Ohio Biographies

John M. Miller

Not once but several times in this work the reader will have noticed references to the high character of the work done in the old Beaver grade school in Beavercreek township in the days of a past generation when that school, which was giving a course akin to that of the present high school, had a reputation of more than local note. In those days twenty dollars a month was regarded as fair pay for the school teacher, but John M. Miller, during the time he had charge of the Beaver grade school, was paid one hundred dollars a month, a testimony to his fitness for the position that cannot be misunderstood. In that day the Beaver grade school ranked higher than the seminary at Xenia and the academies at Dayton and young men from both of these towns gladly placed themselves under the tutelage of Mr. Miller, who taught surveying in addition to the ordinary branches of learning that constituted the course in the old grade school. At the time of his death Mr. Miller was representing this district in the Legislature.

Hon. John M. Miller was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1830, and was ten years of age when he came to Ohio with his parents, Robert and Nancy (Minnich) Miller, the family locating in this county in 1840. Five vears later the Miller family moved to Indiana, but seven years later, in 1852, John M. Miller returned to Greene county and in that same year entered Miami University, from which institution he was graduated in 1856. He then took up the study of law in Xenia and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. In 1862 he was elected to represent this legislative district in the General Assembly of the state of Ohio and was ser\ing in that capacity when he died on January 9, 1863, a contemporary account stating that the arduous labors of his legislative service undoubtedly hastened his death. Mr. Miller left a widow and two children, a son, Charles Edward, who died at the age of twenty-one years, and a daughter, Luella, who is still living with her mother in the old Harbein home at Alpha. Mrs. Miller was born at Alpha, Hetty M. Harbein, daughter of John and Hetty (Herr) Harbein, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume, John Harbein having been regarded in his day as perhaps the wealthiest man in Greene county. The Harbein place at Alpha, now occupied by Mrs. Miller and her daughter, is perhaps richer in historic associations than any single spot connected with the development of Greene county, for on that spot stood the little log cabin of Owen Davis in which was held the meeting at which formal organization of Greene county was effected in 1803 and in which the first court held in Greene county performed its functions.

An older chronicle refers to John M. Miller as having been essentially a self-made man, and continues the narrative thus: "His father being poor, he was obliged to devote his minor years to helping on the home farm—inclement weather only being called his own. On such days he toiled with the axe, maul and mattock—cutting cordwood, splitting rails and clearing ground—to earn means to purchase books and pay for tuition when he could go to school. His evenings were all spent in study (his page being lighted from scraps of burning bark), and by diligent application he soon got to master the elementary branches and was able to teach a common school. By alternate teaching and rough manual labor he husbanded enough to commence a college course. It was yet, however, to be much interrupted and himself to be reduced to many straits before it was completed—losing at one time a year and a half, and in all, two years of a four-years course. The question is, in the reader's mind, 'Did he graduate?' Yes! 'How did he rank?' Number one! 'What! in two years of study?' Exactly so—and this not consecutive, but made up, in truth, of mere fragments of time. Moreover, he added both German and French to the usual college course. And here we may safely rest the claims of Mr. M. to genius and perseverance; for we doubt if any other institution in the United States has recorded such an achievement. We once read of one who performed such a feat, but who won, at the same time the honors of the martyr and the victor.

"Mr. M. was very tall and rather slender, but he was as straight as an arrow. His head was very well shaped. His hair was dark and worn rather long his beard was full, but thin; and his features were regular, but slightly prominent. His manners were very inviting, his disposition genial, and his friendship sincere and cordial. As a representative he was faithful to his trust—always at his post and always attentive to what was passing before him. He was a very good speaker and reasoned well, and with careful culture would have soon become a leading man in the state."