Warren F. Miller

As printed in 1914

WARREN F. MILLER.

Warren F. Miller, editor of the Independence Conservative, is a native of Buchanan county and has passed most of his life here. He is the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Miller, pioneer settlers, and was born on a farm in Perry township, November 13, 1866. He was fortunate in parents who indulged his wish for a better education than the county schools afforded, and he entered Lenox College at the age of thirteen, graduating from there with the degree of Bachelor of Sciences in 1884, when a little past seventeen years of age. That fall he began his first term as a teacher in a Delaware county rural school, having to get a special permit from the state superintendent because of being under the required age. lie followed teaching for several years succeeding, in the meantime taking a course in the Cedar Rapids Business College during a summer vacation.

In 1891 Mr. Miller resigned the principalship of the Fairbank schools to accept the position of deputy to L. F. Springer in the office of clerk of the district court. After two years he resigned this to enter the law school of the University of Iowa, from which he graduated in 1894. A few weeks later he and a classmate, the late C.Tj. Everett, opened a law office in Independence, but this partnership was dissolved with the beginning of the succeeding year, when Mr. Everett entered a partnership with Judge Ransier. and ]\Mr. Miller with his former chief, L. F. Springer, under the firm name of Springer & Miller. He was elected city attorney of Independence the succeeding spring, serving two years, during which time it fell to him to prepare the ordinances, contracts, etc., for the new municipal lighting plant. In the fall of 1896 he gave up the practice of law to enter country newspaper work, he and his father purchasing an interest in the Conservative. He was associated with L. W. Goen for a little over six years in publishing the Conservative, the Millers then selling their interest back to Mr. Goen. It was during this time that Warren F. Miller was elected mayor of Independence, serving two terms and declining to be a candidate for a third. He then moved to Kansas, where he owned and published the Courier-Democrat for upward of six years. His next newspaper venture was at LeMars, where he purchased the LeMars semi-weekly Globe-Post, which he conducted till he sold it in December, 1913, and returned to Independence.

In March, 3914. Mr. Miller of this review, associated with S. Miller and Mattie E. Stevenson, purchased the Independence Conservative from the Goen estate and he became its editor and business manager. This brought him back to

WARREN F. MILLER his old field of labor. New equipment was added and new life put into the paper, now in its sixtieth year, and the effect was at once apparent in the tone of the paper and its steady increase in business. He feels that he is probably located for as many years of business life as may be spared him, with his one ambition to make the Independence Conservative one of the best of its class.

Mr. miller is a member of the Masonic order and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was reared in a Presbyterian family and united with that church in Independence under the pastorate of Rev. D. W. Fahs, in 1898. He was married in Independence, May 25, 1898, to Miss Nella E. Smale, one of the talented musicians of the city and the youngest daughter of George Smale, a pioneer druggist. They have a family of three children: Paul, aged fifteen, a student in the high school; Leo. aged ten. and Marian, aged eight, both in the citv grade schools.

As would be expected of the editor of a democratic paper, Mr. Miller is a consistent and persistent democrat. He has been a member of the county central committee, wherever located, every year but one since he was twenty-two, county chairman once in Iowa and twice in Kansas, and was a member of the state committee in Kansas when he removed from that state. At forty-eight he is satisfied if the long hours and multifarious grind of country newspaper work affords him an occasional day to go fishing.

EZRA Mackenzie.

Ezra MacKenzie is the owner of Brunswick Park, a fine farm of two hundred and eighty acres in Hazleton township, which is so called in honor of his birthplace— New Brunswick, Canada. His natal day was March 21, 1853, and his parents were Daniel and Phoebe (Brundage) MacKenzie, who were also natives of New Brunswick, the former of Scotch and the latter of English descent. As far back as is known the MacKenzies have followed agricultural pursuits. In the year 1800 the family was established in New Brunswick, and Daniel MacKenzie became one of the extensive landowners there, his possessions aggregating seven hundred acres. He was regarded as one of the substantial and valued citizens of the community in which he made his home and his life was ever in harmony with his professions as a member of the Freewill Baptist church. He died in 1890, at the age of seventy-six years.

Ezra MacKenzie pursued his education in the schools of New Brunswick and when twenty-four years of age came to the United States, since which time he has made his home in Buchanan county. He had previously owned a shingle mill and worked in the timber in the winter months, owning a big timber tract. After coming to this country he was employed as a farm hand for a time but as soon as possible made investment in land, to which he has since added until he now owns two hundred and eighty acres in Buchanan county which he calls Brunswick Park. His farm has been carefully developed and improved according to modern methods and all of the equipments and accessories of the model farm of the twentieth century are found upon his place. He is prominently known as a stock-raiser, handling Polled Durham cattle and Percheron horses, \v'lich he raises for sale and for exhibition purposes. Pie has Avon many prizes at the county fair on his horses and his stock is one of the attractive features of his farm. In business affairs his judgment is sound, his discrimination keen and his enterprise unfaltering. Aside from his interests as the owner of Brunswick Park he is a stockholder, director and the president of the creamery company, is president of the Corn Growers' Association, is president of the Cooper Valley Telephone Company, president of the Hazleton Fair Association and a stockholder in the Buchanan County Fair Association.

