Dr. H.H. Milling

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some stories start with a father and a son and a set of ideas that most folks hadn't heard of yet. This one's no different.

Hugh Hartwell Milling came into the world in Georgia in 1894, and his father, Roscoe G. Milling, was not your ordinary country doctor. Roscoe practiced what the marker calls several areas of experimental medicine, and he made sure his boy learned every bit of it.

Magnetic treatment. The Milling method of masseuring. Whatever you think of those methods, Roscoe believed in them enough to pass them down, and Hugh believed in them enough to build a career on them.

That right there tells you something about the Milling family. They were committed. In 1916, Hugh married Lillian Abell, and the very next year the couple packed up and moved to Mineral Wells.

Hugh purchased an existing sanitarium and got to work. The practice thrived. And when a practice thrives, a man starts thinkin' bigger.

So he built a larger facility. And then, in 1929, he built a final one, right at what is now the intersection of Southeast 23rd Street and Millsap Road. Three facilities, each one bigger than the last.

Then, in 1933, Milling did something that tells you the rest of what you need to know about him. He donated property for a park, and that park was named in his honor. It was later called Pollard Park, but for a time, it carried his name.

He gave something back to the town that had made him. In 1948, Hugh sold his sanitarium to a Dr. C.W.

Irvine and moved his practice to Grand Prairie. A Georgia boy who trained under his father, built three facilities in Mineral Wells, gave a park to his community, and then simply moved on when he was ready. Hugh Hartwell Milling lived until 1984.

Not a bad run for a man who started with magnetic treatment and a family method of masseuring.

What the marker says

Georgia native Hugh Hartwell Milliing (1894-1984) was the son of Roscoe G. Milling, who practiced several areas of experimental medicine. He trained his son in these methods, which included magnetic treatment and the "Milling method of masseuring." The younger Milling married Lillian Abell in 1916 and the couple moved to Mineral Wells the following year, where he purchased an existing sanitarium and began a thriving practice. He soon built a larger facility, and in 1929 constructed a final one at what is now the intersection of S.E. 23rd St. and Millsap Rd. In 1933 Milling donated property for a park named in his honor (later Pollard Park). In 1948 he sold his sanitarium to Dr. C.W. Irvine and moved his practice to Grand Prairie.