"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 570.

JOHN MILNE

     The name of John Milne is associated with all that is substantial and of
good report in the northwest.  Certain undertakings in his career have been
pioneer, distinctive and inaugurative, and his services are of such a nature
that they belong rather to the state of Oregon than to his home town of
Hillsboro.  When he came here to start an oatmeal mill in 1870 he found the
finest oats he had ever seen, and in spite of deterring obstacles and
discouragements managed to manufacture the first oatmeal in the state, and has
since turned out millions of dollars worth of this healthful cereal.  His
industry and farsightedness have resulted in the accumulation of extensive grain
lands, fine blooded cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, besides mill, business, and
residence property, elevators and warehouses.  With this success, which is
worthy of the great state in which he lives, has been established a reputation
for rugged honesty and moral worth as enviable as it is rare and admirable.
     The personal traits of character which have been important factors in the
life of Mr. Milne are undoubtedly inherited from an ancestry associated with the
Scotch persecutions and early Pilgrim days in Massachusetts.  The ancestors are
authentically traced back to the sixteenth century, when one of the family
suffered the ignominy of being burned at the stake in intolerant Scotland.  The
Milne home was henceforth abandoned by its old time tenants, who fled to America
for greater religious liberty.  Later members returned to the land of their
forefathers for the great-grandfather, grandfather, and the father of John
Milne, all of whom bore the name of James, were born in Scotland, and he himself
was born at Banffshire, Scotland, May 24, 1832.  His mother, Jane (Adam) Milne,
was also a native of Scotland, and had eleven children, eight sons and three
daughters, ten of whom attained maturity and five of whom are living.  John
Milne being the second oldest.
     Until seventeen years of age John Milne lived on the paternal Scotch farm,
and was then apprenticed to a miller at Elgin, Scotland, but after serving three
of the required seven years was obliged to abandon the work owing to ill health.
He forewith began an apprenticeship of seven years in the New Mill Iron Works at
Murryshire, Scotland, and after completing his trade was superintendent of the
machine shop in a manufacturing plant in Elgin for five years.  Upon emigrating
to America in 1857, he located at Ingersoll, Ontario, and for a time further
studied at his trade, afterward assuming charge of a mill for eight years.  In
1868 he sailed from New York for New Zealand, and from there went to Melbourne,
Australia, and later to Tasmania, where he engaged in the milling business for
eighteen months.  Business proved very satisfactory in this remote locality, yet
Mr. Milne determined that the opportunities were limited compared with those in
America, and he therefore returned and landed in San Francisco in 1870.
     It was the intention of Mr. Milne to start a milling enterprise in
California, but not finding what he wanted, he came to Oregon the following
year, and has since made this state his home.  At the time Portland was a town
of less than ten thousand inhabitants, and with only four wholesale houses.  As
may be imagined, the owners thereof discouraged him in his efforts to establish
a mill, but he was persistent and based his chief encouragement upon the
excellent quality of the grain raised in the state.  It took six months to get
the machinery together, and Mr. Milne himself made everything with his own hand
but the burrs.  He began building the Hillsboro mill in 1870, and the same year
was able to manufacture oatmeal, the first cereal to be manufactured north of
San Francisco.  The business grew apace, and large machinery became imperative
to meet the increasing demand.  The new machinery was brought from Scotland, and
a year was required in which to have the order filled.  After that there was
almost unparalleled increase in the trade, and soon cars were required for
shipment, and elevators and warehouses for storage.  At the time of putting in
the Scotch machinery, Mr. Milne also put in machinery for manufacturing flour,
and fifteen years ago established the roller mill process.  since 1898 he has
discontinued the manufacture of oatmeal, and devoted his mills entirely to
flour, of which the Hillsboro brand has the largest sale.
     Two farms owned by Mr. Milne, and located respectively two and a half and
five miles from Hillsboro, comprise sixteen hundred acres, and are utilized for
extensive grain operations, and for the breeding of fine blooded stock.  It is a
well known fact that some of the finest draft horses in Oregon have come from
these farms, and not only Clydesdales, but other breeds of horses, Jersey
cattle, Cotswold-Shropshire sheep, comprising the finest mixture next to Reno;
Berkshire and Poland-China hogs, are among the valuable possessions of these
model ranches.  Mr. Milne is extensively engaged in buying and shipping grain,
for the accommodation of which he owns large elevators and warehouses along the
railroads.  he is a Republican in political affiliation, and has been councilman
from time to time for several years.  As a Presbyterian he was one of the
organizers and builders of the church at Tualatin Plains and has been a trustee
of the same for many years.
     In Portland, in 1878, Mr. Milne married Margaret Linklater, a native of the
Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland.  Mrs. Milne died in January,
1901.  Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Milne, John, Jr., Jacob and
Elizabeth.  Since coming to America Mr. Milne has twice returned to Scotland, in
1867, while living in Canada, and in 1888, while at the height of his success in
Oregon.


*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.