George Washington Miller
George Washington Miller was born in 1839 in Robertson County, Tennessee, on the Kentucky line north of Nashville. His memorial gives his parents as John B. and Elizabeth (McCobb) Miller. In October 1850, aged 12 by the census, he was at home in District 13 of Robertson County with John Miller, a farmer of 54 born in North Carolina, Elizabeth, 46, born in Virginia, and six brothers and sisters. Later he went north to Illinois. When the war came he enlisted from Arcola, in Douglas County, as a private in Company B of the 54th Illinois Infantry, and was mustered in on 16 February 1862. The regiment had been raised at Camp Dubois at Anna under Colonel Thomas W. Harris. It guarded railroads in western Tennessee, lost most of its records when Forrest raided Jackson in December 1862, went down to Vicksburg in June 1863 to hold the far left of Sherman's line at Haines Bluff, and marched with Steele to take Little Rock that September. He did not re-enlist as a veteran, and so missed the regiment's worst day, 24 August 1864, when Shelby's cavalry overran its railroad guard posts in Arkansas and the companies were paroled at Jacksonport. He was mustered out on 17 February 1865, three years and a day after he went in.
On 9 November 1865, with the war over, he married Isabelle Ann Thomas in Coles County, Illinois. She was an Ohio girl of twenty whose parents, David and Easter Thomas, farmed in South Okaw Township there. The clerk who entered the licence wrote his name as George H. Miller. Eleven children followed over twenty-two years: William B. in 1866, John Bailey in 1867, David Albert in 1869, Susan Esther in 1871, Joseph G. in 1873, Edwin E. in 1877, Clyde Washington in 1879, Bertha May in 1882, Sara Ella in 1884 and Vea G. in 1888, and a daughter Elizabeth. The family came to Cowley County, Kansas, and farmed near New Salem, east of Winfield.
He died on Saturday evening 7 September 1907, about seven o'clock, at St. Mary's hospital in Winfield, after what the paper called a difficult operation. The Winfield Tribune of Monday 9 September wrote that he "was one of the best known and most highly respected farmers in Cowley county, and leaves a family and a large host of friends to mourn his departure. Of the eleven children, ten were present at the funeral. The funeral occurred from the home near New Salem this morning, and interment was made in Union cemetery." He lies in the Graham section of Union-Graham Cemetery. Isabelle lived another 27 years.
Parents
John Miller (b. 1796)
Elizabeth Miller (b. 1804)
Children
Sara Ella Miller (1884-1970)
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "George Washington Miller (1839-1907)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/george-washington-miller-1839-1907-395474.