Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
MICHAEL MILLER, one of the well-known citizens of Tippecanoe County, who
has been identified with the interests of Tippecanoe Township since
1856, is a native of Ohio, born in Montgomery County, July 7, 1834. His
parents, SAMUEL and MARGARET (HOOVER) MILLER, were natives of
Pennsylvania, and his grandparents were natives of Germany. In 1845,
when the subject of this sketch was eleven years old, his parents
removed with their family, then consisting of five children, to Cass
County, Indiana, where the father died October 4, 1846. He was born in
1807.
SAUMEL MILLER and wife had born to them six children, the youngest being
born in Indiana. Four of the children are yet living--MICHAEL, our
subject; MRS. ELIZABETH BICKLE, of Missouri; MRS. MARY SENSENBAUGH, of
Perry Township, this county, and MRS. SUSANNAH SWITH, of Westerville,
Illinois. ABRAHAM died in Tippecanoe County, leaving a wife and four
children, and another son, JACOB, who was a member of Company A,
fortieth Indiana Infantry, was killed at the battle of Missionary Ridge,
November 25, 1863. The mother is still living, aged seventy-five years,
is in good health, and tends to her household duties. She has had
thirty grandchildren, of whom seventeen are yet living, and she has six
great-grandchildren.
MICHAEL MILLER, whose name heads this sketch, was reared to the vocation
of a farmer, which he has always followed, and his education was
obtained in the pioneer schools of his neighborhood, taught in rude log
cabins with puncheon floor and clapboard roof. He located on his
present farm in Tippecanoe Township, in 1856, at which time his land was
entirely unimproved, and heavily timbered. His farm now contains
ninety-six acres of well improved land which he has accomplished by hard
work and persevering industry.
MR. MILLER was a gallant soldier in the late war, enlisting August 2,
1862, in Company F, Ninety-ninth Indiana Infantry, and July 21, 1864, he
was severely wounded near Atlanta, being shot in the left leg just above
the knee. From the result of this wound he was confined in field
hospital until September 19, of that year. MR. MILLER was always with
his command, and ready for any duty he had to perform, and never lost
but one turn of guard duty, from the date of his enlistment until
wounded. He received an honorable discharge in June, 1865, when he
returned to his home in Tippecanoe Township.
He was married May 26, 1870, to MISS CAROLINE ELIZABETH GHER, a native
of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of DAVID and ELIZABETH
(LONG) GHER, both now deceased, the former dying at Cassville, Indiana,
in 1885, and the latter in Clinton County, Indiana, in 1871. MR. and
MRS. MILLER have two children--JACOB O., born March 27, 1871, and FLORA
ELLEN, born February 17, 1873. MR. MILLER is classed among the
public-spirited men of his township, and every worthy enterprise has his
encouragement and support.
Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party, casting his first
presidential vote for Buchanan. Both he and his wife are members of the
Church of God.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana
pp. 531-532