J. A. Milligan, M. D., a prominent physician of Garnett, is a native of Indiana. He was born in Jackson county, January 20, 1858, and is a son of A. C. and Margaret (Stillwell) Milligan, the former a native of Ireland, who was brought to this country by his parents when a child, and the latter a native of Kentucky and a descendant of an old Southern family. The Milligan family removed from Jackson county to Greencastle in 1868, where the father died in 1872, and the mother died at Garnett at the ripe old age of eighty-three. They were the parents of seven children: Thomas F. Springfield, Colo.; Charles, deceased; William McK., Fayetteville, Ark.; George, Garden City, Kans.; J. A., the subject of this sketch; A. M., who resides in Colorado, and Etta, died in 1891, aged twenty-one years. Dr. Milligan received his education in the public schools of Greencastle, Ind., and DePauw University in Greencastle. He then engaged in teaching in Indiana for three years, and during that time also studied medicine. He then entered the Central College of Physicians, Indianapolis, Ind., where he was graduated in the class of 1883, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then practiced his profession one year at Lena, Clay county, Indiana, and in 1884, came to Kansas, and the following year engaged in the practice at Greensburg, Kiowa county. He remained there ten years, and in 1895, came to Garnett where he has since been successfully engaged in the practice of medicine. Dr. Milligan is a Republican, and since coming to Kansas has taken an active part in politics. In 1906, he was elected Representative to the State legislature from Anderson county, serving in the regular sesion[sic] and the extra session which followed. During that term he was a prominent factor in the legislation which was enacted, and served as chairman of the committee on Hygiene and Public Health. The Kansas Pure Food Law now on the statute books was framed when he was chairman of that committee and passed at that session. In 1908, he was elected to the State Senate from the district composing Anderson and Linn counties, and served four years. He was chairman of the committees on Hygiene and Temperance, and much important legislation was worked out through these committees during his term in the Senate. In the session of 1909, the Hotel Inspection Bill was passed, and a bill providing for the compulsory reporting of tuberculosis cases to the State Board of Health, and an appropriation of $20,000.00 was made for a State wide educational campaign against Turberculosis. During that session, Dr. Milligan was instrumental in getting an act passed, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, without exception or reservation. During the session of 1911, he was chairman of the same committees, and succeeded in working through this session, a State appropriation of $50,000.00 for the erection of a State Tuberculosis sanitarium, which is now located at Norton. His efforts while a member of both the house and senate, in behalf of laws for the benefit of public health, is worthy of the highest commendation. His efforts were unceasing, until he had made it possible for the establishment of the above mentioned sanitarium at Norton. He had given the sanitarium method of treating tuberculosis patients special study for a long time before he became a member of the legislature, and from the time he was elected to the lower house, until the appropriation bill was passed, he directed his best energies to the establishment of that institution. On June 14, 1914, Dr. Milligan was present with a number of State officers, including the governor, at the dedication of the sanitarium. The bill creating the institution, provided for an advisory committee of five physicians for this institution, to be appointed by the governor and since the creation of that committee, Dr. Milligan has been its president. He is a close student of the science of medicine and keeps fully abreast of the rapid progress made in his profession. He has taken two post-graduate courses at the Chicago Polyclinic and also a special course in the post-graduate school of medicine of New York. Dr. Milligan was married June 1, 1887, at Greensburg, Ind., to Miss Josie Parkison, of Rensselaer, Ind., and they have one child: Henry V., a graduate of the Garnett High School and the State Agricultural College of Manhattan, and now has charge of his father's farm, which consists of six hundred and forty acres, located two miles south of Garnett. They carry on an extensive dairying business, and are also extensive stock raisers. The Milligan farm is one of the finest to be found in Anderson county. While a resident of Kiowa county, Dr. Milligan was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee and served as mayor of Greensburg one term. He has been local surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad company for twenty-five years, and is a member of the Santa Fe Railroad Surgeon Association, The County, State and American Medical Associations, and holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of Pythias.