Jacob Miller

PROFESSOR JACOB MILLER, at present engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan business in Princeton, Illinois, was for a number of years prominently connected with the educational interests of Bureau county. He was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, June 1 5, 1835, and is the youngest of the family of seven children born to Isaac and Mollie (Fernsler) Miller, also natives of the keystone state. By occupation the father was a farmer and drove, going to Ohio for stock, which he would retail to the farmers of Pennsylvania, who would feed them and then sell in the eastern markets. He was an upright, honorable man, widely and favorably known, and both himself and wife were members of the United Brethren church. He died instantly from an apoplectic stroke, August 12, 1868, and his wife some time later. They were of German extraction. Of the children, Henry, now deceased, married Eliza Landis, and followed farming in Pennsylvania; Mattie, deceased, was the wife of Philip Wolfersberger of Bureau county, Illinois; Christina, a resident of Annville, Pennsylvania, first married John Gas ser, and after his death Jacob Bachman; Sarah is the widow of John Fernsler and lives in Ann ville; Elizabeth is the second wife of Philip Wolfersberger, postmaster of North Princeton, and J. Frank, who married Emma Beshler, and now lives at Perrysburg, Pennsylvania, was major of the dashing Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry in General Kilpatrick’s command, and gallantly served throughout the whole civil war without being wounded or imprisoned.

Professor Miller acquired his education in the Annville academy and the Mt. Pleasant college, Pennsylvania, after which he engaged in teaching both in town and country schools for many years. In 1855 he was a teacher in the Berrysburg seminary of Pennsylvania, but in the summer of that year came to Princeton, and for the following two years taught at Buda, Bureau county. Going to Dayton, Ohio, he there engaged in bookkeeping in the United Brethren printing establishment.

At Dayton Professor Miller was married in 1857 to Miss Mary A. Dow of Buda, Illinois, a daughter of Tristram C. and Susan (Lyford) Dow, natives of Canterbury, New Hampshire, the former of English and the latter of Scotch extraction. On the 21st of June, 1846, her parents came to Bureau county, settling in Concord township, and died at Annawan, Illinois. In their family were the following children: Almira, Joseph L., Tristram T., Josiah, John L., Mary A. and Lyman. Of the above Tristram was major in the Ninety-third Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the civil war and later became a prominent citizen of Davenport, Iowa. John L. was captain in the same regiment.

To the professor and his wife were born seven children, three of whom are still living: Bvron G., Victor and Myrta, while those deceased are Cora Belle, Lotta, Lymie O. and Viola. Viola, who was the wife of William W. Reed, died June 11, 1894, at the age of twenty-five years. Bvron married Ida Medley, by whom he has three children — Maude, Harry and Victor. He is train dispatcher between Sedalia, Missouri and Kansas City, and resides at the former place; Victor, a resident of Spokane, Washington, is chief of the operators of a division of the Northern Pacifie railroad; Myrta is keeping house for her father. The wife and mother, who was born May 26, 1832, died of consumption September 10, 1894. She was a faithful member of the United Brethren church, to which our subject also belongs, was a woman of domestic tastes, an excellent wife, mother and friend, while in sickness and charity she had but few equals.

After his marriage Professor Miller returned to Bureau county and opened a hotel at North Princeton, known as the Empire house, which he conducted until the war broke out. He had already opened the Bureau academy at that place, being associated with Professor George N. Wagner, of the Franklin and Marshall college, a German Reformed institution, formerly located at Mercersburg, but now at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here they carried on their school very successfully until the erection of the Prince ton high school. In connection with D. N. Strode and P. Wolfersberger, he purchased the Princeton planing mill, which they carried on for several years, when our subject sold his interest to Strock Brothers.

For some years Professor Miller served as justice of the peace, and in 1873 again took up school work, being elected county superintendent, which position he filled satisfactorily and successfully for four years. Of him the superintendent of public instruction for the state said: “He had the ability to awaken the enthusiasm of the teachers, and his institutes held for their instruction were well planned and effective. Mr. Miller is very familiar with the organization, adjustment and grading of schools.” The superintendent of schools for Pennsylvania says of him: “I have no hesitation in saying that Professor Jacob Miller of Princeton, Illinois, is a very fine scholar and a wide-awake, efficient teacher. He has executive ability of a high order and is worthy of confidence is every respect. At two different periods, from 1873 to x8 77, and from 1885 to 1889 he was the superintendent of the schools of Bureau county, Illinois, and I know from personal knowledge that he was ranked with the best superintendents in the state.” Signed, Henry Houck. From Wheaton college, of Wheaton, Illinois, he received the decree of M. A.

Professor Miller has over two thousand specimens of geology and zoology in his office, which is one of the largest and finest individual collections in the state. Among the most valuable is a piece of marble flooring taken from the ruins of Caesar’s palace at Rome. He also has a wood carving made in the fifteenth century, representing Christ brought into the temple, which is in a very fair state of preservation. The figures are Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Anna, Simeon and the priests. His list of fossils is suprisingly extensive, which has required many years to collect, and much pains has been taken in classifying and arranging the same. One of his most attractive cases is the one filled with shells, misses, morals, etc.

