The large steam roller-process flouring mill at Blackfoot, Idaho, represents one of the prominent business interests of that city. It is the property of Mr. John C. Millick, and it is to give some account of Mr. Millick’s career that these paragraphs are presented.
Mr. Millick is a very modest and unassumingman, but he is very busy and successful. He is of German descent and was born in Dodge County, Wisconsin, August 4, 1854, a son of Joseph Millick, who had come to that part of the country from Germany, accompanied by his wife and children. Joseph Millick died in Dodge county, Wisconsin, in 1876, aged seventy-eight years, his wife also having died there, in 1863. They had ten children, all but one of whom are living. Of these John C. was the seventh in order of birth, and he was only nine years old when his mother died. Though he began to earn his own living when he was thirteen, he found some time to attend such schools as existed in that part of Wisconsin at that time. When he was eighteen years old he went to northern Kansas, when he found employment as a farm hand and later farmed on his own account, on rented land. From Kansas he came, in 1880, to the Salmon River country, Idaho, then new and very sparsely populated. He hired out as a miner, at three dollars a day, and was thus employed most of the time for three years. The succeeding six years he spent as a clerk in a store at Pocatello, and this experience was so comprehensive and he made such good use of his opportunities that he acquired an expert knowledge of merchandising. He then, in 1889, bought a post trader’s store at Ross Fork and sold goods there four years. He then returned to the Salmon River country and mined and bought and sold mining claims and property. For a part of his interest in one mine, which is a steady producer, he secured ten thousand dollars, and he still retains an interest, which brings him a constant income. Later he did considerable business as a money-loaner, and one important financial transaction terminated in his ownership of the large stone steam roller-process flouring mill at Blackfoot. Mr. Millick is a Republican, but not a practical politician. He was postmaster at Ross Forks during his residence there.
In 1897 Mr. Millick built an elegant brown-sandstone residence, which is in every respect one of the best in the city. It stands in the midst of large, well kept grounds and contains everything essential to make it comfortable and attractive as a home. In 1896 Mr. Millick married Miss Gertrude Cleeg, a native of England, and they have a little daughter, named Marie.