Benedict 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, 1898. Pages 443-444

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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BENEDICT MILLER, of Grovena township, is one of the well-known and 
successful farmers of Moody county. He is a native of Switzerland, born 
October 21, 1842, a son of Benedict and Magdalena (Schenk) Miller.  
Benedict Miller, Sr., came to America in 1856, and located in Fayette 
county, Iowa, on a farm.  In Switzerland he was a contractor and 
builder by occupation, and was also an officer in the Swiss army and 
participated in the war of 1847.  He died in Moody county, South 
Dakota, in 1894, at the age of eighty-one years, nine months.  His 
faithful wife died in 1880 at the age of sixty-six years.  They were 
the parents of six children, five of whom are now living, viz.:  John 
F., Clermont, Iowa; Benedict; Christian, Clermont, Iowa; Magdalena 
Frautschy, Elgin, Iowa; and Esther Callender, Clarion, Iowa.

Our subject was educated and grew to thirteen years of age in 
Switzerland.  He then moved to America with his parents and aided his 
father in clearing and subduing a timber farm in Iowa, and worked at 
hauling wood in winter, and at the age of twenty-one began life for 
himself.  During the Civil war he followed the army for a time, but not 
as a soldier, and subsequently worked on a steamboat on the Mississippi 
river.

In 1863 Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Isely, a 
native of Switzerland, and daughter of Jacob and Ann (Marty) Isely, who 
came to America in 1846 and located in New Philadelphia, Ohio, where 
they lived seven years.  The mother died in 1852, and the family then 
moved to Fayette county, Iowa, where the father died in 1885.  Mrs. 
Miller was born March 30, 1845.

From Iowa, Mr. and Mrs. Miller moved in January, 1867, to Green county, 
Wisconsin, where he followed farming and cheese-making until the spring 
of 1882, when he came to Dakota and settled on the farm on which he 
still resides.  A small house had been erected on the farm he bought 
and sixty acres had been broken, and Mr. Miller at once began farming, 
at which he has since been very successful. At one time he owned one 
thousand six hundred acres of farm land which he has apportioned among 
his children.  In addition to farming Mr. Miller has given special 
attention to stock raising, and has a fine line of high grade stock.  
His farm is well-improved, furnished with a comfortable and commodious 
residence and fine barn and outbuildings, and ranks among the best 
grain and stock farms in Grovena township. Politically Mr. Miller is a 
reformer, and has always taken a leading part in all matters that in 
his judgment were for the good of the public and his adopted country.  
He has been an officer in the school district ever since coming to the 
state until last fall, when his son, C. B., took his place.  His 
children are all well educated, some of them graduates from the 
commercial college at LeMars, Iowa.  While in Wisconsin he was a leader 
in the Grange movement, and also in the movement of the Reform party in 
that state against railroad domination. He also took a leading part in 
the organization of the American or Greenback party, and was also one 
of the organizers of the Independent party in South Dakota and later 
the Populist party.  He has invariably been a delegate to the county 
conventions and has held many of the township offices, was one of its 
organizers and helped to name it.  He is a member of the judicial 
committee and has been manager of the Farmers' Elevator Company, of 
Egan, South Dakota.  He is vice-president of the Moody County Bank at 
Flandreau, treasurer of the Moody County Pioneer Society and treasurer 
of the Farmers' Insurance Company, of Moody county.  He is a gentleman 
of the highest character, possessed of an excellent education and a 
wide knowledge of men and the world.  No man in the county has taken a 
more prominent place in general matters than has the subject of this 
sketch.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the happy parents of a bright and interesting 
family of eight children, as follows:  Rosina E. Waxdahl, Matilda 
Kohler, Christian B., John W., Charles F., Edmond J., Emma M. and Otto 
P.  The parents are members of the German Reformed church, but attend 
the Methodist church.