DUNCAN
CHAMBERS
MILNER

A TRIBUTE

DEDICATED
BY HIS CHILDREN
TO
HIS GRANDCHILDREN
GREAT GRANDCHILDREN
AND THE GENERATIONS
TO COME

“One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward; Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,

Sleep to wake.”

-Browning

Duncan Chambers Milner

a Tribute

When, out of the transient flood of human kind, a life stands clear, strong and beautiful, as a mountain peak in the evening sky; expressing loftiness and enduring values; it is good for us that we pause a while to know such a life better; and so, with grateful hearts, to thank God and take courage. Subject to the “Divinity that shapes our ends,” two primary and fundamental factors mould men and women. The blending of the influences of heredity and environment in the life of Duncan C. Milner is an interesting, instructive, and inspiring study.

After 1750, emigration to America from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales rose to high tide. For the most part, the motive was political and religious freedom. These people poured into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Newcastle, Delaware; Baltimore, Maryland; and with the instincts of true pioneers, pushed constantly westward on scarcely broken trails, seeking land and planting everywhere homes, schools, churches, and old-country names dear to them. They brought no material wealth but physical strength, the will to venture, hardihood, courage. Necessity and adversity developed an alert, vigorous mentality. A hunger for educational advantages consumed them. The bitterness and strife of old-world conditions, particularly in regard to religion, bred strong convictions, a sense of duty, militant attitudes in defense of ideals and a willingness to make personal sacrifices to advance political and religious principles. Before 1800, settlements began to dot the Ohio Valley, and for forty years thereafter the gradual subjection of the wilderness in that region by these emigrant elements continued.

Out of this background came Duncan Chambers Milner, second child of David N. Milner and Mary Ann Chambers, his wife. The Milner's were a Quaker strain from Yorkshire, England; and the Chambers Scotch Protestants from the North of Ireland. Mt. Pleasant, in fact, was settled largely by these sturdy people, whose ideals and philosophy of life centered in education and the church; colored strongly the atmosphere of the times; and set the strict standards by which most of them lived. Heredity build strength, character, and definite loyalties into the mind and heart of this lad; and subsequent bent of his ancestral influence and foundations.

This attempt to estimate a life does not contemplate dealing with biographical material, except as necessary and incidental to a larger purpose; but rather to interpret the man he came to be, the work he was permitted to do, and the spirit in which he lived.

Dr. Milner grew to man’s estate in the tense, anxious years preceding the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln had become a national figure through his firm grasp of the principles underlying the political question of States Rights, and the moral and economic question of Slavery. Dr. Milner’s training and environment, added to his enthusiastic temperament, developed an intense loyalty for the Union Cause, and to the day of his death he reverenced the magnificent manhood of Lincoln. The emotions and convictions that carried him from Haysville Academy to army service as a volunteer at the outbreak of the Civil War, were a natural sequence. On September 20, 1863, at Chickamauga, a mine ball shattered his left forearm. Thereafter, his instincts for unselfish service were further sharpened by his association with the United States Christian Commission, organized in 1864 for work among wounded and convalescent soldiers. With the burning experiences of war upon him, the deepening influences of a sturdy home, and the endowment of his own inclinations and ambitions, it was natural, if not inevitable, that he should decide for the ministry after the close of the War and following his graduation from Washington and Jefferson College in 1866; and that, after completing his course at Union Theological Seminary in 1868, he should choose the hard and difficult mission field in Missouri. Through the sixty years that followed, his ceaseless energies were spent in a wide range of church, temperance, educational, and related activities in many States, dealing with every human type, and recording experience and adventure under conditions the like of which will not occur again.

He acquired and understanding of and an insight into the lives of human kind, both of the “submerged tenth” and the rich and powerful. Everywhere he impressed all with his tremendous sincerity, and the warmth and charm of his unusual personality.

