The Miller Family

Isaac Miller in Commemorative Biographical Record of Sandusky County, Ohio

The full biographical sketch as printed, transcribed from the public-domain book. Spelling and wording are the original author’s; a few scanning errors may remain.

ISAAC MILLER. In writing sketches of the pioneer farmers of the Black Swamp it has been the usual custom

to select those who have made a financial success in life, and who have lived to reap the rewards of their toil in rich farms, fine residences and large bank accounts. Yet it is not always the bravest soldiers who survive a battle and return to tell of the victory won. In the battles of life many brave boys must fall through no fault of their own; so also it is a well-known fact that many honest, hard-working, persevering, intelligent pio- neers, after an heroic struggle against ad- verse circumstances, were obliged to give up their farms, abandon their plans for the acquisition of wealth, and in poverty and comparative obscurity seek the higher and nobler consolations of Christianity. As a man of noble character and kind disposition, one who was universally es- teemed, who bore the reverses of fortune with manly fortitude, and tried by pre- cept and example to make the world bet- ter for his having lived in it, we give place to the subject of this sketch.

Isaac Miller, farmer and carpenter, was born in Schuylkill county, Penn., April 1 6, 1806, son of Jacob and Mar- garet (Moser) Miller. His paternal grand-

father, John Miller, who was an English- man, married a Miss Bauman, and their children were Jacob, Christian, Henry, Mrs. J. Shafer and Mrs. Cramer. His maternal grandfather was Michael Moser, a Welshman, who married Miss Catha- rine Wiseman (born on the Atlantic Ocean), and their children were Michael, Isaac, George, Margaret, Daniel and Mrs. Hepner. The children of Jacob Miller, father of our subject, were Sam- uel, Michael, William, Isaac, Reuben, Jacob, Rebecca and Charles. Our sub- ject grew to manhood on a farm near Orwigsburg, Penn., where he obtained a very limited common-school education and learned the trade of a carpenter. On August 7, 1827, he married Miss Mary, daughter of Abraham and Mary (Faust) Seltzer, of the same neighborhood, and in the spring of 1828 removed to Dela- ware county, Ohio. Here two children were born to them, Abraham F. and Reuben A., the first of whom died in childhood. In the spring of 1830 they removed to Sandusky county, Ohio, and settled in the wilds of Jackson township, on Wolf creek, nearthesite of Bettsville. Here was born their eldest daughter, Re- becca M., now wife of Jacob Burgner. In 1832 the family removed to Scott township, and settled on an eighty-acre tract of land since owned by John Hum- mel. This was on the edge of what was then known as Mud Creek Prairie, near the present site of Miliersville. Here they lived and toiled about ten years, trying to clear up a home, drain the prai- rie and carry on farming, laboring under very adverse circumstances. Bad roads, poor crops, sickness from fever and ague, and doctor's bills were constant draw- backs. Here the family was increased by the birth of WeslejJ., Susannah, Amelia, Hannah and Sarah, of whom only the first and the last two named grew to ma- turity. Their log-cabin home was often visited by the pioneer preachers of the United Brethren, Methodist and Albright

denominations, and was for some time used as a place of worship.

In his anxiety to remove the stagnant water from the prairie, Mr. Miller allowed his zeal to get the better of his judgment. With commendable enterprise and public spirit he got the promises of his neighbors to aid him in the construction of a seven- mile ditch to drain Mud Creek prairie; but when the job was completed and the June freshets came it was found that their engineering was at fault and the ditch did not answer its purpose. The crops of corn were all drowned out as before, and some of the neighbors refused to pay their shares of the cost of the ditch. The debt now fell so heavily on Mr. Miller that he was obliged to lose his farm. In the spring of 1842 he bought eighty acres of partl\-improved land in York town- ship of George Donaldson, for which he again went in debt. Here by dint of hard work he succeeded in clearing land and raising a crop of wheat the second year. The price of wheat was then 50 cents a bushel at Sandusk)' City, his best market; and so an.xious was he to make a payment on his farm that in the fall of 1843 he hauled his wheat twenty miles to that market for that price; if he had waited till the following spring he could have had $1.50 per bushel. But other misfortunes were in store for him. In the log-cabin home on this farm was born his youngest daughter, Minerva, now wife of Mr. Henry Hitchcock, a farmer in Nebraska, and a few months later Mrs. Miller died — from illness contracted by watching at the bedside of the wife of a neighbor, A. Dixon — leaving him with five children. His eldest daughter then kept house for him. When Mrs. Dixon recovered she took Mr. Miller's youngest daughter to raise, as she had no children of her own. Failing to receive the finan- cial aid from a Pennsylvania friend which had been promised, and which was his due, Mr. Miller was again obliged to sell his home. He next bought a house and

lot at Flat Rock, Seneca county, where he tried to keep his children together and send them to school, while he worked at his trade as carpenter or shingle-maker. In 1850 his sons Reuben and Wesley en- gaged in the lumber business in Tuscola county, Mich. A year later Mr. Miller joined them, and for a number of years conducted a sawmill at the village of Tus- cola, to which his sons rafted the logs cut each winter in the pine forests above on the Cass river. He also kept a board- ing-house for the mill-hands, being as- sisted by his daughters. After a few 3'ears of flourishing business Mr. Miller's partner in the sawmill, who also kept a general supply store, failed, and Miller's property was taken by his partner's New York creditors. Such was the law. In 1852 Mr. Miller married Mrs. Hannah Griswold, of Tuscola, and soon after re- tired from the lumber industry to live on her farm near by. This was a welcome home for both their children (Mrs. Miller also having children by her former hus- band) for several years, a sort of lumber- men's headquarters. Mrs. Miller died in 1873. Mr. Miller remained to manage the farm about two years, then relin- quished his life lease and retired from business altogether. In 1 876 he attended the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- phia, and spent several months visiting among friends in Pennsylvania. In 1877 he lived for a season at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. Burgner, near Fremont, Ohio, and afterward lived in the family of Mr. John Rinebolt, in Jackson township. In the spring of 1882 he took up his per- manent residence at the home of his daughter Hannah, wife of Morgan Ster- ner, at Bristol, Ind. , where he died Sep- tember 3, 1885, and was buried in the village cemetery.

Isaac Miller in early life became a member of the Lutheran Church; but on moving to the Black Swamp, west of Lower Sandusky, and coining under the influence of the pioneer traveling preach-

ers, he united with the Evangelical Asso- ciation, and became one of its most zeal- ous and consistent members for many years. In 1850 he united with the M. E. Church at Flat Kock, Ohio, and adhered to that faith during the rest of his life. He was a great friend of children, and established a number of pioneer Sunday- schools in destitute neighborhoods. In politics he was first a Whig, then a Re- publican, and finally a Prohibitionist. His two sons were soldiers in the Civil war, serving in the Third Michigan Cav- alr)'. His eldest son, Reuben A., living in Wisconsin, has for many j'ears been a professional pine-land hunter; his other son, Wesley, has valuable interests in some gold mines near Idaho Springs, Colo. His daughter Sarah, deceased, was the wife of Dr. Samuel H. Burgner, of Bellevue, Ohio. Though unfortunate in his financial ventures, as the world looks at it, Mr. Miller gave to his children a more precious legacy than wealth in the practical exemplification of an exalted Christian character.

Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of Sandusky County, Ohio. See the original pages at the Internet Archive.