Christopher Columbus Miller (1837 - 1914)

Born 26 Mar 1837 in New Vienna, Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Dec 1914 at age 77 in Westboro, Jefferson Township, Clinton County, Ohio, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Tim Miller [send private message]

Biography

Columbus Miller served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: unknown
Mustered out: unknown
Side: USA
Regiment(s): Company D. of the 188th Regiment O. V. I.

From The History of Clinton County, 1915:

Mr Miller was born near New Vienna this county on March 26 1837 and his wife was born near Clarksville in Clinton county. He farmed all his life in Clinton county, with the exception of a short period in which he was engaged in school teaching as a young man. He owned a farm in Washington township, but the last thirty years of his life were spent in Jefferson township. He was a soldier in the Civil War and after the war was a member of General Sherman Post No 360 Grand Army of the Republic. To CC and Electra A Kibby Miller were born ten children: ET, LN, PV, Malcolm, Cora, Nina, Grace, EK, Bertha, and Isaac C. Mr Miller's parents were Isaac and Margaret Hlldebrant Miller, the former of whom was born on July 30 1812 near Farmers Station and the latter November 26 1820 at Hunterton in Hunterton county, New Jersey. The paternal grandfather was Isaac Miller Sr who was born on February 5 1777, the son of Peter and Catherine Rhodes Miller, the former of whom was killed as a soldier in the American Revolution.

From "Biographical Sketch of Isaac Miller," an addendum written by Christopher Columbus: A PAPER Read by C. C. Miller at the Miller-Hildebrant Re-union, held at Ft. Ancient, July 30, 1902, on the 100th Anniversary of the settlement of our Grand-father, Isaac Miller, in Clinton County, Ohio.

BROTHERS, SISTERS AND KIND FRIENDS:

At our meeting one year ago it was suggested by our worthy chairman that someone tell what they remember of father's and mother's removal to their home in Illinois. With some degree of reluctance, your humble servant consented to tell you something of our life in that Western home.

The first trip was made in the fall, September, 1838, I suppose when I was about eighteen months old, as I have often beard mother relate. This journey of over 500 miles was made in a covered two-horse jolt wagon. They went by the way of Dayton, Indianapolis, Urbana, Bloomington, Peoria, Princeton, Dixon's Ferry, Freeport, to near the old insignificant town of Oneco, Stephenson County, Illinois. I can account for this roundabout trip, (as one can see by looking on the map that they went many miles out of a direct line for their destination) only that this route was more thickly settled, and that the rivers were more apt to have ferries on them for crossing.

It must be remembered at that early day the dwellings of the settlers were often very far apart, sometimes a days journey between them.

I have no remembrance of this journey whatever, nor do I know when or by whom our first house was built, but I rather think it was begun by Uncle Ralph Hildebrant, as he had gone out there some two years before.

This house was a single room, hued log structure, 18x20 feet, with a huge stone chimney and fire place, which extended almost across one end. It was here before this fireplace that our mother done her cooking and baking for many years. I well remember her scanty supply of pots. skillets, and ovens. After several years one day father brought home what they called a reflector. This was to bake bread in, but one still had to use the heat from the fire place to run it. It was made of sheet iron and stood upon four legs with a support for the pans and bread, and it had a cover or hood made of tin, open in front to catch and reflect the heat upon the bread below. I don't believe it was much account except for baking biscuits. I cannot tell when the first cooking stove was obtained, perhaps about 1845. At that early day cabinet makers had not arrived and our furniture and house furnishings were scarce and very rude in make. I recollect very well seeing father make our first bed steads, and also of the kind of timber of which they were made. They were made of white hickory saplings, hewed and shaped up with an ax and drawing knife, They were built right on the spot in the house where they were to stand, and they were made very stationary too, being fastened to one of the house logs by inserting one end of the end railing in a two-inch auger hole at the proper height. One was made higher under which could be~ pushed the indispensable trundle bed on which the kids slept.

Our farm and Uncle Ralph's lay adjoining each other, his comprised 120 acres, and ours 240 acres-about 200 acres of prairie and brush, and 40 acres of timber in which was a very good sugar camp. I think this was more land than they bought at the first purchase, as I can remember of being along with them one day when they were out building some preemption houses on some corners. These were simply little 4x4 pens made of Quaking Asp poles and were placed there to notify all intruders to stay off this land. I can also remember of seeing a lot of money passed out on the breakfast table and seeing father and uncle count and put it in a belt that was to be worn around Uncle Ralphs body under his clothing while on a horseback journey down to Dixon, where the land office was located, I think this was soon after our return from Ohio in 1840. Our neighbors at first were mostly from Clinton county, Ohio, among them were Joe, Jeff and Morgan VanMeter and families, two families of Shockleys, Waltons, Beans, Howes, and Harkness Throckmorton, VanWinkle and others were all from Ohio. Two families named Hubert and Buck were from New York. As natural for a Yankee they located down in the woods southwest of our sugar camp. Joe Norris and family were from Kentucky. He lived on the east side of the timber from us on the road to Freeport and Rightsell’s mill on Richland creek where we got all our milling done.