Of resilient temperament and optimistic by nature, his disposition was to be happy and to make the best of conditions as he found them. The cheerfulness that was his habit became a byword among the thousands who attended the Ottawa (Kansas) Chautauqua Assembly during the seventeen years he was the executive head of that enterprise; and thus he came to be known far and wide as “Brother Joyful.” Often in those outdoor days he quoted Riley:

“It ain’t no use to grumble and complain,

It’s just as cheap and easy to rejoice,

When God sorts out the weather and sends rain

Why, rain’s my choice.”

Some poet has described such a type as Dr. Milner was in this expressive language:

“In the world there is so much real sorrow, and so much unnecessary grief of fret and worry; where men stumble in rough paths and so many push them down rather than help them up; where tears are as common as smiles; where hearts ache easily and starve for higher joys; how grateful ought we be that God sends along, here and there, a natural singer whose heart is large and luminous, and who by his very presence and carriage, and the spontaneity of his impulses and actions, calms, cheers, and helps his fellows. God bless the happy and good natured for they bless humanity.”

His response to the call of need and suffering was immediate. The old Negro “mammy” whose bonds of slavery to liquor were even harder to break than the bonds that denied her freedom before the Civil War, appealed as strongly to his sympathies as did tragedy and heart break in homes of luxury.

Is it any wonder that he was beloved as a friend and the father-confessor of thousands all along the way he traveled; oft-times himself with tired feet and heavy heart, for his own life was full of hardships and struggles that would have defeated a less courageous man?

He had a rich and colorful personality. Physically he was built in rugged outline; five feet ten inches in height, weighing about one hundred and eighty pounds. He wore a beard in the common fashion of civil war times. His bearing was erect and alert, suggesting his army training. His movements were quick and positive, as were his mental reactions. He had the instincts of a fighting man and was easily aroused by injustice and wrong; but withal his face was gentle and kindly, bespeaking the lover of peace. Through the machinerymo9f his physical presence, easy enough to describe, there shone a vivid personality, familiar to those who knew him, but which words can not fully define. A personality both appealing and commanding; which melted in sympathetic understanding or fought as men in battle fight; a personality generous and forgiving, yet persistent and determined in a sponsored cause. His voice was deep but singularly sweet and vibrant in speech and song. He was gracious and tactful, but knew how to state his position frankly and to stand his ground when occasion required. He attracted by his physical appearance, and held by the equally striking gifts of his mind and heart. Eager and interested in all that concerned men and women, full of illustration and reminiscence out of a long life, he was indeed a fascinating and refreshing figure, whose like we shall not soon see again.

Entering into this appealing and attractive personality and a part of its strength, many qualities contributed to what he was, but four were basic.

Convictions. Dr. Milner’s life was built on a solid foundation of convictions. In childhood he absorbed from a pioneer home the reality of a definite religious belief. The Westminster Catechism stated that “the chief end of man” was “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” It was no idle phrase, but a formula reading into the routine of every day living. It was a basic concept with very real practical applications. As a lad in his teens, he lived in the atmosphere of strong adherence to standards. Political principles also were taken seriously. The legal and moral status of Slavery was attacked fiercely, leading finally to war itself. His native village had produced Benjamin Lundy, famous Quaker and publisher of the “Genius of Universal Emancipation”, which appeared in 1821, the first genuine abolition paper in the United States. The same community was a station on the “underground railroad” by which hundreds of runaway slaves who followed the Baltimore & Ohio to Wheeling, crossed the Ohio and were assisted north to Canada. Lincoln was gradually making clear to the people that the issue at stake involved the very life of the Nation itself. It is any wonder that the formative period in this young man’s life, bred in such surroundings and stimulus, should bear the impress and convictions that carried through all the after years. And not only in the matter of these earlier questions, but to every cause that enlisted his allegiance he gave wholehearted support and the very utmost of his energies. Without a code of convictions as to right and wrong, man’s duty to his fellows, and the purposes of the Creator in His universe,; character must lack poise, strength, direction and constancy. Dr. Milner’s career continually demonstrated the power of vital convictions.

