MILTON J. COCHRAN, who makes his home on section 20, Troy
Township, is a native of Ohio, born in Allen County, September 28, 1828. His
father, Benjamin F. Cochran, was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, now deceased.
He was a pioneer of Allen County, Ohio, his family being the fifth to settle in
that county. He was a millwright by trade, and built the old Indian Mill at
Wapakoneta, Ohio. Milton J. Cochran, our subject, was reared and educated in
the common schools of his native county, remaining there till 1856. He was united in marriage April 3, 1851, to
Miss Christena Ellsworth, and of the six children born to this union five are
still living – Isaac V., Bascom E., Santford W., Pascal E. and Mary C. A son,
John W., died at the age of thirteen years. Mr. Cochran went to Knox County,
Illinois, in 1856, remaining there till 1876, when he settled in Troy Township,
in Clarke County, Iowa, where he has since made his home. During the late war of the Rebellion he
enlisted in the service of his country in Company I, Eighty-third Illinois
Infantry, and during his term of service did much skirmishing. In politics Mr.
Cochran casts his suffrage with the Republican party. He is a member of the Grand Army of the
Republic.
SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke
County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 297
