Young Mills made his way in Millbrae

In 1849, all of the newspapers on the East Coast were shouting about the Gold Rush in California and he wanted to be a part of it. Young Mills had been working in a bank for his cousin and was extremely impressed by the amount of money that could be made from the Gold Rush. Mills had a great deal of self esteem and confidence that had grown rapidly from the age of 22 when he went to work at the bank managing money and making investments for other people. He knew he was wasting his time there and wanted to make a lot of money, so he struck out for California.

Traveling across Panama, he hopped a boat to San Francisco and became a part of the Gold Rush. He left the bustling city of San Francisco and settled in Sacramento, where thousands of miners were traveling through to pluck gold out of the river in the gold fields. In 1849 he founded the Bank of D.O. Mills & Co. in Sacramento, and he soon opened a branch in the booming gold town of Columbia.

A keen businessmen, by the 1860s he was wealthy enough to live the life he had dreamed of, which in California meant a country estate. Mills began amassing one of the largest estates on the Peninsula.

Mills first purchased most of José de la Cruz’s original inheritance of the Rancho Buri Buri. Later he and his brother-in-law, Ansel Ives Easton, acquired almost all the land north of the present day Millwood Drive (by Capuchino High School) in Millbrae to Sneath Lane in San Bruno, west from El Camino Real to Skyline Boulevard. He also obtained much of the marshland east of El Camino Real, including the land on which San Francisco International Airport (originally Mills’ Field) presently stands. Mills’ acreage did not lie fallow; he and San Bruno partner Alfred Green developed a dairy on part of this land, across from the present Peninsula Hospital. Green built his home in the area and ran the dairy operation for Mills. Green’s home still stands at 1 Lewis Ave. in Millbrae.

In 1854, Mills married Jane Templeton Cunningham of New York. Their son, Ogden, married Margaret Livingston. Mills’ grandson, Ogden Livingston Mills (1884-1937), was the Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Herbert Hoover. Mills’ daughter, Elizabeth, married Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune and ambassador to Great Britain in the early 1900s.

Following his move to Millbrae, Mills continued his financial career. He was president of the Bank of California until 1867, returning in 1878 following his successor’s nearly disastrous tenure. In 1868, Mills became a regent and treasurer of the University of California, positions he maintained until 1880. He moved back to New York in 1890, but returned to his "Happy House” in Millbrae in the wintertime. He died in residence in Millbrae on Jan. 3, 1910.

Mills’ sister, Adeline, married Ansel Ives Easton, with whom Mills purchased the northern part of the Mills Estate. They had two children, Ansel and Jenny. Ansel Mills Easton (1865-1941) married the daughter of William J. Adams, pioneer lumberman and San Francisco cable car entrepreneur. Jenny Easton married Colonel Charles Frederick Crocker.

Following the death of Mills, the family continued to visit the Millbrae home, as indicated by a 1938 item in the Millbrae Sun, which notes that members of the Mills family were in residence at the estate for their annual spring visit. The dairy that they had built to the east of the present hospital continued to operate and the house was staffed with personnel to maintain their home and grounds. In the 1930s Robert, Richard, and Gordon Silva, descendants of Custodio Silva, from San Bruno and Lomita Park, operated a horse riding academy and horse stables on the dairy property. There was a tunnel underneath El Camino Real that the horses had used, and this gave access to the miles of riding trails to the west of El Camino Real. It was a well-patronized business for horse lovers. In 1937, the Millbrae dairy consolidated with the Borden Milk Company and in 1942, dairyman Frank Zwissig leased the dairy. The dairy ceased operations in mid-1930s and was demolished to make way for commercial offices in the early 1950s.