Henry Miller Biography This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 228 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm HENRY MILLER, deceased, was the founder of the town of Miller, Hand county, South Dakota, and no citizen has ever taken a more active part in its upbuilding improvement and advancement. He belonged to that class of representative men to whom the west owes its development, and his life was so well and honorably spent that he received the high regard of all with whom he came in contact. Mr. Miller was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, April 11, 1825. His father, William Miller, married a Miss Smith, and in 1836 emigrated with his family to Iowa. He was one of the honored pioneers of Cedar county, that state, locating in the county when it contained only about twenty-five families. There he carried on agricultural pursuits and also built a mill, which at his death became the property of his son, Henry. He was one of the first commissioners of Cedar county, and voted to locate the county seat at Tipton, where it has since remained. Henry Miller spent the first eleven years of his life in the Buckeye state and then accompanied his parents to Iowa. He was the third in a family of eight children, and in his youth he worked on the home farm and in his father's mill, following the latter trade for many years. He operated the mill from 1847 to 1854, later engaged in farming and stock-raising, and during the civil war purchased horses for the government. In 1862 he entered three hundred and twenty acres of land in Benton county, Iowa, and the following year removed his family to his purchase and began the development of what became one of the finest farms in that locality. In 1863 he also built and for a number of years operated the finest grain warehouse and lumber yard in Blairstown. Always greatly interested in educational matters, in 1868 he was one of the projectors of the Blairstown Academy, which has become a noted institution. At one time he was its sole owner, assuming that relationship to the institution in order to keep it from passing out of the sphere for which it was intended. In 1870 Mr. Miller went to Texas, purchased five thousand acres of land, and upon his return endeavored for several years to organize a colony to form a settlement in the Lone Star state, but the colonization scheme was finally abandoned and the land was sold. On the 7th of July, 1881 Mr. Miller first visited Hand county. He was accompanied by his son Eudell J., and from Huron they drove across the country to the present site of Miller. They came with the intention of selecting a location, and being pleased with the country they staked out claims, and on the 8th of September the father laid out the town of Miller. The following spring he brought his family to this place, locating on ground ad joining the town site. He went to Chicago and succeeding in inducing the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company to grant very low rates to "Henry Miller's Colony," and thus populated this locality, many families coming from the neighborhood of his old Iowa home. From that time until his death Mr. Miller gave his attention to farming and handling the town property. In 1885, he also established the Miller Roller Mills, which are operated by his sons, and which furnish an excellent market for the wheat raised in this locality. He was also instrumental in establishing the Hand County Press, in January, 1882, the first paper ever published between Huron and Pierre. It was edited by his sons W. H. and E. J. and to that journal more than to any other agency the county is indebted for immigration. Mr. Miller was also greatly interested in stock raising, and as he believed in the nutritious grasses of the prairies his advice to the new settlers was "stick to the native grasses and you will do well." Mr. Miller never for a moment abated his energies toward building up the town and county, and his name well deserves to be put first upon the roll of honored pioneers. On the 6th of September, 1849, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Miller and Miss Nancy Johnson, a native of Ohio and -a daughter of William and Cassandra (Combs) Johnson, who removed to Iowa during her early girlhood. Unto our subject and his wife were born eleven children: Hannibal B., now of Iowa; William H.; Eudell J., John D., Charles and Homer M., all residents of Miller; Carrie A., wife of P. H. Coquillette; Edwin L., of Miller, and three who died in infancy. In early life Mr. Miller gave his political support to the Democracy, later was an advocate of Greenback principles and cast his last vote with the Populist party. The cause of education ever found in him an active and ardent friend, and in 1882 he succeeded in establishing a subscription school in the new town of Miller. In 1858 he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1870 joined the Evangelical church, in which he afterward served as class leader and Sunday school superintendent for a number of years. He was a most public-spirited and progressive citizen, and withheld his support from no measure calculated to advance the intellectual, moral, social or material welfare of the community. His business reputation was unassailable, and his name was a synonym of honor in all trade transactions. He commanded the respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact, and when his life's labors were ended, February 15, 1897, at the age of seventy-one, his death was deeply mourned by all who knew him. His widow, a most estimable lady, still survives, and the family is one of prominence in the county.