William Henry Miller

As printed in 1906

WILLIAM HENRY MILLER, living on section 29, Berrien township, where he carries on general agricultural pursuits, was born in Preble county, Ohio, November 21, 1837, and is a representative of a family that was established in America in colonial days. His paternal grandfather, David Miller, was a Revolutionary soldier and spent the greater part of his life upon the farm in Montgomery county, Ohio, where his son, Henry Miller, the father of our subject, was born and reared. The family is supposed to be of Scotch, Welsh, Irish and German lineage. On leaving his native county Henry Miller removed to Preble county, Ohio, and there earned and followed

77 the matter's trade and subsequently engaged in the manufacture of hats at Winchester, Ohio, where he died at the age of thirty-nine years. His wife, Mrs. Nancy (Simpson) Miller, was a native of Maryland, where she remained until early womanhood, when she accompanied her parents, Walter and Elizabeth Simpson, to Ohio. She came to Berrien county, Michigan, in 1849, locating on section 29, Berrien township. She brought with her a family, numbering four sons and a daughter, the eldest of whom was about seventeen years of age, while the youngest was nine years old.

William Henry Miller was the third child and second son, and was a youth of twelve years when he arrived in Berrien township. He was reared in his mother's home and assisted her in the farm work until after the inauguration of the Civil war, when he put aside all business and personal considerations and with patriotic ardor espoused the cause of the Union, enlisting as a member of Company I, Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He joined the army as a private and was elected sergeant on the organization of the company while later he was promoted to orderly sergeant and afterward to first lieutenant, holding that rank when honorably discharged after a service which covered three years and eight months. He then re-enlisted as a veteran in the same company and regiment. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Iuka, Metamora, Little Rock, the siege of Vicksburg and many other military movements of lesser importance. He was in active duty throughout the entire period of his connection with the army save for about four weeks, when he was in the hospital and on a furlough home. He resigned in May, 1865, and returned to Berrien township, having made a splendid military record by reason of his unfaltering fidelity to the old flag and the cause it represented.

When he again became a factor in business life in Berrien county Mr. Miller purchased the interest of the other heirs in the old homestead and was engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He was married June 25, 1865, to Miss Eva Johnson, a daughter of John and Annie (Lybrook)

Johnson, who were pioneer residents of Berrien township. In their home there on section 29 Mrs. Miller was born and her girlhood days were spent under the parental roof. Mr. Miller took his bride to the old home place on which he had located with his mother many years before and here he has lived continuously since, and their marriage has been blessed with two children, Josephine and Fred, but the latter died when about six months old. The daughter is now the wife of Royal Morris, by whom she has two children, Eva L., in eighth grade, and Henry M., in the fifth grade, and they reside with Mr. Miller on the old home place.

Mr. Miller is now the owner of one hundred and twelve acres of excellent land on section 29, also has eighty-five acres on section 18 and twenty acres on section 30, Berrien township, making in all two hundred and seventeen acres. He rents the farm to his son-in-law and is practically living retired from the more arduous duties of an agricultural life. In politics he has been a stalwart and earnest Republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise standing loyally by the party which was the support of the Union in the dark days of the Civil war and he has always been the champion of progress and reform. He has acted as treasurer of his township and is now justice of the peace and in connection with educational interests has done effective service in an official capacity. For many years he has been a member of Kilpatrick Post, No. 39, G. A. R., at Berrien Springs,, in which he has filled all of the offices and is now chaplain. He and wife belong to the United Brethren Church in the township, of Berrien, and his life, upright in its principles, has been in entire harmony with his professions. Living in Berrien county for fifty-seven years he may well be classed among the pioneer residents and his fidelity to every many principle makes him a man honored and esteemed: by all with whom he has been associated.

Mr. Miller has a curiosity in the way of a relic deed. It is the description of a piece of land, and the surveys are made by ''meets and bounds," and it is made under the commonwealth of Virginia when Governor

James Wood was governor of the Colony of Virginia. The date of execution is given June 22, 1797, two years before General Washington died. This parchment deed is the oldest deed possibly found in the state of Michigan, being one hundred and nine years old. Mr. Miller, who is one of the prosperous farmers as well as a veteran of the Civil war and a resident of Berrien county, Michigan, values this parchment highly. Mrs. Miller has an old coverlet which her mother wove and is three-quarters of a century old. They have an old Testament of 1828 and the Bible of 1835, and they also have one of the old-fashioned hand sickles, which is a pioneer implement. It was in 1904 that Mr. and Mrs. Miller met with the severe loss of their barns, but they have builded anew.

As printed in A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.