He is a progressive republican, was formerly a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is affiliated with Iola Camp, No. 101, Woodmen of the World.

On October 5, 1876, soon after he began practice, he was married at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to Miss Harriet A. White, daughter of Thomas and Harriet (Simpson) White, both now deceased. Her father was a farmer. Doctor and Mrs. McMillen are the parents of five children. Margaret M. married C. B. Crick, mailing clerk in the postoffice at Iola. Robert N., Jr., is a successful young attorney practicing at McAlester, Oklahoma, and completed his law studies in the University of Missouri. Walter White, a mining and civil engineer, and a graduate of the School of Mines at Rolla, Missouri, is now practicing his profession at Morenci, Arizona. Gertrude E. is still at home with her parents. Harriet Stewart is the wife of William P. Harriss, professor of physics and civies in the high school of Kansas City, Kansas.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

  Go Back