Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, August 11, 1907
pg. 3

CONDENSED HOME NEWS
Wood McMillin, our pioneer townsman, was 70 years of age on Thursday, the 1 st. Col. McMillin is one of the most remarkable men that has ever lived in Denison. He is one of the pioneers of the early West an d probably knows more about western history, and the pathfinders, than any person in North Texas. Wood crossed the plains a number of times. He was wagon master, a very responsible and trying position. He knew all of the mountain and plainsmen, the guides and explorers, Indian trails and men who followed t hem, the evolution of the Territories into States, the taming of the wilderness, the vast changes that when told by Col. McMillin, bring astonishment to the face. If a man could only corner old Wood and get him to state his experience, it would be as thrilling and interesting a narrative as ever listened to. There are but few left of the most wonderful type that ever lived. It is a wonder that Col. McMillin is alive, considering the hardships that he has passed through, roughing it behind ox and mule teams on the great Western plains; that when he trailed them had no other tenants but bison and Indians, and where every man carried his life in his hands, and never closed his eyes without a sentinel to guard the camp. The living tide of explorers, trappers and emigrants, surged by ever Westward. Those wild romantic periods have passed forever and but a few are left to tell the tale, and among the best of narrators that we have ever met is Wood McMillin. But it is hard to pin the old man down long enough to get a story out of him. His description of life on the plains, Indian fights, bull whacker experiences, with its lights and shades, and his observations of various sorts, are all vivid and well told. Col. McMillin is 70 years of age, and while a little infirm, his memory is as fresh as when he first started from Missouri to that land that was t hen almost unknown. If the old man brace up a little he might celebrate his century mark - and we hope that he will.