Epler Cadwell Mills (1893-1984)

 From the 1931-32 Illinois Blue Book.

   The Illinois General Assembly has had its fair share of oddly named individuals serve amongst its ranks over the past two centuries, and following on the heels of the September 11th profile on DeGoy Bowman Ellis (a state representative from Kane County) another interestingly named Illinois legislator receives a profile--Epler Cadwell Mills of Cass County. A two-term member of the state senate, Mills had earlier distinguished himself during the First World War and was first elected to the Illinois senate at age 27.

  Born in Virginia, Illinois on March 16, 1893, Epler C. Mills was the son of local attorney Richard Watson Mills and his second wife Nellie Epler and was bestowed the odd first name "Epler" as it was his mother's maiden name. He attended schools in the Virginia, Illinois area and also studied at the Montclair Academy in Montclair, New Jersey. He continued his education at the University of Illinois Law School and later graduated from there with his Bachelor of Laws degree.

  Following his graduation Mills began the study of law and continued his studies until the beginning of American involvement in WWI. In May 1917 he signed on for military service and in the following month married Helen Odiorne (1895-1984) and later had two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth (1922-2012). Mills began his military training at the Fort Sheridan Training Camp in Lake County, Illinois and after being commissioned was assigned to the Co. H., 19th U.S. Infantry. He served with this outfit for the duration of the war and eventually rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant, being stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He resigned from the Army in January 1919 and after returning home returned to studying law.

   In 1920 the then 27-year-old Mills was nominated for a seat in the Illinois State Senate and in November of that year defeated Democratic incumbent Walter Manny by a vote of 22, 432 to 15, 718. Taking his seat in January of the new year, the freshman senator was named to seats on the committees on Agriculture and Live Stock, Appropriations, Civil Service, and Dairying during his first term.

  

A youthful-looking Epler C. Mills, from the 1921-22 Illinois State Blue Book.

   Epler C. Mills represented Cass County in the Senate for a four-year term (1921-1925) but wasn't a candidate for reelection in 1925. He was elected to a second term in the Senate in November 1928 and served another four years in office. During this session of the Senate Mills served on 22 different committees, which are listed as follows: Agriculture, Livestock and Dairying; Apportionment; Appropriations; Canals and Waterways; Civil Service; Community Welfare, Corporations and Industrial Affairs, Criminal Procedure, Efficiency and Economy, Elections, Fees and Salaries, Forestry, Fish and Game, Harbors, Insurance, Judiciary, License and Miscellany,  Military Affairs, Municipalities, Parks, Boulevards and Playgrounds, Public Utilities, Railroads, and Roads and Highway Transportation.

  After leaving the senate in January 1933, Mills returned to his hometown of Virginia to practice law with his brother Myron. In 1934 Mills mounted a candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Representative from Illinois, and during the April primary placed a distant fifth behind winning nominee C. Wayland Brooks, who had garnered 479, 479 votes. Following his primary loss, Epler Mills continued practicing law for forty more years and was also affiliated with numerous fraternal clubs in Illinois, being a member of the Masonic Order, the Modern Woodmen, the Hamilton Club of Chicago, and the American Legion. 

  Epler C. Mills died in Illinois on June 5, 1984, at age 91, and was shortly thereafter interred at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Helen Odiorne Mills survived her husband by only a few weeks, dying on July 3rd of 1984 at age 89, and was buried alongside her husband at the Oak Ridge Cemetery. One of the most prominent cemeteries in Illinois, Oak Ridge is also the burial location of former Illinois senator Shelby M. Cullom, Illinois Governor Ninian Edwards, American labor leader John Llewellyn Lewis, President Abraham Lincoln, and oddly named Springfield mayor Rheuna Drake Lawrence, profiled here back in March of 2012.

Epler C. Mills, from the 1922-1923 Illinois Blue Book.

Rheuna Drake Lawrence (1837-1901)

From the Encyclopedia of Biography of Illinois, Volume III.

  Hailing from the Illinois capital city of Springfield, the curiously named Rheuna Drake Lawrence served as mayor of that city for one term in the 1890s and had earlier distinguished himself in several endeavors in the "Land of Lincoln", including time spent as a mine manager and as city superintendent of public works.
   A native of the Buckeye State, Rheuna Drake Lawrence was born near Cedarville, Ohio on January 18, 1837, the son of Lewis W. and Sarah Minerva Lawrence. He had limited educational advantages as a youth, and while in his teens took work as a carpenter. Lawrence and a fellow carpenter would leave Ohio at an early age, hoping to make their way to Chicago. Along the way, Drake found employment as a bricklayer in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Drake would settle in Springfield in 1856, and after taking up residence, established himself as a building contractor in the still-young city. In the succeeding years, he aided in the design and construction of the Springfield Universalist Church, as well as masonry work on the Jacksonville Insane Asylum. Following his death in 1901, Lawrence's building prowess was described in a memorial notice to him in a Springfield Board of Education annual report, which noted:

"Many public and private structures were erected by him in Springfield and in other cities in Central Illinois. Blessed with robust health in early manhood, he was able to accomplish much. Endowed with great common sense, he quickly perceived and availed himself of the opportunities that existed for the investment of his earnings and profits, and at the time of his death he possessed a great deal of real estate on which he had erected buildings which adorn and beautify our city."

  In January 1859 Rheuna Lawrence married in Springfield to Mary Agnes Maxcy (1841-1905), to whom he was wed until his death. Two daughters were born to the couple, Salome Agnes Lawrence (who died in infancy in 1862), and Susan Lawrence Dana (1862-1946). Susana Lawrence would gain notoriety after she inherited her father's fortune, and with this wealth hired famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to redesign and remodel the existing Italianate Rheuna Lawrence home, which took two years to complete. The finished work was later to be known as the Dana-Thomas House. This home, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, still exists as a tourable location and contains the "largest collection of site-specific original Wright glass and furniture."
  During the late 1860s, Lawrence began dabbling in railroad contracting, helping to design and construct a railway from Springfield to Gilman, Illinois. and later began a lasting interest in the coal mining industry. In 1872 he and several partners established a coal mining town in Barclay, Illinois, with Lawrence subsequently holding the presidency of the Barclay Mining Company for several years. In 1876 he was named by then Illinois Governor John Lourie Beveridge as a member of the commission that would eventually locate and design the Illinois State Penitentiary. He served on this commission until August of 1878 when he resigned, and within a few years was appointed to the office of Springfield Superintendent of Public Works.

                   Rheuna D. Lawrence,  courtesy of the 1996 book Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana House.
  
   Throughout the 1880s, Lawrence's public profile in Sangamon County continued on the rise, and during this period he served as President of the Springfield Board of Trade. Ten years later the citizens of Springfield elected Lawrence as its Mayor for a one-year term. During his tenure, "his administration accomplished many reforms and much was done in the way of municipal improvements." Shortly after the conclusion of his term in 1892, he was appointed as a member of the Springfield Public School Board. He served on this board for almost nine years (including six as its president) and was later appointed president of the State Board of Public Charities by Governor John Riley Tanner. This period saw Lawrence hold the additional role of president of the State Bank of Springfield, serving from 1894 until his death.
   After a "long and painful illness", Rheuna Drake Lawrence died at his Springfield home on February 17, 1901. Lawrence was interred at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, and it can certainly be said that he is buried among good company! This massive cemetery is the final resting place of numerous Illinois public figures, including Governor Ninian Edwards (1775-1833), Illinois Governor and Senator Shelby Moore Cullom (1829-1914), and last but not least, Abraham Lincoln and his family.

From the Indianapolis Journal, February 18, 1901.