Solano-Butte County CA Archives Biographies.....Miller, Meredith Raines 1829 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 4, 2007, 10:29 pm Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891) MEREDITH RAINES MILLER, one of the oldest pioneers of the coast, came to Oregon in 1847, to California in 1849 and to the immediate vicinity of Vacaville in 1851, since which time he has been a resident here. He was born in Newbern, the county-seat of Montgomery County, West Virginia, in 1818. His father, Abraham Miller, was a native of Pennsylvania and of German descent, and his mother, nee Mary Raines, was a native of Virginia and of Scotch descent. In 1826 the family removed from Virginia to Illinois, locating forty-five miles east of Springfield, on the north fork of the Sangamon River. Meredith's uncle, Daniel Miller, had moved with his family to that vicinity, locating the quarter section on which the city of Decatur is now situated, and was the first man. to stretch a surveyor's chain in Illinois, under a contract with the United States Land Department, and surveyed from what is now East St. Louis to Chicago. In 1828 Abraham Miller moved with his family to the lead-mine region in southern Wisconsin, where he remained until 1848, engaged in farming and mining. In 1847 the subject of this sketch, as before intimated, joined a wagon train for Oregon, and drove an ox-team in consideration for the transportation of his trunk and clothes and subsistence and mutual protection. Leaving Independence, Missouri, May 1Q, he arrived at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in October following. His first work there was; the erection of a house for the man for whom lie drove the ox team across the continent. He and a friend who had come West with him and helped in the building of the house, started up the Willamette Valley to look up a claim, which they located about 100 miles from Portland on the Willamette River. On returning, and while preparing to purchase supplies and implements to improve their claims, they heard news of the Whitman massacre, in which the Indians had killed Dr. Whitman arid his wife and all the men but one, who escaped, and took the women and children prisoners, at the Methodist Mission on the Walla Walla River. The local authorities raised a command of about 500 men to fight the Indians and at the same time selected nine men to accompany a man named Meek on a trip to Washington, District of Columbia, to enlist the service of troops and obtain other recognition of the Territory of Oregon. Mr. Miller was selected as one of those men. They accompanied the troops as far as the scene of the massacre, having two days' fight with about 1,000 Indians near the Umatilla River. After going beyond the Blue mountains they returned and began to recross the continent, after encountering many great difficulties and hardships, they completed their journey, stopping at Fort Boyce and Fort Hall on the way, finally meeting the westbound emigrants. Meek went on to Washington while the other men remained in Missouri. The result of Meek's mission was the appointment by the Government of Territorial officers for Oregon and a detachment of troops for protection against Indians. In the fall of 1847 Abraham Miller sold out in Wisconsin and moved into Missouri, where Meredith met him on his return to Oregon in the spring of 1848. Remaining in Missouri until the summer of 1849, he joined a party coming to California by way of Santa Fe. In this party there were eighty persons, well equipped with teams and supplies. Near Santa Fe they sold their outfit and came with pack animals the remainder of the trip, reaching California by way of Colonel Cook's road to Los Angeles, and thence they came to San Francisco on the schooner J. R. Whiting, arriving about the middle of February, 1850. Mr. Miller immediately went to the mines on Feather River, reaching Long's Bar early in March, 1850. He remained in the mines until August, 1851, meeting with good success. He then came to Pleasant Valley and located on a Government claim of 160 acres, on which he lived for thirty-three years. Later he purchased an adjoining quarter section. This ranch he entered with a land warrant which he had received from the Government for military service in the Black Hawk war in 1832, when he was a member of Captain Moore's company, which was recruited at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. At his new home here in California he first engaged in the raising of fruit and live-stock, and later he substituted general farming for the specialty of livestock. He sold his place in 1883 and removed to Vacaville, where all his interests are now centered. He is a member of Vacaville Lodge, No. 134, F. & A. M., of the Royal Arch Chapter, No. 43, Suisun, and also of the Solano County Association of California Pioneers. In 1852 he made a trip to the East by way of Panama, New Orleans and Mississippi River to Missouri, where he married his first wife, Miss Mary Ann Troutman, a native of Kentucky. The same season he came with his bride and a younger brother across the plains with ox teams, arriving in California in October. Mr. Miller has made the trip across the plains by wagon and horseback and on foot four times, one of these, in returning from Oregon, being the most difficult and dangerous journey, and he has also crossed the continent twice by rail. Mr. Miller has four children by his first wife, namely: Minerva C., now the wife of J. B. Griffin, of Yolo County; James M., now in the drug business in Vacaville; Cornelia T. and Meredith R. In 1870 his wife died, and March 12, 1883, he married Miss Harriet Chrisman, a native of Missouri, and she died March 27, 1877. Additional Comments: Extracted from Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California. Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of Prominent Citizens of To-day. "A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendents." – Macauley. CHICAGO THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1891. 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