The west shore., August 01, 1889, Page 416, Image 8

THE WEST SHORE.
iwsr and general manager of this great industry is
John a McMillin, whose indefatigable efforts and
great executive ability render him peculiarly fitted
for the management of an enterprise of tbii charac
ter. He ia possessed of an inventive mind, not of the
ideal kind, but of the hard, practical sort, that quick
ly perceives where improvement are necessary and
readily adapts means to the ends to be secured. Im
pmvemanU made by him in the new kilns recently
put in have increased their output fully ton per cent
The same genius for achieving practical results is
seen in the admirable arrangements made for the
speedy and economical dispatch of work in every de
partment, by which means expense of production is
reduoed and the product of the works increased. Mr.
McMillin is an illustration of the great fact that a
man's gifts from nature will assert themselves. Edu
cated for a profession, which he pursued with the
success that is always attained by one so earnest and
practical, he finally abandoned it for the management
of business affairs where his executive abilities were
given greater scope and have consequently accom
pliahrd greater result. He was born in Sugar Grove,
Tippecanoe county, Indiana, October 23, 1855, and
lived the life of a farmer boy until sixteen years of
age, when he entered the Indiana Asbnry University,
at (Jreeneastle, Ind., now the DeFauw University.
He pursued the classical course and graduated in the
class of 1S7U, receiving the degree of A. B , and three
years later he received the degree of A. M., deliver
ing the M niaatir's oration " for that year. He began
the study of law and finished in the office of Judge
David P. Vinton, of Lafayette, Ind. After admis
sion to the bar of the circuit and supreme courts of
that sUte he practical until 1SS4. coming to the coast
in January of that year to look up a location for the
practice of his profession and to find some favorable
opportunities for Investment He was admitted to
the bar of Washington Territory, but having pur. j
chased a quarter interest in the Tacoma Lime Com- f
pany, then doing quite an extensive business in the I
Pnyallup valley and Portland, Oregon, he assumed
the management of the business and works. His ex- j
perienoe in the business and close observation of all '
the conditions necessary to the highest success con- (
vinced him that the great marble ledge at Roche har
bor, properly worked, could put the best quality of ;
lime on the market cheaper than from any other
known ledge of limestone, and having once formed I
this opinion he set about the task of acquiring con
trol of the property with the same earnestness of i
purpose that he has shown in everything with which I
he has been connected. By his efforts .he Taooma i )
Roche Harbor Lime Company was organized and the 1 :
two properties indicated in the title were consolidated, I
the whole being placed under his management The II
results so far accomplished by his efforts there have h
been related; but, great as they are, they will be j;
eclipsed by the improvements that will be made un-
der his supervision and by his initiation during the
next few years. Mr. McMillin was married on the
fifth of June, 1877, to Miss Luella Hiett, who had !
been a schoolmate in his boyhood days and had fin
ished her eduoation at the Ohio Wesleyan Universi
ty, at Delaware, Ohio. They are living quietly and
most pleasantly at Roche harbor, where their twr
bright boys, aged four and eight years, are growing
strong and hardy in the invigorating atmosphere of
the forest and sea. Mrs. MoMillin is superintendent
of the Sunday school, and is equally interested with
her husband in promoting the moral, physical and in
tellectual welfare of the people employed by the com
pany. What they have accomplished is ihown by the
great contrast presented here with incorporated en
terprises elsewhere, and their example is well worthy
of imitation.