McMillan, John

John McMillan (fl. 1822 - c. 2000) was the founder of a publishing company that existed for over 120 years. McMillan immigrated from Belfast with his family, and he established a bookselling business in Saint John in 1822. He had three sons, James, Alexander, and David. In the late 1820s, James left for the United States where he worked as a journeyman printer and operated a bookstore in Indiana. James returned to Saint John in the mid-1840s to help his brothers Alexander and David and his ailing father with the family business, which had added a bindery and a printing office while James was in the U.S. James and Alexander renamed the business J and A McMillan in 1845. James had a son, John McMillan (November 9, 1833 - May 25, 1905), who was born while James was living in Indiana. After finishing school, John returned to the United States and joined the U.S. Navy and served until at least 1854. He returned to Saint John after leaving the Navy and worked in the family business, becoming a partner in May 1866. J and A McMillan became one of the most important publishers in the Maritimes by the 1850s, with some claiming that it was the most distinguished Maritimes publishing firm of the entire 19th century. The McMillan's building burned in the Great Saint John Fire of 1877 and was rebuilt in 1878. By the 1890s, McMillan's publishing business had so greatly diminished that it practically stopped publishing and focused solely on the printing business and selling general office supplies. After John's death in 1905, his son Alexander inherited the business. Alexander ran the business until his death in 1929, at which point the senior employees of J. and A. McMillan took control of the company.