Sketch of Longmont and Amos Millice

Civil War veteran Amos Millice (1843-1924) came to Longmont from Indiana via Missouri in 1871, during the beginning days of the Chicago Colony.   Millice married Orlenia "Orlie" Ann Barr in 1872 and they had seven children, one dying a week after birth.  Millice first homesteaded on 40 acres about two miles southeast of town and donated a corner of his property for the Pleasant View Ridge school, where his children attended class.
 
As a prominent pioneer of the community in which he helped survey the original town site, Millice was given a complimentary booklet Sketch of Longmont in 1886 by the Longmont Board of Trade.  This book, which appears to have been published to attract commerce, contains a number of early Longmont sketches of residences, businesses, churches and also speaks highly of Longmont's climate, water, agriculture, education, and quality of life.

The family of Amos Millice retained his Sketch of Longmont book as it was passed down among generations but the book became aged and tattered to the point where it had to be photocopied to be preserved.   

Arvada resident Janet (Yaeger) Boespflug who was born and raised in Longmont is the great granddaughter of Amos Millice and had the wonderful idea to restore and publish the Sketch of Longmont photocopies along with a short history of the life and times of Amos Millice, including their family tree.  Her book "A Sketch of Longmont Colorado & Pioneer Amos Millice" was published in 2012, and includes a faithful representation of the original Sketch of Longmont booklet. 

A few sketch samples from the book:

The Presbyterian College of Northen Colorado, completed in 1886.  Mostly remaining today at 546 Atwood:
 

Most of the sketches are labelled with some variant of "Mills Eng. Co Denver" but no specific artist name is given. 

The Wyman House in Italianate style, built in 1886.  You can see it today at 420 Terry; the white picket fence theme lives on.
 

420 Terry Street is shrouded by some tall blue spruces but we can still get a peek at it, with George Wyman's name on the roll call:

  

Back to the Amos Millice family, Orlie passed away in 1900 at age 52.  Her obituary is included in the book.  In his later years, Millice moved into town at 823 Collyer in 1918 to live with his daughter, Dora. The house was built in 1905 and is described in it's City of Longmont historic profile as "classic cottage" style.  Note that the city description propagates an error from the "They Came To Stay" book where Millice is listed as living until 1927.  

823 Collyer today:

The book has a good picture of Amos sitting on these very front porch steps and it shows no neighboring houses at that time. 

 

You can find this book at the Longmont Library, 978.863 LON in the NEW section.  About 50 pages.