Thomas C. MacMillan was born in
Stranraer, Wigtownshire, Scotland, on October 4, 1850. MacMillan was a relative of US Senator
James McMillan and was the first cousin, once removed, of
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan. He came with his parents James H. and Susan (Cumming) to the
United States in 1857. He attended public schools in
Chicago, Illinois, and took a course at the
University of Chicago. For the next twenty-four years, from 1873 to 1895, MacMillan reported for the
Chicago Inter Ocean. MacMillan was elected to the
Illinois House of Representatives as a
Republican in 1884. He was a key swing vote in the
1885 Senate election of
John A. Logan. MacMillan was re-elected to another two-year term in 1886. He was then elected to the
Illinois Senate, where he served a four-year term through 1892. He was part of the committee that wrote the
Chicago Sanitary District Act of 1889 and advocated for its passage. MacMillan was also a member of the senate committee on the
World's Columbian Exposition, which authorized a $80,000 grant for the fair. In 1895, MacMillan was elected clerk of the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. ==References==