Amos Hayes and family and his father-in-law, James Howe, and family were also from Ohio, coming there I think about 1840. It was from this family uncle Ralph obtained his wife. Although but a small boy I can remember when they were married. Uncle had lived with us before, and he and aunt Rachel stayed with us until he finished his little frame house, which stood on the road to Oneco from where we lived. But I must hurry on. Our living in the wintertime was mostly bread, meat, and potatoes, and often corn bread three times daily. In the summer we would have some fruit which grew wild in the woods and thickets. Red raspberries, blackberries, plums, gooseberries and crab apples were plenty in their season. The purple sorrel was the first thing to be obtained in the spring, from which pies were made, and it was a very good substitute for our rheubarb. Often in the winter we would have venison to eat, as the deer were quite plentiful in places. In the spring we would have a feast of fine fish obtained by seining in Richland Creek or Pekatonica river. This river is very deep and could only be seined in few places by wading. Our place of fishing was where the road crossed it going to the town of Winslow, four miles west of us.

But I must tell you something of the wild pigeons; and by the way this bird, once so plentiful, is said to be now entirely gone or extinct. Never have I known them to be so numerous as they were between 1845 and 1850. At one time I saw them flying in such dense masses as to almost hide the sun, it would have been extremely dangerous for one to have gone into the woods where they were roosting at night on account of the timber they were on breaking down. Father killed dozens of them by loading his rifle with shot. But we didn't fancy pigeons very much, they being blue, and many very tough.

Our first schools were of the "boardaround" subscription sort, and always in the spring or summer, They were held in some old shop or unused building, but about 1846 or 1847 there was a great change made in the school system. More of the enterprising Yankees had come west, and they soon began the introduction of new things and new methods into the schools. I can well remember the morning when John K. Brewster and the teacher handed Brother Ralph and me our first McGuffey's Readers; the First to him and the Second to me. Our mother had been our best and main teacher up to that time, she having taught us to read from our old Webster's Elementary Spelling Book, this being all the school book about the house to this time. Some of the lessons learned from it are indelibly stamped upon my memory, never to be forgotton. Our mother was an excellent reader, and she loved to read and explain her reading to her children. But her reading matter was very limited at that time. Books and newspapers were not near so plentiful or cheap as at the present time. Father at this time was a very poor reader, and seemed to care but little for it. Our first newspaper was the Cincinnati Dollar Weekly Times, published I think, by C. W. Starbuck. In latter years father became more of a news reader, and his favorite papers were the Cincinnati Weekly Gazette and the Clinton Republican.

But I must get back to Illinois. While we lived there, there was no church buildings outside the largest towns, and the school house was used for religious meetings in the winter season, and the grove or "God's first temple" in the summer season. The people would come for miles in their jolt wagons, drawn by a yoke of oxen. Aunt Rachels brother, Henry Howe was all the preacher I ever knew there, after whose wife our sister, Camelia J. Johnson, was named. Our sister Lydia was named after Mrs. Lydia Norris, our only doctor while we stayed there. One time when sick she made me drink warm water until I vomited, and I've never liked warm water since. I often think I would like to view the old homestead once more, and to drink from the old spring where we cooled our thirst more than fifty years ago.

I wonder if the old cedar tree is still standing above the wall, which father planted sixty years ago. I imagine there are not many of the landmarks left by which I could distinguish the place, nor many of the people I once knew. I cannot help but think of the difference in the mode of travel now, and the difference in time it takes to make this short journey of 500 miles, and the time of father',-, and mother's first trip. What took them twenty days to do can be done in that many hours, and instead of the muddy roads, and bumping and jolting over the rough corduroy swamps of Indiana, one can travel now almost with the win(l, and with ease and pleasure. Father in his little sketchbook tells us something of his and mother's return to Ohio in 1840. 1 suppose this trip was made to finish up some unsettled business, as all business at that time had to be attended to directly in person.

No such thing as money orders, bank drafts, checks or express companies were in existance at this time, and all the money worth anything outside of the state was gold and silver, and no mode of conveying it except on your person. I have no remembrance of this trip except on our return to Illinois. I can remember the bumps and thumps over the swampy cordury roads that we passed over in Indiana. Three horses were driven to the wagon on this return trip, a little black horse named "Jim" being the leader.

