Carrboro's Separated Siamese Twins to be Re-connected!

It's a little know fact that the most famous separated siamese twins were from Carrboro, but we are proud to share the story with you, and it's heartwarming end that will be occurring in the near future. As the first to report the story, it gives us great please to share with you... The story of the Mills siamese twins.

We all have heard about Chang and Ang, the connected siamese twins of Mount Airy of North Carolina, but have you ever heard of Milly and Nelly Mills of Carrboro?

Milly and Nelly were sons of Robert and Loretta Mills, owners of a grocery store whose original residence was on what is now Weaver St(at approximately the location of Frank Cole's office, across from Phydeaux). Preceeding Chang and Ang by almost 20 years, Milly and Nelly(better know as "the separated joined twins", were successfully separated. Like Chang and Eng, they were best of friends and married a set of brothers.

Their early years and teenage years were uneventful as were their early adult years. But one stormy December day in 1841 all that was to change. As she normally did, Milly went off to Bolin Creek to catch fish for dinner as was her usually practice. She left the house and walked off to the creek.

Nelly would stay home, clean house(Nelly, Milly and their husbands all lived together) and prepare the vegetables that would be served with the fish. About 5 minutes before the sun set over the great pine tree, Nelly would sit on the bench and wait for Milly. Once Milly returned they would sit on their benches and talk for ten to fifteen minutes and then go into the house to cook the fish.

That was the usual practice, but this time Milly did not return. Nelly sat and sat and sat and waited for her beloved sister's return...but she never did. Some say she ran off to California after hearing about the Gold Rush.... others say she was dragged into the woods and eaten by a bear.... while modern theories suggest that Milly may have been one of the first humans to be kidnapped by alien visitors. The cause of her disappearance is not known, but what is know is that she disappeared without a trace and Nelly was devastated.

For the next 20 years Nelly would sit on the bench and wait for Milly to return... but she never did!

As a memorial to the most famous siamese twins of Carrboro, two sculptures were made of each of the women sitting on a bench. You may have seen them- one is on Weaver Street by Frank Cole's and the other is outside of Carr Mill Mall by Townsend, Bertram & Co.

The Milly and Nelly Mills Unification Committee has been petitioning the town for years to reunite the sisters, once and for all(each decade on the anniversary of Milly's disappearance the two are temporariliy re-united). With the vote to reunite them coming up next month, The Carrboro News has spoke with the aldermen and it looks like the "yeas" have finally got the majority.

Michael Mills, great great grandson of Milly Mills was cautiously ecstatic about the possibility of his mother and great, great, great aunt being reunited. "In some ways, the great tragedy was that they were separated in the first place. Had they remained joined, they would have never been separated for so long, but we can't worry about what might have been. I'm going to worry about what might be for the next month and then hopefully I can have my first good night's sleep in 55 years!. And my mother also will finally be able to rest in peace!"

Michael.... our wishes at The Carrboro News are with you. And thank you for sharing your heartwarming story with us so we could be the first to report it to our readers!

Carrboro Siamese Twins to be Re-United!
Nelly's(above) long wait is finally coming to an end as she will finally be reunited with Milly(right), her siamese twin after 160 years of separation!