One of the leading lawyers of northeastern Iowa. He was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1808, and died in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1879. At the age of eleven years, he was brought to America by his parents who settled at Toronto, Canada. When he was sixteen years old he became a clerk in a store at Washington, Pennsylvania, and after reaching manhood engaged in mercantile business on his own account, and also to some extent in boat building, but becoming dissatisfied with his occupation, sold his interest and began the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar of that State, and was for some years a successful practitioner. In 1855 he removed to Dubuque, and on November 29th of that year, was admitted to the Bar of Iowa. He soon formed a partnership with Frederick E. Bissell, afterward Attorney-General of Iowa, and the next year O. P. Shiras, after- wards Judge of the Federal District Court, became a partner of the firm of Bissell, Mills & Shiras, which obtained a large and lucrative practice. On the dissolution of that firm he entered into partnership with his son, William Wirt Mills, who died in 1867. In the fall of that year Mr. Mills and William Graham formed a partnership which continued until 1871, under the firm name of Mills & Graham. The same year, 1871, his son, Charles M. Mills, having been admitted to the bar, the firm of Mills & Son was formed, which continued until the death of the father in 1879. William Mills was active in the councils of the Democratic party, and being a ready and effective speaker, stumped the State for Buchanan, in 1856, and for Douglas in 1860. He was a War Democrat during the contest for the Union, and a member of the Second Democratic State Convention in 1861, and a candidate on the Union ticket that year. In 1869 he was elected to the Legislature as a Democrat, and did effective and valuable service as a representative. In 1868 he was a candidate for Congress against the late United States Senator, William B. Allison, and ran largely ahead of his ticket. In the early seventies he was stricken with a lingering and painful disease which necessitated his withdrawal from active practice, and which finally terminated his life at the age of seventy-one years.
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