Excerpt from City of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois, Vol. 2: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement Very early in his business career Mr. Millikin came to recognize oppor tunities that others passed heedlessly by. He saw that land must naturally rise rapidly in value as the state became thickly settled, and anticipating this increase in property valuation, he made extensive and judicious investments in Illinois and southwestern Iowa, securing much of his land for a dollar or a dollar and a quarter per acre. He was the original owner of the tract upon which the town of Bement, Illinois, now stands, and by purchase there came into his possession many acres of broad prairie upon which no improvements had been made, but which in due course of time commanded a high market price. Decatur, too, showed the usual signs of growth and development, and in fact seemed imbued with a spirit of enterprise and progress that promised well for the future. Accordingly Mr. Millikin turned his attention to this city, of which he became a resident in 1856, remaining here until his death, which oc curred fifty-three years later.

He did not change his occupation with his resi dence, however, but continued to deal in lands, city real estate and livestock, thus becoming recognized as one of the prosperous and enterprising men of Decatur. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.