Father and Uncle Ralph usually had a yoke of oxen on the farm, used mostly by uncle but sometimes by father. At one time he was using them in drawing up logs of wood when he met with an accident that came near killing him. The tree had fallen in the brush, and the oxen starting with the drag before he could get to one side he was jerked down and the whole tree dragged over him, rolling him over and over. He always said that the thickness of the brush saved his life. After Uncle Ralph's return from Texas in the spring of 1849 he rigged out three yoke of cattle and he and I broke prairie all that summer, only one yoke, the leaders, being broken. The other four were wild steers, but we soon had them broken and could plow up any bush or sapling that could be bent down by the yoke on the oxen. After it was plowed we harrowed the saplings and roots out and piled them in heaps, leaving the ground loose and mellow as an ash heap. Here was where we grew our last crop of corn in Illinois. In this plowing we found and destroyed many wolf dens and also killed many rattle snakes. From the place of entrance a wolf will dig a hole just under the surface for many feet, then it will burrow deeper and widen the place for its den or bed. The rattlesnakes we sometimes found in the ant hills,

But I find that I am on page 15, and as I don't want to weary you with this rambling narrative, will tell you something of our last journey back to Clinton county, 0. This was begun about September 10, 1850, There were more of us to make this than on previous journeys, as the family had increased to six children, four boys and two girls, sisters Mollie E. Vandervort and Lydia C. Hunter. Besides we were accompanied by an old maiden lady, Lydia Walton, as far as Attica, Indiana, where she left us to remain with her uncle, Dr. John McNulty. Here it was we forded the Wabash river and bade adieu to the beautiful prairies we had traveled over for so many days. Through Kane, Kankakee and Iroquois counties Illinois and western Indiana up to the Wabash river it was an unbroken prairie.

After staying over night with Dr. McNulty we went the next day down the east bank of the Wabash ten miles to the little town of Newton in Fountain county to stop over night with Mrs. Malinda Stafford, who was a sister to aunt Polly Walton and aunt to Jane Beam, and at whose solicitation we made the stop-over. This Mrs. Stafford was a widow, owning a large f arm near this town and besides a large family of children. Here it was we found the best apple orchard we had seen, and you may believe we children fairly reveled in Maiden Blush apples and cider while we stayed there. It was here we boys found out that apples did not have to be red to be ripe. With apples and cider and helping her boys take care of the show horses they were feeding for a show exhibiting there, we boys were right in it.

This Mrs. Stafford has been dead many years, but has children and grand- children still living there. It was here I saw my first log-heap, an old deadening of timber coming up to the very edge of the town. Mother did some necessary baking and washing while here, and on Monday morning early we resumed our way, and in little over a week we landed at our destination, Grand-father Hildebrant's, where part of us wintered, the balance of us staying at Grand-father Miller's. Grand-father Hildebrant had a large orchard at that time, and it being a fruit year more plentiful than at any place yet. Besides he had a cider mill which was constantly in use. The last thing to be heard at night and the first in the morning was the creaking of the old cider mill. Here was work for us all, helping make cider, picking up and peeling apples to dry and to make apple butter, Picking and sorting winter apples was our every day's work until all were cared for. Grand-father's large brass and copper kettles were always full of apple butter or cider being boiled to make it. He always found a ready market for all the apple butter he could make at 50 cents a gallon.

Birth

Birth:

Record ID Number: MH:IF6264

Date: 26 MAR 1837

Place: Ohio

Death

Death:

Record ID Number: MH:IF6265

Date: 15 DEC 1914

Place: Jefferson, Clinton, Ohio

Cause: Pneumonia

Record ID Number

Record ID Number: MH:I1365

Burial

Burial:

Record ID Number: MH:IF6266

Place: Sugar Grove

Note

Note: Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 for Christopher C. Miller

« Back to search results

View Image

Save ImageSearch CollectionAbout this CollectionName Christopher C. Miller

Titles & Terms

Death Date 15 Dec 1914

Death Place Jefferson, Clinton, Ohio

Birth Date 26 Mar 1837

Estimated Birth Year

Birthplace Ohio

Death Age 77 years 8 months 19 days

Gender Male

Marital Status Married

Race or Color Caucasian

Street Address

Occupation Farmer

Residence Jefferson, Clinton, Ohio

Burial Date 18 Dec 1914

Burial Place

Cemetery Name Sugar Grove

Spouse's Name

Father's Name Isaac Miller

Father's Title & Terms

Father's Birthplace Ohio

Mother's Name Margaret Hildebrandt

Mother's Titles & Terms

Mother's Birthplace Ohio

Film Number 1983286

Digital Folder Number 4021675

Image Number 2141

Certificate Number fn 64729

.

Sources

• Biographical Sketch of Isaac Miller, 1894.

1915 Clinton County History Discharge papers, Union army, Sept 1865 Death certificate 64729, Clinton County, Ohio

• WikiTree profile Miller-9452 created through the import of Wells-Dudley TreeFeb11.GED on Jan 6, 2012 by Ronald Dudley. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Ronald and others.