Courage. Dr. Milner had courage to act upon his convictions. He had unusual moral courage. He stood by his guns on questions of principle, as well as at Perryville and Chickamauga. As a very young man, he took a position against the use of intoxicants, and in a day when such an attitude drew ridicule and scorn. He never hesitated to attack every form of crime in the raw period of his home missionary apprenticeship in Missouri, and thereby suffered physical violence, to say nothing of the vituperative hatred of the lawless. Later, he was active in the great temperance movement in Kansas to make the state a pioneer in outlawing the legalized saloon, a participation in which he always manifested the greatest pride. He preached on street corners and in jails. He invaded the office of the captain in the industry and the home of the millionaire on behalf of causes near his heart. Precedents, proprietaries, customs or traditions held no restraint for him if he felt the situation and the cause demanded unusual action. Those who possess moral as well as physical courage are destined to be the spiritual leaders of the people. Dr. Milner, from young manhood to the day fo his death, had a clear, intelligent courage. He faced the problems of his day without flinching. He was never afraid to be of the minority. Often he stood alone. Even his opponents admitted and admired his courageous defense of the unprivileged and unfortunate. Courage continually drove his convictions into action.

Simplicity. The element of simplicity in character is not easy to define. It involves simple tastes and habit’s. It avoids ostentation. It is a philosophy that assigns value to the common, everyday routine of life and living. It is kindly, unassuming, generous, tolerant, clear, purposeful, sane. Dr. Milner’s character held a certain fine wholesome simplicity, both as a young man and in his later years when honor came upon him. This phase of his many-sided personality drew all classes to him. They could talk with him easily. They confided in him naturally. Here was a man who understood; who sympathized, and who out of his experience could say the hopeful word or purpose the helpful remedy. His career was full of large responsibilities; of vital pieces of administrative work of widely varying character, and yet he retained always an elemental directness, a simple but orderly habit of thinking and doing that inspired confidence and accomplished results. His sermons were the normal expressions of such a mind and heart; simple, orderly, human, appealing, adorned with incident and pointed story. In the simplicity of his character, he was truly great; and no small measure of the power and strength of his benign influence over men and women and little children grew out of this inherent quality.

Faith. Dr. Milner had faith in himself, in his fellows, and in the world that God “so loved”. The Father’s purposes, however dimly understood, were for the good of His children. The laws of the Universe were just and right. The Bible revelation was clear as to the “first commandment”; and the “second”,. Dr. Milner’s “neighbor” was every nation and kindred.

He accepted wholeheartedly the simple faith of his forefathers. He enlarged and broadened it and built upon that faith a life of beauty and power. He had faith in the final triumph of right; that slavery would be abolished, and he lived to see it. That the legalized liquor traffic in American would be destroyed; and he lived to see it die. He had faith in science and civilization. He believed that the slow and painful evolution of man’s knowledge and experience through the centuries tends upward. He believed firmly in the essential unity of all Christian Communions, and did much to promote that concept. He had faith in his country and in the service this nation must render in the world. His interest in history and current events was keen and universal; and as a prophet he saw them fitted together as part of the Great Plan. His faith in the “eternal purposes” was unquestioning and unchanging. No one who knew him doubted the solid rock of what he not only believed but knew to be true out of those inner depths of experience and revelation that come to every human soul. It is said that faith, as a grain of mustard seed, will remove mountains. In Dr. Milner’s life, faith strengthened and sustained him. It shone around and out of his personality as a bright aura. It glorified the heights and the depths of his experiences; and it lifted again a new hope; may, even a certainty in the lives of thousands. Verily a man may not build the mansion of his character without faith; and Dr. Milner did not.

Reverie

Outside a gentle rain is falling on the roof, reminding the dreaming listener of the shelter of home. Out of the world’s complexities and problems, thoughts gather to simple, soothing, elemental things. Outside a gentle rain is falling, refreshing and earth and bringing forth grass and flower, shrub and tree; stimulating beauty and building strength.

