Milan Emmons was born on January 19, 1844, in Lorain County, Ohio, to William Emmons and Betsey Fuller. His father was a farmer who owned $1,800 of real estate by 1850, and he died sometime in the 1850s. Emmons grew up and attended school in Columbia, Ohio, and by 1860, he was working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on November 7, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 67^th Ohio Infantry on December 31. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the siege of Charleston, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He was wounded in the right army on May 20, 1864, during the Bermuda Hundred campaign, and he spent the next four months recovering. He was promoted to corporal on May 15, 1862, and then to sergeant on May 10, 1864. He mustered out on September 1, 1865.

 

Emmons settled in Elsie, Michigan, after the war, and he married Jane Lewis on July 4, 1867. They had at least two children: Everett, born around 1870; and Harley, born around 1876. They lived in Duplain, Michigan, and he worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $2,000 of real estate and $277 of personal property. He helped care for his aging mother until at least 1880. He applied for a federal pension in March 1884 and eventually secured one. By 1930, he was living in Elsie, and he owned a house valued at $3,000. He died of pneumonia in Elsie on February 19, 1931.  

SOURCES