Catherine Blosser visited the Kelley House in late March [of 2012] bringing with her a wonderful collection of original photographs, letters, and the family Bible of her great grandparents, James and Lizzie Milliken, all of which she donated to the Kelley House. The Millikens were part of the early migration of easterners to this region. Daniel Brewer Milliken came to Mendocino from Maine in 1857, having heard of California’s opportunities for riches. He became one of the earliest and most successful logging contractors for the Mendocino Mill. A relative of his, Horace F. Milliken, was next to arrive, in 1874. Horace worked as a logger for six years before moving to Fort Bragg and opening a hardware store on Main Street. Not long after, he wrote to his older brother, James, telling him that Mendocino was in need of a good doctor.

Lizzie Milliken with her five daughters around 1920. L to R: Beth Milliken Chambers, Faith Milliken Henderson, Inez Milliken Philbrick, Lizzie, Eva Milliken Rice, and Sadie Milliken Blosser. (Gift of Catherine G. Blosser, Sadie Milliken Blosser Collection)
James Milliken came from Surrey, Maine in 1882 to check out the lay of the land. He was followed shortly thereafter by his wife Elizabeth Farrington Milliken, and their two children, Alden and Eva. They sailed down the East Coast, went overland across the Isthmus of Panama, sailed up the West Coast to San Francisco, and traveled on to Mendocino by stagecoach. James set up his practice in Mendocino and lived in “the doctor’s house” (McCornack House [most recently Didjeridoo Dreamtime Inn]) on the east end of Main Street. Four more children—Inez, Sadie, Elizabeth (Beth), and Faith—were all born there.
The good doctor was said to be generous, kind, considerate and thoughtful to the last degree. No sacrifice was too great if it would bring joy or comfort to his patients. His daughter, Inez Milliken Philbrick, described her father as a “visionary who loved music, poetry, spiritual things, who never kept books on his medical practice, and let people pay him whenever they felt like it, in eggs, potatoes, beans or whatever they raised in their gardens.” [He was also a great lover of cookies, as noted in the December 7, 2023 Kelley House Calendar: “The recipe for ‘Dr. Milliken’s Favorite Molasses Cookies’ was featured in a Mendocino Presbyterian Church cookbook dating from the early 1900s.”]
By contrast, his wife Lizzie had been raised in a Spartan atmosphere in Holden, Maine, where “every penny was counted and made to carry as far as it could.” It must have been trying for Lizzie when her husband took food from the pantry to give to other families in hard times. But there was time for play as evidenced by the lines in a poem James Milliken composed in 1886.
My wife, my wife, she’s the joy of my life.
She makes night and day far from lonely.
O’er pansies there’s words, o’er children there’s strife.
She’s good and she’s great but she’s homely.
Sadie Milliken graduated from San Jose State Normal School [teachers’ college] in 1908 with another Mendocino local named Nannie Flood [Escola]. She then matriculated at the University of California, Berkeley, and became a teacher. In 1914, she married a mechanical engineer named Roy Blosser and they settled in Alameda. They had two children, John and Dorothy. Her granddaughter, Catherine, the source of all the Milliken material, lives in Oregon.
In May, 1909, James died at the age of 57 from heart disease. His wife and six children survived him. Lizzie lived to be almost 90, in her later years with her daughter, Sadie, in Alameda. James and Elizabeth Milliken are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Mendocino.
— Excerpted and annotated from the “Kelley House Newsletter,” Summer, 2012.
The Kelley House Museum is open from 11AM to 3PM Friday through Sunday. Come by to see our current exhibit on the Northern Pomo. Walking Tours of Mendocino are available throughout the week; the cost is $25. Visit the Kelley House Event Calendar for a Walking Tour schedule.