BIO: John Q. MILES, Centre County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including 
the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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  JOHN Q. MILES, treasurer of Centre county, is one of the most popular 
officials at the county seat, and illustrates the best type of American 
citizenship in both public and private life.
  Mr. Miles was born March 17, 1843, in Clearfield county, a son of 
John and Elizabeth (Wilson) Miles, and has always been identified with 
this section. The schools near his early home afforded him a practical 
education, and in 1861, while yet a mere boy, he gave proof of his 
courage and patriotism by enlisting from Clearfield county in Company 
I, 84th P. V. I. His gallant conduct at the front won him a reputation 
as a brave fighter, but after nine months of service a fever, brought 
on by exposure and hardships, so weakened his system that he was 
discharged for disability. In May, 1862, he located in Centre county, 
where in 1865 he married 

444  COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.  

Lydia A. Richards, a native of that county, and three children: Lizzie, 
Maggie and John, brighten their home. John Q. Miles' election in 1893 
to the office of county treasurer caused him to remove to Bellefonte, 
but previously he had his residence at Martha Furnace in Bald Eagle 
Valley. Witty and genial, Mr. Miles has the happy faculty of making 
friends, whom his sterling qualities of character bind to him with the 
lasting tie of respectable esteem. In politics he is a Democrat.
  The ancestors of our subject were early settlers in the City of 
Brotherly Love, where Gen. Samuel Miles, his great-grandfather, of 
Revolutionary fame, resided, and of which city he was mayor. John 
Miles, our subject's grandfather, was born there. He became prominent 
in the iron industry, and at one time was interested in the development 
of Centre county. Our subject's father, John Miles (2) was born in the 
arsenal at Philadelphia. With an uncle he came to Centre county, and 
built and operated Centre Furnace and the McCoy Iron Works. Milesburg 
was named in their honor, and at that time, as in the present, the 
family name was a synonym for business ability and enterprise combined 
with public spirit.