Miller Family of Arkansas--John Thornton Miller ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Submitted by: Cynthia Forde Email: Cynthia.forde@worldnet.att.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free Information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Files may be printed or copied for Personal use only. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JOHN THORNTON MILLER by Donald Miller (Phoenix, AZ) 1839-1923 My grandfather on my father's side was 75 years old when I was born in 1914. And it was in that year that he wrote an autobiographical sketch, here enclosed. John Thornton Miller was number 6 in a family of 9 children born to John (James) and Mary Wilson Miller. Little is known of his father and mother except that they were possibly married in Eastern Tennessee and moved to Dade County, GA in the late 1830'[s where John (James) obtained some 400 acres of land presumably as a result of the Cherokee Land Lottery when the Cherokee Indians were displaced to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). It is known that John (James) Miller sold his land in GA in 1859, and with his eldest son, James, displaced to Arkansas. If you read the autobiography enclosed herewith you will note that grandfather Miller was a farmer, a circuit riding preacher and a populist politician, most of these pursuits occurring in the state of Arkansas. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was in his early twenties, at which time he was in GA and had married. The war period is hardly mentioned in his autobiography, possibly because he abhorred killing for whatever the reason. I do recall, though, when I was about 7 years old, hearing him tell of his experiences at Champion's Hill near Vicksburg, Mississippi. He recalled, as I sat by his knee, that he saw the 'bluecoats' coming up the slope and his officers were shouting for him to shoot. He said he shut his eyes and fired, hoping no one would be hit. It was after that battle in 1863 that the Confederates withdrew to Vicksburg where they endured 42 days of siege before surrendering to Grant's forces. Records found in the Dade County, GA. History Book, printing 1975 show that John T. Miller was a private in the 34th BA. Vol. Infantry of the Army of Tennessee, CSA. After capture at Vicksburg, he was released and he returned to GA or Alabama to marry his first wife. My father is the 'high spirited and ambitious" Joseph Jones, Grandpa Miller writes of in his sketch. John Thornton Miller, it seems, treated his son, Joe J. Miller, better than he had been treated by his father, as regards education and the pursuit of it. John T. was a self taught man and judging from what I have read of his writing, he taught himself well. An avid reader was he and my father, his son, inherited the trait, but with the advantage of a college education. I am led to believe that because of an early refusal of his father to send him to "Trenton Academy" John T. Miller was somewhat estranged from his father. This also seems borne out to some degree when his father came out to Arkansas in 1859/60 where John T. Miller was living with his older brother. John T. almost immediately left and returned to GA. He was married shortly thereafter in GA or AL., so this may have contributed to his hasty departure from Arkansas. In 1860, John T. Miller married an Alabama girl named Sarah Russell. This first union produced five children, three boys and two girls, the girls being the older of the five. I recall meeting the three sons, Wallace, Gip, and Vernon, when I was about 11 or 12 years old. Gip is known to have lived in Texas around Sweetwater while Wallace and Vernon are believed to have lived in Arkansas. In 1878, Grandpa Miller's first wife died and the following year he married Joan Cotton Lackey, my Grandmother Miller. She bore him 4 sons: Marvin Cotton (died young), Joe (my father), and Bob (Robert F.), the youngest. ADDENDA (December 1992) I have attempted to find information on John T. Miller's grandparents to little avail. The 1850 census, the first in the US to list names of members of families shows that John T. Miller's father was named John and not James as my father seemed to think. But, since John T.'s father was born in 1803 in Charleston County SC, and was thought to be James, it may be assumed that his fathe was named James. This would be John T.'s grandfather. There were three James Milers in the 1800 census in Charleston County as heads of households; there were none in the census of 1810, so James and his wife and children must have moved, I believe to Tennessee where sometime in the mid 1820's his son John (James) married the Tennessee girl, Mary (Nancy) Wilson. I have made inquiries to Monroe County, TN, but have not as yet received any information, thinking I might get some information on John (James Miller's parents. It is believed that his father died early. GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH JOHN (JAMES) MILLER, B. December 25, 1803, Charleston County, SC Possible fathers of: James A. Miller b. 1748, No. Ireland. Came to US in 1783 (age 35) In 1820 census, one year before his death, he shows 7 children. 1 male between 10 and 16 years of age, still in Charleston County. He was 72 years old. He died on April 19, 1821. This 16 year old son could have been John Miller. Being the youngest son he may have left for GA thereafter. But being the youngest son, it seems unlikely that his name would have been the same as his father. There was a James Miller in the 1850 census of Walker County, Ga (from which came Dade County, GA.) In 1850, John Thornton Miller, my grandfather would have been 10 or 11 years old. He was the 6th child of 9 born to John Miller, the subject of this research. There were three John Millers in the 1800 census of Charleston County, SC, one of whom was over 45 years old that year; another had 7 children and was himself listed as between 26 and 45. One of the sons in 1800, 2 were under ten years of age. This was John F. Miller and there was a John F. or John A. Miller listed in the 1850 census of Dade County, Ga. So conceivably one of the sons under 10 in the earlier census would have been John, the subject of this research. To make this plausible, there would need to be a mistake by a year in the birth of John Miller. The next step is to trace the three Millers who show up in the GA census of 1850, two in Walker County and one (John) in Dade County. The only James seems to be in Walker County in 1850, which belies what my grandfather writes of his early years being in Dade County. But this seems to be my next step. I had hoped to find some record of birth in the Old Scottish Presbyterian Church in Charleston but all records were burned in an 1850 fire there. Donald Miller. JOHN THORNTON MILLER - Enlisted as a private in Co. K. 10th Regt. Ga State Troops Dec. 16, 8161, Mustered out May 1862. Enlisted as a private in Co. F 34th Regt. GA. Inf. May 17, 1862, Captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Jury 4, 1863, and paroled there on July 8, 1863. Record from 34th Regiment Georgia Volunteer infantry, C. S. A. John Thornton married Sarah L. Russell who was born in NE Alabama in 1840. They were married in Alabama on January 2, 1860. They lived in GA and moved to Charleston, Arkansas where Sarah died in 1875. Canzada died in Shreveport, LA. Josephine died in Eastland County, Desdemoya, Texas. Gip died at Spur, Texas in 1941. Wallace died at Puebla. Colorado in 1845. Vernon died at Pasadena, Texas in 1954. John Thornton Miller served in the Arkansas State Legislature and was a gubernatorial candidate in the State of Arkansas. He was the author of an autobiography which is due to be published in the Dade County Historical Book. submitted by: The Rev. Cynthia Forde, D. Min. (great great niece of John Thornton Miller) 25487 Old Howth Road Hempstead, Texas 77445