Jackson County, West Virginia Biography of LEWIS H. MILLER This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. 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 WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 629-630 Jackson LEWIS H. MILLER, a successful attorney of the Ripley bar, has engaged in many useful activities during his brief lifetime of little more than thirty years. He is a man of exceptional educational attainments, and in former years was a teacher. He also has a record of service in the World war. Mr. Miller was born at Millwood in Jackson County, November 19, 1890. Remotely the Miller family is of Ger- man origin, and the name was established in Pennsylvania in Colonial times. His grandfather, Lewis M. Miller, was born in Pennsylvania in 1812, and settled as a pioneer in what is now Jackson County, West Virginia, and was a farmer near Millwood, where he died in 1889. He married Elizabeth Shinn, a life long resident of what is now Jack- son County. Leander Miller was born on the present site of Millwood in 1850, and has lived in that vicinity all his life. Altogether he has taught in the rural and graded schools of the county forty-five years, but in conjunction has also conducted his farm, and though he started farm- ing with limited capital he has developed an extensive estate. In the line of public duty he served as deputy sheriff four years under Sheriff J. O. Shinn and four years under Sheriff I. M. Adams. He is a republican, an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Ashton Lodge, F. and A. M., at Ravenswood and the Knights of Pythias. Leander Miller married Jessie B. Harrison, who was born near Point Pleasant in Mason County in 1870. Of their large family Lewis H. is the oldest. Benjamin W., now in the insurance and real estate business at Parkersburg and also a farmer, was a first lieutenant in the 89th Division of the American Expedition- ary Forces, spent one year in France, and was on duty in the St. Mihiel campaign. Blanche is the wife of Henry F. Pfost, cashier of the Bank of Ripley, and the other child- ren are: Miss Edith, at home; Kate, wife of Dr. Ray Kessel, a physician and surgeon at Charleston; Miss Luella, a teacher in the public schools at Ripley; Pauline, a student in Ohio University at Athens; John, a student in the Ravenswood High School; Hazel, attending high school at Charleston; and Starling, a pupil in the Ripley public school. Lewis H. Miller spent his early life on his father's farm, attended rural schools, and at the age of sixteen taught for one year in Cooper District of Mason County. There- after he taught school alternately with his advanced work as a student and partly paid the expenses of his liberal education. For one year he attended West Virginia Wes- leyan College at Buckhannon, and spent five years in the regular course of Ohio University at Athens, where he graduated in 1913 with the degree of A. B. He was a member of the Sigma Pi college fraternity. On graduat- ing in 1913 he became superintendent of schools at Ripley remaining there one year and for another year was super- intendent of schools at Alderson, a town located in both Greenbrier and Monroe counties. Mr. Miller graduated LL. B. in 1917 from the West Vir- ginia University Law School, and was admitted to the bar October 2, 1917. He at once began practice at Ripley, but turned over his accumulating interest as a lawyer to enlist in the Aviation Corps of the U. S. Navy on July 1, 1918. The first month he was stationed at Cherry Stone Island Naval Base off Cape Charles, Virginia, was then transferred to Norfolk until October 1, 1918, and was on the U. S. S. Pilgrim, but subsequently transferred, to Pelham Bay Park in the Officers Training School and on November 1, 1918, joined the Officers Training School at Princeton University, where he remained until December 22, 1918, when he was relieved from active duty but was held in the Reserve Corps until September, 1921, when he was finally discharged. Since his war service Mr. Miller has been busy with his general law practice at Ripley, being a member of the firm of Miller, Boggess & Bell, with offices on Front Street, a partnership that was formed January 1, 1921. Mr. Miller is a member of the Jackson County and West Virginia State Bar Associations, is a director and member of the Executive Board of the Bank of Ripley, a member of the Advisory Board of the West Virginia Mortgage and Discount Corporation at Charleston, and has accumulated some valuable property interests. He is a republican, a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Ripley Lodge No. 16, F. and A. M., Purnell Lodge of Perfection, 14th degree of the Scottish Rite at Parkers- burg, O. S. Long Chapter of the Rose Croix at Parkers- burg, Athens Lodge No. 109, Knights of Pythias, at Athens, Ohio, and Union Orange No. 90 in Jackson County. December 23, 1917, at Millwood, Mr. Miller married Miss Freda Rambow, daughter of William H. and Emma (Polsley) Rambow, who still live on their farm near Mill- wood. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have one daughter, Ruth Lee, born January 6, 1920.