L.C. Miller Yavapai Co. Az submitted by Carol Powell [scrapbooksnmore@myfamily.com] L.C. Miller Arizona Outlaw Before coming to the U.S. the family name was Mueller it was changed to Miller after coming to America. Louis Miller Sr. was reportedly from Germany and had stowed away on a coal barge to enter the country. He may of came in at Port Galveston in Texas as Texas is the state where our story begins. In the early 1880s the wagon trains were becoming a thing of the past the railroads were moving people as well as freight. The frontier was changing, the railroad was coming of age. The wagon-trains provided a means by which a man without stagecoach fare could walk all, or part, of his way to his destination. At times they provided the means for a whole family to move in exchange for the labor of the head of the house. Some accepted this responsibility. The Louis and Clara Miller family were just that kind of a family. Clara had been married before to Franklin Howard and had children when she married Louis, in the course of her marriage to Louis she gave birth every other year and produced 6 boys and 2 girls. 5 of the boys grew up to become railroad men. The oldest of the 6 boys, Louis Clair Miller became a Constable in Prescott.(a minor law enforcement position) The Millers left Texas in 1884 to settle the Arizona territory. In the face of a hostile nature and several tribes of hostile Indians. The father of the family, Louis, never made it past Fort Huachuca , where he became a statistic in the Indian wars, being killed by marauding Apaches. The rest of the family settled in Prescott. For Clara raising her brood alone could not of been an easy task and for the most part she did well as Otto, Baldwin, William, Charles and Tobe all had successful careers with the railroads. The oldest daughter Minnie married Frederick J. Haas and moved to Douglas, AZ where Fred became the proprietor of the German Beer Hall and the Windsor Hotel. Florence the youngest girl was still living with her mother in 1900 when the census was taken. It is unknown when or if she married. The men who operated and maintained the railways were not as famous as the Arizona Outlaw and the rest of the Miller boys did not go down in Prescott history like their older brother L.C. Miller who at the time of his mother's death in 1906, he was in prison, although he was paroled the following year. Clara S. Miller's Phoenix obituary. on May 30, 1906 read. sons Will and Charles, both of whom were engineers in the employment of the S.F.P.& P. Railroad: B.O ( Baldwin) of Douglas, an engineer on the E.P. & S.W. Railroad: Mrs. Haas of Douglas and Otto V. Miller of this city. There wasn't any mention of L.C. Miller or his whereabouts. In 1897 Louis was out of work and out of money. Louis forged a check for $50 and headed for Mexico. Sheriff George C. Ruffner of Yavapai County caught up with him and put him in lock up in the Prescott jail. So how did Louis become a cohort in one of the most sensational crimes remembered in Yavapai County history? Louis was placed in the same jail with a train Robber ,James Parker. That had been place in jail the month before. after attempting to rob the westbound passenger train as it approached Peach Springs on Monday, February 8, 1897,Deputy Sheriff John Fletcher Fairchild, who happened to be on another train arriving from Kingman, soon joined the posse. While Louis and Parker were in jail they planed and carried out a jail break. Parker killed attorney Lee Norris that heard Jailer R. W. Meador when he screamed for help the Jailer was able to get three shots off at the prisoners during the jailbreak. Soon after the escaped men split up. The account of what happened over the next five days can be followed in the old Prescott newspapers. The head line in The Arizona Miner and Arizona Journal On Wednesday, May 12th read Pursuit of the Outlaws. By Saturday Miller had been captured the head lines indicated that, Miller captured at Jerome last night. the detailed stories in the news went as follows. A telegraph was received at the Prescott Sheriffs office the following day just before noon, stating that Deputies Fletcher Fairchild of Coconino county, who participated in the original capture of Parker in February, was leaving Winslow in order to intercept Parker. Fairchild was Miller's brother-in-law having married Louis's older half sister Pearl Howard in Texas about 1883 before coming to the Arizona territory with the Miller family. Officer Fairchild had been left a widower in the fall of 1887 when his young wife of 21 died he had sense remarried. but was still apparently very loyal to the Millers. Fairchild wasn't the only family member that became involved before Louis turned himself in, his brother Otto was arrested, presumably in connection with the case. He was released a few days later there being no evidence to connect him to the escape, The plot was planned entirely on the inside of the jail and executed from there without any outside assistance and without the knowledge of anyone on the outside. It was through the efforts of his sister Minnie Haas, that Miller, was induced to give himself up. He was in pitiful condition weak from his wounds in the left leg and the left side which were not, of a serious nature, he could scarcely muster courage to reach the place where he has been cared for since Wednesday morning after having made his escape on Sunday . Above all things, Miller had no wish to see Prescott, and for many reasons it was deemed advisable not to take him to Prescott as