THE LATE MR. OGDEN MILLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 353, 2 April 1910, Page 10

THE LATE MR. OGDEN MILLS.

A REMARKABLE CAREER,

Among wealthy Americans the name of Darius Ogden Mills stands in the front rank. Crowning u successful career as merchant, banker, financier, with devotion to the work of social amelioration, he won ior himself universal esteem.

His rise was remarkable. Mr. Mills' parents were humible folk living at North Salem, Winchester County, New York State. There he was born on September 25, 1825. Even in those early days the American educational system ■was well developed, and Ogden Mills passed through the Salem Academy and Mount Pleasant Academy, New York. He took with him to school and college the advantage of careful and pious home training, the good effects of which were outstanding features in his after life. His parents intended to make him a farmer, but his ambition was a commercial career, and on leaving school he obtained a situation in a shop or 6tore in New York. After six years thus spent, Ogden Mills migrated to Buffalo—now a large city—where Lake Erie narrows to form the Niagara river, but at that date a small town. Ogden Mills saws that Buffalo was a field of promise, and ho soon secured the position of cashier in the Erie County Merchants' Bank. So rapidly did he win confidence that in a year or two he had acquired a third interest in the bank. Mr. Mills possessed the secret of success—in assjduous application, in a sterling character which ■won approbation, and in a generally correct estimation of business outlook.

In 1859 the great gold fever—the yellow fever, as people called "out in California. Almost simultaneously California and Australia poured out for the service of tie world more of the precious metal than had ever been done before in the same time. Eminent political economists, like Michel Chevalier, predicted ruinous consequences from the "fall in the value of gold"—results which were never realised. Mr. Mills, possessed by no such fears, quitted his desk in the Buffalo Bank and travelled to the Golden Gate.

It was characteristic of the men that, unlike the bulk of those who made the rush from the Eastern States to the Pacific Slope, Mr. Ogden Mills did not .join the crowd of prospectors and speculators. He foresaw that the output of gold would lead to a rapid commercial evolution, and with this in mind he settled not at California, but at Sacramento, the quieter city a little to the east of San Francisco, and sufficiently near the jjoldfield. In the midst of the excitement and wild speculation of the dav there was one cautious financier and honorable dealer whom the rough miners could implicitly trust, and that •was Darius Ogden Mills, whose operations gradually extended to the provision of clothing, implements, and gen-pr-.I meiwbondise, and in a very brief in'"'■val Ipri Mm to establish the bank of T) n Mil'* and Co.—to this day one of the leading financial houses in Sacramento.

Tn connection with the Bank of CaJi-ff"-ni». which Mr. Mills founded later, the story of its suspension and recoverv is onp of the most honorable facts of Mr. Mills' life. He retired from the presidency of the bank in 1873, after having held the position for nine years, and in n. vcrv short period his successor imperilled the institution, and in his despair committed suicide. Mr. Mills at once resumed the presidency, the bank in the meantime having suspended payment. Contributing himself £200,000, he raised a guarantee fund which amounted to £1,600,000, and in a single month the bank was opened on a sound foundation. With regard to hostels and tenement houses, it is of interest to know that Mr. Ogden Mills got the idea from the Rowton Houses in London. Mr. Mills happened to be some years ago in London, and being associated with Lord Eowton on the diretcorate of a railway, he became interested in the Bowton buildings, and made a thorough investigation of the plans on which they were erected and carried on. Returning to New York, he immediately formed his own scheme, and nut it into execution. Mr. Mills had in view a twofold rmrpose .—one to enable people of limited means to live in superior comfort than was at the time nossible in the Empire City: and, secondly, to encourage Economy of expenditure. "There is more waste in America than in any other country." he said. "Persons of small means, as well as those nf larger means, spend a <rreiit deal more money than is necessary to supply their needs. The value of money is not appreciated." The social service 'he rendered to New York, and.- by his example, to the American people, has been generally recognised.