Location Decatur, Illinois, United States Regions Great Lakes, Midwestern US Gender Male
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James Millikin was born in Ten Mile, Washington County, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1827, according to Dr. Albert Reynolds Taylor's research, which found considerable uncertainty as to exact dates. He was the son of Abel and Nancy (Van Dyke) Millikin, a moderately wealthy farmer in Western Pennsylvania. His grandfather came from Ireland as a
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian in 1771. His mother was of Dutch origin, whose ancestors came to America in the seventeenth century. James Millikin would later name Van Dyke Street in northwest Decatur in her honor around 1880.
Little is really known about his childhood. As a farm boy, James helped drive herds of steers to New York City. In the fall of 1846, he matriculated in Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College), Washington, Pennsylvania. It was while attending Washington that he made the vow to found an institution of learning, if ever he were able, to fit youth for occupations.
The lure of the west called James, and in 1849 he accompanied his father on a sheep drive into Indiana and again in 1850 to Danville, Illinois. During the winter of 1850, he was at Wabash College, although records are unclear as to what he studied, or how long. Returning to Pennsylvania in 1851 for more sheep, he again drove them to Danville with a partner named McFarland.