he was afraid of being lynched so a team of officers was secured Miller was at once taken by his brother in-law Fletcher Fairchild, in a private conveyance, from town, to Flagstaff Although his crime itself was but a small one, his association with one of the most foul murders that has ever blotted the pages of the history of the Arizona territory, was enough to hang him in the old way. Fairchild was the only man Miller would surrender to. Little could be learned from the people instrumental in his surrender here, as they refused to talk or see a reporter, and it was only in the first excitement of the news, which was kept very quiet, that any facts of the case could be learned. Miller remarked that the jail breaking was a piece of foolhardiness on their part his especially- as his crime of forgery was for such a small amount, and could not have been very severe. A statement that Fairchild was sent for by interested parties was denied, but his arrival in Jerome was very opportune, to say the least. For 17 days an angry mob waited at the Prescott jail,in Yavapai Co.before Jim Parker was captured, he was captured and hung for the murder of assistant district attorney Lee Norris. Mrs. Haas and Deputy Fairchild's struggle to save L.C. didn't end with his surrender they both took the witness stand for the defense. Miller's life was saved although he did serve prison time. Romance Of L.C. Miller From Utah Newspaper March 1914. Hospital the Scene of Pretty Romance Blind Park City Miner Weds Nurse Who Soothed Him Back to Life HERE ON HONEYMOON Bride and Groom Talk Enthusiastically of Happiness That is Theirs. Declaring that his reward had been directed by the hand of God, L. C. Miller totally blinded when many lost their lives in a Park City Mine explosion last Thanksgiving Miller told yesterday of his romance with Emma Schultz a nurse at the hospital where he was soothed back to his life which lead to their marriage on Wednesday (25th March 1914). The marriage was the combination of a romance which lasted scarcely more than three months and during a part of that time Miller was not expected to live. Mrs. Schultz formally of Denver reached the Miner Hospital of Park City about two weeks after Miller had been taken there following his accident in the mine. She was immediately assigned to his case and at once a strong attachment was formed between the couple and they became inseparable although at the time in the early stages of Miller's confinement. Released From Hospital In the last month and a half Miller began to show steady improvement and about a week ago he was released from the hospital. His arm is still in a bandage and his eyes are not completely closed out but his hair is burned with powder marks. The marriage took place in Park City Wednesday at parsonage of the Rev. T.B. Cook Methodist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are in Salt Lake for a few days at the Peary Hotel A suit for damage in the sum of $30,000.00 has been filed by an attorney for Miller against the Daly Judge Mining Company. The corporation by which he was employed at the time of the accident. Miller said yesterday that he would probably remain in Utah until his damage suit was settled in the courts. Miller who has been a miner all his life, began his employment in the Daly Judge Mine last summer the explosion which resulted in the loss of his eyes and right hand was caused when Miller working with a pick struck a cap in a missed hole loaded with six sticks of dynamite. Charmed With Utah Relating his experience yesterday Miller said Utah had come to have a personal charm for him in the few months he had lived and worked there. Last summer and all fall and that before the explosion he had been seriously thinking of making a permeant home in the state. His home originally was in Bisbee, AZ. where he has relatives and where he intends to go with his wife to spend the remainder of his days. Mr. Miller said the accident at Park City was the first he had ever suffered as a miner and that he had never had to lay off work because of accident or sickness. Mrs. miller is apparently as her husband. She said yesterday just as Miller had said that she felt that their marriage had been the will of the lord and that she knew when she first saw Miller at the hospital that she must go threw life with him and help to make the world happy for him. Louis C. Miller's obituary. Portland, Oregon. MILLER-Late of 709 Hoyt St. Mar. 29 Louis C. Miller aged 62 years beloved husband of Emma A.,father of Granite and brother of Charles W. Miller of Portland. Funeral services Friday, April 1, at 11 A.M. at the Chapel of Miller and Tracey. Interment Lincoin Memorial Park. Granite Miller's obituary Miller-Granite, of rt 2, Rosedale rd., Beaverton: father of Miss Marsha Miller. Services Saturday 10 am, in FINLEY'S ROSE CHAPEL, SW Montgomery at 4th. Friends invited. Commitment Lincoin Memorial Park. Charles W. (Charley) Miller brother of Louis C. Miller. 1930 Fairview, Multnomah, Oregon census Charles W. Miller age 46 years old working for the railroad as an locomotive engineer. Living with wife Mary and her mother Eva F. Whalen. Charley-died of cancer- San Clamente, CA. 1963-railroad engineer- Portland Ore-retired 1945. Two months before Louis's accident in the mine brother Baldwin "Tobe" Miller was killed in a Collision Wednesday Morning, October 29,1913 MEETS HIS DEATH NEAR SPOKANE WASHINGTON. USGenWeb Project 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, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist.