Samuel John Mills Jr. (April 12, 1783 – June 16, 1818) was an AmericanCongregationalist preacher and missionary from Connecticut. He is known for contributing to the organization of theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and to the formation of theAmerican Colonization Society in 1817. The latter was intended to establish a colony in West Africa as a destination for free American blacks.
Samuel John Mills, Jr. was born in 1783 atTorringford (now part of Torrington), Connecticut, where his father Samuel John Mills (1768–1833) was aCongregational minister; his mother Esther Robbins was a homemaker and supported the ministry.[1]
Mills attendedWilliams College inMassachusetts, where he organized a prayer group that held theHaystack prayer meeting. He enteredAndover Theological Seminary in 1810, and was licensed to preach in 1812. While one of the group that helped form theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Mills served as a missionary in theMississippi valley. It was being newly settled by European Americans in the early 19th century, beforeIndian Removal.
Mills suggested the formation of a national Bible society as part of the evangelical effort in the South. In May 1816, thirty-five different bible societies met in New York and organized theAmerican Bible Society. Mills also played a leading role in the formation of theAmerican Colonization Society in 1817, along with Dr.Robert Finley, a clergyman from New Jersey who founded the National Colonization Society and died in 1817.
He sailed from Philadelphia on November 1, 1817.[2] Following a brief stay in England, Mills sailed to the west coast ofAfrica to purchase land for the American Colonization Society.[2] He embarked for the United States on May 22 and died at sea.[2] His funeral on board was conducted byEbenezer Burgess.[2]
Mills's niece, Julia Sherman Mills (1817–1890)[3] married missionary to HawaiiSamuel C. Damon (1815–1885). Their sonSamuel Mills Damon (1841–1924) became a wealthy banker in Hawaii and was a beneficiary of the estate of PrincessBernice Pauahi Bishop for whom he was executor.[4]
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