Mr. MacKenzie was united in marriage to Miss Alice J. Miller, a native of Hazleton township and a daughter of George M. Miller. Her father was born in New York, in 1837, and was a son of Adam and Baehabee (Pettis) Miller, the former born in Connecticut in 1794 and the latter in Rhode Island in 1800. Adam Miller became a carpenter and builder in New York and in 1849 removed westward to the vicinity of Rockford, Illinois, where he worked at his trade and also became actively identified with the sheep industry, driving sheep overland, as there were then no railroads in that part of the country. On the 13th of September, 1852, he came to Buchanan county and purchased land in Hazleton township, which his sons cultivated. They were pioneers in raising shorthorn cattle and Chester White hogs and were extensively engaged in shipping hogs which were used for breeding purposes. Adam miller was a resident of Buchanan county at the time of his death. He served as a drum major in the War of 1812, going to the front from AVasliington county. New York.

George M. Miller attended the district schools near his home and when twelve years of age started out in life on his own account. He went with a brother to Illinois and there worked on a farm and in a tavern, drove stage and also attended to various duties in the store of Benjamin Hoyt, of Boone county, Illinois, in the town of Newburg, which is now extinct. He came with his father to Iuehanan county when a youth of about fifteen years and here worked as a rail splitter and also engaged in hauling merchandise into this county l)before the advent of railroads. In fact he worked at anything and everything that is necessary in connection with the early settlement and development of a frontier district. In 1853 he purchased land from the government, entering his claim, and soon afterward became actively engaged in farming; in which occupation he continued year after year with excellent success. As his financial resources increased he added to his holdings and when he removed to Hazleton was the owner of seven hundred and sixty acres of valuable farm land in Buchanan county, now in possession of his son and daughter. He was not only a leading farmer but also a representative citizen. He served as supervisor of his county for eight years and was a trustee of the College for the Blind at Vinton. He was active in the republican party and at all times cooperated in the movements for the benefit and upbuilding of this section of the state. He made the first shingles that covered the first church in Independence and helped cut the logs foi* the first bridge over the Wapsipinicon river. In Masonry he was well known as a member of the lodge, chapter and Eastern Star at Independence. The first meeting of the Baptists in this county was held in the home of his father, Adam Miller, while the first Presbyterian gathering Avas in the home of John Long in Hazleton township.

It was in 1857 that George M. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Spragg," who was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1835, a daughter of John and Amelia (Taylor) Spragg, who were also natives of Canada, born in 1805 and 1812 respectively. Becoming residents of the United States, they made their way to Iowa in 1855 and their last days were spent in Hazleton township, where they were identified with agricultural pursuits. Mr. Spragg became one of the substantial farmers and reliable citizens of the community and lived to the advanced age of ninety-four years. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller were born three children: Edgar F., who owns and occupies a farm west of Hazleton, where he is engaged in the raising of Galloway cattle; Alice J., now Mrs. MacKenzie; and Letta A., the wife of W. E. Curtis, a real-estate dealer of Cedar Rapids, by whom she has two children. By the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie there have been born five children: Ethel is the wife of W. H. Hatch, a representative of a pioneer family of this county living near Oelwein, and they have three children, MacKenzie, Willis Ezra and Robert; Inez became the wife of Simon G. Corcoran but has passed away. Donald M. is at home with his parents. Ross Daniel, a farmer of Buchanan county, married Grace Duke and has one son, Hugh. E. Bruce married Berdina Scott and lives upon the farm of his father-in-law in Fayette county.

]\Mr. MacKenzie took out his naturalization papers soon after coming to the United States and has been a student of the political questions and issues of the day. A zealous republican, he has served his party with the sincere desire to see its principles triumph — principles in which his faith is bound. He is a member of the Baptist church and served as superintendent of the Union Sunday school of the Presbyterian and Baptist churches for twenty years. His influence has always been against evil and on the side of right, justice and truth. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and has taken an active interest in the work of the local lodge and in the state organization as well, filling all the chairs in both the subordinate and grand lodges. He has held every office in the Modern Woodmen camp and his wife is active in the Pythian Sisters and in the Eastern Star. Of the Eastern Star she has been worthy matron for two years and for seven consecutive years has represented the Pythian Sisters in the Grand Temple of Jowa. She is also president of the county organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and also of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Both Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie rank high in the social circles of the city and their influence is widely felt for good. Mr. MacKenzie has always been foremost in support of and promotion of the most progressive ideas relating to the material development and civic progress of his community and is recognized as the leader in his township. His life is one of general worth and usefulness and on the pages of his history appears a clean record.

As printed in History of Buchanan County, Iowa, and its people (1914). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.