Following is one of the Biographies and Stories which where gathered by Charles Sumner McKamy in the 1950s for publication in a Crawford County History Book. Unfortunately he passed away before the book was published.
Alice Sponsler Mills, daughter of William and Sarah L. Sponsler, born July 19, 1881. They lived in a beautiful log home, erected by the first settlers whom entered this farm from the Government. A small number of people are buried in a small cemetery on this farm, before other regular cemeteries were located in this community. A Baptist minister was buried in the small cemetery.
I helped my father in all the work in putting out and harvesting crops on the farm, being the eldest daughter. I attended school at the Brown Grade School and graduated in it at the age of 16 but continued there two more years until I was enrolled at Austin College in Effingham, Ill., where I graduated from receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1902. Then I returned to help my parents on the farm for some years.
I was married to Bosworth Mills and they lived on a farm north of Duncanville, then they moved to a farm west of Palestine where they lived for several years, then moved to Robinson, Ill. in 1914 where Mr. Mills entered a partnership with Mr. George Newbold in the Hardware Store. We sold this business and bought the Funeral Business of Ray Ridgeway and his father, then located in the Annex of the Woodworth Hotel building, Ray entering the service of World War I. They came one of the leading Funeral Directors in Crawford County. I conducted a Flower Shop, along with assisting in the funeral work for 20 years. They then purchased the home built by Cliff Brubaker on the corner south of the First Methodist Church and used it for a Funeral Home.
Mr. Mills passed away on account of a heart attack while assisting a neighbor Funeral Director with a body in 1947.
I was a member of the Beckwith Presbyterian Church from childhood, and where I was organist for 15 years. After moving to Robinson we were both faithful workers in the First Presbyterian Church of Robinson.