1830 - 1911

Indians, Mines & Railroads

It seems as though Milan was born to be a pioneer. He excelled at it! Even though he received a very limited education and lived his life pioneering the West during very unsettled times, yet he was able to provide for himself and family a very comfortable living. His early adulthood was spent hauling freight in wagon trains all over the West, and he also helped to rescue the saints of the Willie handcart company. Over the years, he developed a keen sense of recognizing a good business opportunity, and many of the businesses he started were highly successful with a little hard work. His freighting, railroad building, lumber industry, mining, merchandising, banking and ranching, all helped to open the West and provide jobs for those who followed. He did have his share of trials, what with fighting unfriendly indians in three different wars, being robbed by Butch Cassidy, having business setbacks and neglecting the spiritual side of his life.

Milan Packard was born in Parkman, Geauga, Ohio, near the city of Cleveland on October 7, 1830. He was the son of Noah and Sophia Bundy Packard. He spent his early years in Parkman & Kirtland, Ohio, and his teenage years in Nauvoo, Illinois, and Hazel Green, Wisconsin. He was twenty years of age when he came to Utah with his parents and settled in Springville in the central part of that state.

In the spring of 1851 in connection with his father, Milan assisted in surveying and building the first dams on Hobble Creek that drew the first water from that stream to be used for agricultural purposes in Springville. In that same year he assisted in the surveying of the Springville City Cemetery.