The professor has a valuable miscellaneous collection, including relics from twelve different tribes of Indians, composed of bows, arrows, scabbards, etc., and a great many rare specimens, such as Indian drums, drapes, axes, moccasins, etc. He also has many found builders’ relics, which are quite rare, and pottery and porcelain ware many hundred years old. He has a large collection of fossil ferns, found in the coral beds of Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Books, old and rare, Professor Miller has in abundance, some dating back as far as 1494, and has a volume of the Psalms of David, whose date is 1472, and a Vulgate Bible, printed in 1592. He has an immense volume of the German Bible, published in 1765, a present from his father, and a German book of Martyrs, published at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1748, being one of the thirteen hundred printed at that time. Mr. Miller also has a scrap book encyclopaedia of his own making containing one hundred volumes, which he began in 1888, and which he has completed. Every volume is numbered, page and indeed, and the work contains over forty thousand subjects of universal information, including history, biography, poetry, science, stories, fun, fancy, per traits of many eminent men and women, lectures, literature, statistics and miscellany. He has begun another series and has now some forty volumes. His library numbers over one thousand volumes and is probably one of the best selected and most expensive private libraries in Bureau county. In Professor Miller's house was organized the Princeton Academy of Sciences, which was incorporated January 23, 1882. This society has been successfully continued since its found tion. Socially, Professor Miller is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while politically he is independent. He stands high in the state as an educator, and to him many hundreds of men and women are indebted for their start and for encouraging words in endeavoring to climb the hill of knowledge. As a citizen he also takes front rank, faithfully discharging eventrust reposed in him.

Frederick story potter, of Henry,

Illinois, is one of the best known and most highly honored of the attorneys of Marshall county. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, November 3, 1837, and is the son of Frederick and Caroline A. (Story) Potter, who were also natives of the nutmeg state. His father was a contractor and builder and followed that occupation the greater part of his life. In 1840 the family came to Illinois, locating in Christian county, between Decatur and Springfield, where they remained until 1846, and then removed to Beardstown, where the mother died in 1865. Some years after the father removed to Henry, where he, too, passed away April 2, 1892, at the age of seventy-eight years.

The boyhood and youth of our subject were spent with his parents until sixteen years of age. His health failing him at Beardstown, he came to Henry, where for three years he was in the employ of Robert Dawson as bookkeeper. He then engaged in general merchandising on his own account and continued in the business until 1862 with fair success. Closing out his stock of merchandise he entered the office of P. S. Perley, under whose instruction he read law, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1864. Forming a partnership with his preceptor, they were associated together until August, 1873, since which time he has practiced alone. Mr. Perley, who is now a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, is a man of great ability, a graduate of

Bowdoin college, being a classmate of Gen. O. O. Howard, John N. Jewett, and other men who have since become noted in the history of our country. In 1870 he was a member of the Illinois constitutional convention which framed our present state constitution.

In 1872 Mr. Potter was elected state’s attorney for Marshall county, and served four years with credit to himself and to the county which he represented. Faithful in the discharge of every duty, he prosecuted the evil-doer without fear or favor, while tempering mercy with justice. Since his retirement from that office, he has given attention wholly to his private practice, of which he has always had his full share. He is regarded by all who know him as a safe counselor, one whose advice it is wise for the client to follow. It has never been a practice with him to advise litigation when other counsels would subserve the same ends. He has followed in this respect in the footsteps of such wise counselors and advocates as Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart and others who became noted at the Illinois bar.

Politically, Mr. Potter was originally a Douglas democrat, following the lead of that eminent statesman during that great contest with Lincoln in 1858. when the latter represented the newly organized republican party as its candidate for the United States senate in opposition to Douglas, who was then serving as United States senator, and was the democratic candidate for re-election. With all the ardor of a young man, Mr. Potter entered into that canvass at a time when he should exercise the rights of franchise for the first time. Again, in 1860, he followed the lead of Douglas, who had been nominated by one wing of the democratic party for the presidency. But Douglas was defeated, some of the southern states passed acts of secession, the war followed, and young Potter became a war democrat. The transition from that position to republicanism was easy, and from early in the ’60s to the present time, he has been an uncompromising republican. In every campaign his voice is heard upon the

F. S. Potter stump, and he has dealt some stalwart blows for the principles espoused. In 1880 he was quite active, supporting the side of Grant against Blaine, but his purpose was accomplished with the defeat of both by the nomination and election of Garfield.

Mr. Potter has been twice married, his first union being in 1858, with Miss Louisa V. Dawson, of Henry, by whom three children were born: Ellsworth Story, now a traveling sales man, residing in Peoria; Carrie Louisa, who married Daniel S. Schneider, but who died in September, 1892; and Ida, now the wife of Eugene D. Lane, of Sterling, Illinois. The wife and mother died July 21, 1871, her death being mourned by husband and children and a large circle of friends who esteemed her for her worth as a genuine womanly woman, a loving wife and mother, and faithful friend.

Some three years after the death of his first wife, on the 29th of April, 1874, Mr. Potter was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Isabella House, daughter of Willard House, an early merchant and miller of Grand Detour, Illinois. By this union three children were also born: Gertrude and Fred W., graduates of the high school class of 1895; the latter is now a student in his father’s law office; and Sarah Elsie, a high school student.

In addition to his legal duties Mr. Potter is interested in everything calculated to build up and strengthen the business of his adopted town and county. For twenty-four years he has been a director of the Henry Bridge Company, and for fifteen years its president. A friend of education, he does all in his power to promote the interests of the public schools. For many years he has been an active worker in the Masonic order, and is a member of Henry lodge, No.

1 19, F. & A. M., and of Chillicothe chapter,

As printed in The Biographical record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois .. (1896). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.