The influences of a noble life are as gentle and as powerful as this; falling upon other lives as rain, restoring sacred ties, bringing the best of beauty and the most of power. Duncan Chambers Milner lived such a life. Through eighty-seven years and eight days he lived it before all man. And then, confidently, he passed on—through the Gateway—to Life that is large indeed; leaving behind him, and for us, a memory, a heritage, and a hope that shall be a benediction forever.

“So he passed over and all the Trumpets sounded for him on the other side”. (Death of Valiant-for-Truth-in Pilgrim’s Progress.)

Appendix

OUTLINE OF LIFE AND ACTIVITIES OF DUNCAN C. MILNER

Born at Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, March 10, 1841; son (second child) of David Neiswanger Milner and Mary Ann (Chambers) Milner.

Attended local schools in Mt. Pleasant, and later Haysville Academy, a preparatory school at Haysville, Ohio.

Enlisted in the 98^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until his left fore-arm was shattered by a minie ball at Chickamunga, September 20, 1863. Was Sergeant Major, First Lieutenant, and Adjutant, 98^th Ohio. After partial recovery from wounds, was a member of the United States Christian Commission, devoted to the care of wounded and convalescent soldiers, in 1864.

Entered Washington and Jefferson College, Washington Pennsylvania, first year of the consolidation (Washington Academy at Washington and Jefferson Academy at Canonsburg), graduating with degree of A. B. in 1866.

Decided upon the ministry, and entered Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York, graduating in 1868.

Married on May 19, 1868, at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, Lucie Mitchell Reid, daughter of William Reid and Ratchel Scott (Mitchell) Reid; by Rev. Benjamin Mitchell, D. D.

Ordained to the ministry in the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A in October, 1868, at Kansas City, Missouri.

He was one of a group of nine young men from Union Seminary ordained at this time. They were known as the “Kansas Band,” and did pioneer service in Home Missionary work in Kansas and Missouri.

In the Home Mission Field of the mid-west at Osceola, Missouri, (organizing the church there) 1868-1871.

Pastor, Third Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri, 1871-1875.

Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Ottawa Kansas, 1875-1882.

President, Ottawa (Kansas) Chautauqua Assembly, 1882-1899.

Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Atchison, Kansas, 1882-1887.

Moderator, Synod of Kansas, 1883-1884.

Doctor of Divinity, College of Emporia, Kansas 1883.

Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Manhattan, Kansas, 1887-1892.

President, Kansas State Temperance Union, 1893-1894.

Superintendent, Armour Mission Sunday School and Armour Mission (organized and supported by the late Philip D. Armour), Chicago, Illinois, 1893-1898.

Pastor, Central Presbyterian Church, Joliet, Illinois, 1899-1905

Pastor, Logan Square Presbyterian Church, Logan Square, Chicago, Illinois, 1905-1907

Associate Minister, Ravenswood Presbyterian Church, Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois, 1915-1928.

Died at his home “Sunshine Corner”, Mt. Dora, Florida, March 18, 1928. Buried at Oakwoods Cemetery, Chicago, Illinos.

Dr. Milner’s miscellaneous activities included:--Editor, “Kansas Presbyter”; Chaplain, Illinois Commandary Loyal Legion; Director, Chicago Law and Order League; President, Provident Hospital and Training School (for the training of colored nurses), Chicago, Illinois; author of book “Lincoln and Liquor”, probably the most complete and exhaustive collection extant of the evidence on Abraham Lincoln’s attitude toward intoxicants personally and as a national policy. In addition, Dr. Milner was a prolific contributor to numerous publications—religious and secular—including the daily press; relating to many questions of current public interest, but particularly in defense of Prohibition and the rights and opportunities of the colored race—the two issues in which he always took a paramount interest and for which he was known throughout the Country.