THE BROTHERS MCMILLIN AND THEIR STAR PUPIL By Mark Dudney Herald•Citizen, Cookeville, TN: Sunday, 8 April 2012, pg. C•4 ‘Cumberland Tales’ Cordell Hull is the most accomplished statesman the Upper Cumberland region has yet produced. The longest•tenured Secretary of State in American history, he was a Democratic Congressman, United States Senator, chief architect of the United nations and 1945 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. But long before he walked the world stage as a diplomat and international peace advocate, Hull was an eager young student in Clay County, Tennessee. Like many ambitious people, he was adept at finding mentors for his improvement. In post•Civil War Celina, he needed look no further than the distinguished McMillin family. The McMillins hailed from Monroe County, Kentucky, and settled in Clay County before the Civil War. John Halsell McMillin, a successful planter, and his wife, Elizabeth Black McMillin, raised a family of eight children. Their two oldest sons fought for the Confederacy during the war. Their three younger sons would have a profound impact on the education of young Cordell Hull: Joseph Simon McMillin, Benton McMillin and John Halsell McMillin, Jr. William Hull, Cordell Hull’s father, had recently moved his family to the Willow Grove community in Clay County. Determined that Cordell should receive the best education available, he sent his son to the Montvale Academy in Celina. Joseph McMillin was the principal educator at Montvale. A graduate of the Philomath Academy and Burritt College, McMillin was a scholar and inspirational teacher to his young charges. Montvale offered practical courses like surveying alongside a traditional classical curriculum of mathematics, Latin, Greek rhetoric, history, science and literature. Mc Millin was a master of elocution and organized a debating society for his students to discourse different topics, drawn mostly from historical questions. These forensic exercises required the students to research the successes and failures of figures from antiquity to prepare their arguments. Joseph’s brother, Benton, had practiced law in Celina with their brother John and was representing the Upper Cumberland region in the old Fourth Congressional District. This association gave the young teacher insight on the workings of government, which he liberally shared with his students. Hull later recalled that Joseph McMillin possessed qualities of leadership that he and the other students admired that no students ever made more progress in a five•month term than they did under him, and that his teacher was one of the chief inspirations of his early life. Through his time with McMillin was brief, Hull experienced an intellectual awakening at Montvale Academy, cultivated by his gifted teacher. Hull’s admiration for his teacher must have been mutual, for Joseph McMillin would later introduce his star pupil to his distinguished brothers for political and legal training. Hull learned retail politics from Congressman Benton McMillin. When McMillin came though Celina for one of his fall reelection campaigns, Hull mounted a campaign of his own. He had saved enough money to rent a team of horses and a buggy from a Celina livery, in order to drive his congressman around the almost impassable sections of the district. Hull drove McMillin for seven days, asking him questions and watching him on the stump. He admired McMillin’s intellect, his command of facts and his campaigning ability. Known as the “Democratic War Horse,” McMillin was always in demand for national campaigns and the Democratic Party sent him all over the country to make speeches. He represented the Fourth District in Congress for nearly 20 years, served two terms as Tennessee’s governor and later became a diplomat in Woodrow Wilson’s administration. Hull fondly remembered, “I learned many of my political lessons then and later at Benton McMillin’s feet.” Despite conditions in the Upper Cumberland after the war, the legal profession continued to draw many of the best and brightest minds in the region. Hull resolved to pursue a legal career as a boy, after watching circuit court sessions in Byrdstown and Celina. During the fall of 1887, he read law in the office of Celina attorney John H. McMillin, Jr. Hull described his legal mentor as “a brilliant lawyer who took the liveliest interest in public affairs.” McMillin’s office served as the unofficial meeting place for Clay County’s Democratic Party activists. Hull recalled, “I became acquainted with them and gathered much information and stimulus toward public affairs.” He returned to McMillin’s office to read law during the fall of 1890, as he continued to grow politically active. Hull would later attend a 10•month law course at Cumberland University, which constituted his only formal legal education. Undoubtedly Hull’s apprenticeship with McMillin prepared him well both for Cumberland and for law practice. The McMillin brothers clearly played an important role in mentoring young Cordell Hull. From his inspirational teacher Joseph McMillin, Hull obtained the rudiments of a classical education, demonstrating attributes of what Quintillian called a “Citizen Orator,” or a “good man speaking well.” Reading law with John McMillin afforded him an excellent apprenticeship opportunity for his legal career. Hull would become one of the youngest judges in Tennessee history when, at 32, he was appointed Circuit Judge of the Fifth Judicial District. Hull would follow Benton McMillin’s example and honorably represent the Upper Cumberland for more than 20 years, serving as Congressman from Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District. When writing his memoirs toward the end of his life, Hull wrote with warmth and respect for them, acknowledging the debt he owed the brothers McMillin. *Mark Dudney is the author of “Sons of the Cumberland: The Early Years of Cordell Hull and John Jordan Gore.” “Cumberland Tales,” created by Calvin Dickinson and Michael Birdwell and sponsored by the Cookeville History Museum, welcomes any tale of this region’s history. For more information, contact Calvin Dickinson [email protected] or Michael Birdwell at [email protected]. *Read more Cumberland Tales at: http://www.ajlambert.com.