McDonough ILGenWeb

MILLER, William, who is well known as one of the worthiest among the retired farmers living in the town of Tennessee, McDonough County, Ill., was born in Summit County, Ohio, August 28, 1830, a son of Charles and Sallie (Bryan) Miller — the father being a native of the State of Connecticut, and the mother of Irish birth. William Miller is the seventh in a family of ten children born to his parents — five boys and five girls. The family came to Bethel Township, McDonough County, in 1854, where they settled on a farm. William lived at home until 1858, assisting in the farm work and enjoying the facilities for study afforded by the public schools in his neighborhood. After leaving home he rented farms for several years in this vicinity, and in 1883 bought a farm of eighty acres half a mile north of the town of Tennessee, where he lived until 1900. He then sold this farm and purchased another of eighty acres in Bethel Township, which he occupied until the spring of 1903. This he also sold, and bought property in Tennessee village, where he is living in comfortable retirement and respected by all for his estimable qualities of head and heart.

On June 27, 1858, Mr. Miller was joined in wedlock with Esther Jane McClure, who was born and schooled in Bethel Township. Ten children have been the offspring of this union, namely: James H.; Charles; Annie (Mrs. F. K. Williams), deceased; Robert; Mary F. (Mrs. Martin Laughlin), deceased; George W.; Laura F., who died in 1892, at the age of twenty-five years; Wealthy, who is with her parents; Asa, and Francis Edwin. In political affairs the subject of this sketch espouses the cause of the Republican party.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907, volume 2, page 960, extracted 12 Sep 2019 by Norma Hass.