TWO OBITUARIES OF EUGENE BARTLETT MILLETT

Eugene Bartlett Millett was the first son and third child of
Clementina Bartlett and Samuel Millett.

DIED

Captain Eugene B. Millet [sic] died at the home of his sister in Los Angeles November 17, 1916.1 He was born April 25, 1838. At the age of 16 he joined Callahan’s expedition against the Indians in Mexico. After it ended he attended school two years and at the outbreak of the war became Captain of Company B 32nd Texas Cavalry, and received numerous commendations for acts of exceptional bravery. He then engaged in supplying horses for the use of the farmers in the southern states to help rebuild the south. In 1868 he became one of the largest owners of Texas cattle, driving them to Kansas, Nebraska, and other points. Up to this time everything had gone well with him.

He then became a resident of this county and its largest landowner. By unfortunate investments and large loans to many of his old Texas friends, who failed and could not pay him, and generous gifts to his relatives, without other mismanagement upon his own part, he lost his property. Soon afterwards with the zeal and energy and ambition and confidence of a young man he removed to New Mexico and attempted there to regain another fortune. His struggle was pathetic. Alone he struggles to overcome all sorts of obstacles, but his spirit was stronger than his flesh and he several times was discovered helpless and unable to take care of himself. At one time he lay sick in his cabin for over thirty hours without food or attendance and unable to help himself. His constitution had become impaired and he worried at the thought of being defeated in his struggle for a competency and independence

Finally, utterly exhausted and with no power to recover his health, he consented to permit his daughter, Mrs. Russell Bates, to bring him to her husband’s home in this county, where he remained about two years. His health and strength gradually failing him, to avoid the rigors of another winter here, upon the invitation of his sister he went to Los Angeles to spend the winter with her and return next spring. His death was not unexpected. Every one who knew him recognized the sterling qualities of the man and regrets that he was not vouchsafed health to remain longer with us.

SOURCE:

Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, Kansas, November 25, 1916, courtesy of J. H. Robbins Memorial Library, Ellsworth, Kansas, in October 2013.

NOTE BY ROGER BARTLETT:

1. The date of his death is unclear. Ellsworth cemetery records supplied by J. H. Robbins Memorial Library in Ellsworth to Roger Bartlett in October 2013 give November 18, 1916. Apparently an obituary published in the Confederate Veteran in June 1917 gives October 18, 1916 (see the second obituary on this page).

CAPT. EUGENE B. MILLETT

Death closed a long and valued life when Capt. Eugene B. Millett passed away on Oct. 18, 1916,1 at Los Angeles, Calif., while visiting his sister, Mrs. Lollie Smith.  Captain Millett was born in Texas in April, 1838, and on March 22, 1862, he entered the service of the Confederate State, raising a company whose enlistments were from Guadalupe and Caldwell Counties, Tex.  He was elected captain of the company (D.C. Burleson, a relative of the present Postmaster-General, was its first lieutenant) and went to the front as Captain of Company B, 32nd Texas Cavalry, commanded by Col. P.C. Woods, Debray's Brigade.  This company and regiment took part in the Battle of Blair's Landing, on Red River, La. at that time the regiment was commanded by Col. Nat Benton, of Seguin, Texas.

After the close of the war Capt. Millett returned to his mother's home, in Guadalupe County, Tex., and engaged in the cattle business.  From there he drifted to the West in the interest of his business several years ago.  At the time his health began to fail, his only child, Mrs. Russell Bates, of Nanopolis, Kansas,2 went to New Mexico and persuaded him to make his home with her, but he gradually failed and died while on a visit to his sister.  Thus passed from the scene of life's activity one of the most gallant defenders of the South's cause, as well as one of the most conspicuous figures of the section in which he lived.

SOURCE:

Confederate Veteran, vol. XXV, no. 6 (June 1917), p. 277.

NOTES BY ROGER BARTLETT:

1. The date of his death is unclear. Ellsworth cemetery records supplied by J. H. Robbins Memorial Library in Ellsworth to Roger Bartlett in October 2013 give November 18, 1916. An obituary published in the Ellsworth Reporter in November 1916 gives November 17, 1916 (see the first obituary on this page).

2. Probably Kanapolis, Kansas.