A. L. McMillan was fourteen years old when his parents moved to Missouri, and was eighteen when he came to Kansas. He gained his education in DeKalb County, Missouri, and up to the age of twenty-three helped his father on the homestead. He had an ambition to become a printer and learned that art in the office of the Sterling Gazette, where he worked steadily a year and a half. When the proprietor of the Gazette, E. B. Cowgill, became sugar inspector for the State of Kansas Mr. McMillan was given the responsibilities of editor and manager of the Gazette and held that post until 1889. In that year he removed to Lyons, Kansas, and was elected register of deeds of Rice County, being re-elected in 1891 and serving four years. He also held the office of deputy register of deeds four years, and in the meantime was engaged in the real estate business in Lyons until 1900, when he sold his interests there and returned to Stafford. He was connected with the Stafford County Republican for a year and then bought and edited that paper for three years. In 1903 he was appointed postmaster of Stafford, and filled that office until the summer of 1907, which he spent with his family in Colorado, and on returning to Stafford he managed the Courier three years, and then resumed the real estate business until 1914. Since that year his home has been in Macksville, where he bought the Macksville Enterprise.
The Macksville Enterprise is the continuation of a paper established in 1900, but its independent existence dates from about 1904. It is independent in politics and has a circulation in Stafford, Pawnee, Edwards, and Pratt counties. Mr. McMillan owns the building, the well equipped plant, situated on Main Street, and among other business affairs is secretary of the Macksville Telephone Company. He is an independent voter, is a former member of the Knights of Pythias and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
July 24, 1902, at Stafford, he married Miss Bertha Shaw, daughter of William and Josephine (Dennison) Shaw, both now deceased. Her father was a railroad car inspector and was accidentally killed while on duty. Mr. and Mrs. McMillan have two daughters, Maxine Helen, born May 9, 1903, now a junior in the Macksville High School; and Josephine Virginia, born November 26, 1908, a pupil in the Macksville schools.
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Pages 2412-2413.
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Transcribed from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. [Revised ed.] Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1919, c1918. 5 v. (xlviii, 2530 p., [155] leaves of plates): ill., maps (some fold.), ports.; 27 cm.