(Ewen A. McMillan) (7 Oct. 1838-23 Nov. 1907), millwright and builder. His baptismal name was Ewen, but in the U. S. at least he used the name Hugh. (Big Hugh McMillan) Born in GC, perhaps on Lot 22, 4th Concession of Lochiel Township, but he also had a family association with the 9th Concession of Lancaster Township, and he has been described as a native of Lancaster. Parents: Allan McMillan, who was born in Canada, and his wife Mary Campbell, who was born in Scotland. About 1878 he went to Butte, Montana, which seems to have been his principal base for the remainder of his life, though he also, within his Butte years, spent some 16 years, divided over two periods, in South Africa. He is reported to have built the first smelter at Anaconda, the great smelter town near Butte. When McMillan and a group of millwrights “came to Anaconda to frame the timbers for the first unit of the smelter… practically all the timber men were French Canadians,” skilled axmen “who had worked as younger men in the woods.” (Kelly) Besides mills and other buildings in the Butte area, McMillan built mills in Mexico, and in New Mexico, Idaho and elsewhere in the United States. “Big Hugh hired men from Lancaster who went to his construction sites in the United States and South Africa.” (Hold Fast) On 1 Jan. 1867 he was married to Mary E. McLeod (1845-3 Oct. 1938), sister of Wesley McLeod. (children) He died in Butte, and is buried there. Mason.

     He appears to have had at least two brothers who also lived in Butte, one of them being Archibald A. McMillan, who in the Glengarry Times of 12 Nov. 1881 published a long newsletter from Butte City, Mont., and who apparently was a blacksmith and was from the 9th Concession of Lancaster Township.

Ruth McLeod McKendry & Jennifer McKendry, Hold Fast: the Story of William & Catherine McLeod and Their Descendants, Glengarry County (1998) 23, 29-31(with repr. of newspaper obituary, undated clipping; and portraits), 36 * St. Columba CR, 68 * Montana, Death Certificate of Hugh A. McMillan (File No. 11080) * Hugh A. McMillan in Butte city directory, 1890, 1895 (called “millwright”) * Butternuts and Maple Sugar 182: another Hugh MacMillan in Butte * Matt Kelly, Anaconda, Montana’s Copper City (1983) 12 * has for several years been building mills in Mexico, Cornwall Freeholder 22 Feb. 1889, cited DTL, Standard Freeholder 23 Feb. 1946 * reported to be at gold mines in Transvaal, South Africa, Glengarrian 22 Nov. 1889 * at Johannesburg, South Africa, Glengarry News 17 Jan. 1896 * Archibald A. McMillan: also Glengarry Times 21 Jan. 1882, Glengarrian 22 Nov. 1889