Milan Tripp was born in Dodge County, Wisconsin, January 18, 1848, the second of five children born to Daniel and Jane Ann (Tubbs) Tripp. His parents were both born in New York State, and married July 28, 1844, in Vernon, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Milan had two brothers and two sisters: Celestia, Edgar, Charles and Jessie, all born in Wisconsin.

The family moved several times when Milan was a child, first living in Dodge and Marquette Counties in Wisconsin. By the mid 1850's the family had moved to Minnesota where they lived at Iosco in Waseca County for a time. By 1860 they had moved back into Wisconsin, settling for a number of years at Spring Brook, Dunn County. By 1875, Daniel and Jane and three of their children had again moved to Minnesota, residing in the town of Beaver Falls, Renville County. They later moved to Stowe Prairie in Todd County, where Daniel Tripp died in 1886 at the age of 67 years; Jane Ann died in 1897 at the age of 70.

During the Civil War, Milan joined the 17th Wisconsin Infantry on October 28, 1864 at Milwaukee. He was attached to Company H, 15th Connecticut Infantry and was captured March 8, 1865, at Southwest Creek, near Kinston, North Carolina, being confined at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, on March 23, 1865, and was paroled three days later. He was mustered out June 5, 1865. Milan Tripp was a recipient of a pension as a result of the war.

After the war, Milan returned to Dunn County, Wisconsin, and after 1870 moved west to Montana, where he was engaged in various frontier activities. During the Nez Perce Campaign of 1877 he was hired as an Army scout and was present at the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain. The only man to be killed after the first day's heavy casualties was Chief Looking Glass, the noted Nez Perce chief, who was shot in the head by Tripp. Later, he lived in Custer County, Montana, where he was employed as a buffalo hunter.

Milan returned to Renville County, Minnesota, by the mid 1880's, where he was married to Mary Moudry April 2, 1887, in Beaver Falls Township. Mary Moudry was born in Bohemia on June 16, 1864, a daughter of John and Mary (Rajiek) Moudry, immigrants from Bohemia who first settled at Bird Island, then at Henryville Township in Renville County in the early 1880's. John Moudry died in Henryville August 20, 1898, at the age of 62 years; his wife died there September 12, 1916, at the age of 72. Milan and Mary Tripp were the parents of eleven children, eight daughters and three sons. The first born, an unnamed son, died at the age of 16 days in Birch Cooley, Renville County. Two daughters, Jessie and Bertha, were born before Milan and Mary moved to Hubbard County, Minnesota. Anna Laurie, Effie, Ward Homer, Ruth Alverta, Viola, Mary Marie, Oliver Milan and Irene Betty were born in Badoura Township, where the family farmed on their one hundred and thirty-five acre homestead. Milan hunted deer, and caught fish in Tripp Lake to supplement the family meat supply from farm animals.

In late 1920, Milan offered at public auction his horses, cattle, hogs, machinery and household goods, and in 1921 Milan and Mary moved to California with most of their children, where they settled near Long Beach. After a few years, Milan and Mary moved back to Minnesota to live close to two daughters, Anna and Bertha, who had not gone to California with them. Mary died January 18, 1927, at Cloquet in Carlton County. After her death, Milan returned to Long Beach, where he died March 25, 1930, at the age of 82 years. Milan and Mary (Moudry) Tripp are buried in Lemon Cemetery, Badoura Township, Minnesota. All of their children, with the exception of Viola, who died in Badoura in early 1920, and Anna, who remained in Minnesota, lived for many years after Milan's death in the Long Beach area, being a very close knit family.

Note: Although Milan's headstone shows his year of birth as 1846, he was not born until 1848.