Daguerreotype of Annette Tilden Mills and Son

Isaac Mills, who was the grandson of co-founder of Sandusky, Isaac L. Mills, married Annette Tilden in 1855. Annette was the daughter of Dr. Daniel Tilden, a pioneer physician in Sandusky. Pictured below is a daguerreotype of Annette Tilden Mills with her youngest son, Alan Phelps Mills.

Isaac and Annette Tilden Mills had four children, all who died young. Daniel Tilden Mills and Isaac Augustus Mills both died in 1859, and were under the age of 3. The two youngest Mills children died of diphtheria within days of each other. Annette Tilden Mills, whom the family called Annie, died at age 6 on October 31, 1869. Alan Phelps Mills died on November 7, 1869 at the age of 9. A tribute to Alan and Annie Mills was featured in the November 9, 1869 issue of the Sandusky Register:

Two very interesting children, son and daughter of Isaac Mills, have died within the past week of diphtheria. The parents, left childless, have the sympathy of the entire community, but of what avail. These “treasures in earthen vessels” have left their clay tenement, and gone to that “brighter world” to draw the long and loved ones upward.

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Mills and all of their four children are buried at Oakland Cemetery in the Tilden family lot.