Ogden L. Mills - Biography

Biography

The son of Ogden Mills and Ruth T. Livingston, he had twin sisters Beatrice Mills and Gladys Livingston Mills, and was the grandson of Darius O. Mills, who bequeathed to his son a fortune in excess of $40 million amassed in banking, railroad and mining ventures on the Pacific Coast. Ogden L. Mills was born in Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated Harvard University in 1904 and Harvard Law School in 1907. He became a lawyer in New York in 1908.

Mills married Margaret Rutherfurd, step daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt, in France in 1911. They divorced in May, 1920. She would subsequently marry and divorce Sir Paul Dukes (1922–1929), Prince Charles Michael Joachim Napoleon Murat (1929–1939), and F.L. Sprague in 1939, before remarrying Prince Charles in 1945.

Ogden L. Mills was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1912, 1916, and 1920.

He served in the New York Senate from 1914 until 1917, when he resigned to enlist in the United States Army, and served with the rank of captain until the close of the First World War.

He was president of the New York State Tax Association and a businessman until he was elected as a Republican to the 67th, 68th and 69th United States Congresses from New York's 17th District, serving from 1921 to 1927. On September 3, 1924, he married his second wife, Mrs. Dorothy Randolph Fell, divorced first wife of the banker John R. Fell.

In 1926, he ran on the Republican ticket for Governor of New York, but was defeated by the incumbent Democrat Al Smith.

He was appointed Undersecretary of the Treasury by President Calvin Coolidge, serving under Secretary Andrew W. Mellon. In this capacity he served from 1927 until 1932 when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Herbert Hoover following Mellon's resignation to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Mills served until March 3, 1933.

After leaving the Treasury Department, Mills was highly critical of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies. He continued to be active in business, and published his views in two books, What of Tomorrow in 1935 and The Seventeen Million in 1937. The latter was his attempt to provide guidance for those who voted against the New Deal in 1936.

He was a director of some large corporations, like the Lackawanna Steel Company, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Mergenthaler Linotype Company and Shredded Wheat Company.

While in New York, Mills was also an active member of the New York Civitan Club.

Mills died in New York City and is interred in St. James Churchyard, Hyde Park, New York.

On October 16, 2011 a short film loosely based on the life of Ogden L. Mills entitled 'Ogden' was released.