WILLIAM MILLER

William Miller, an honored and well-to-do farmer of Flint River township, is a son of Christ and Mary (Ritter) Miller. He was born Sept. 22, 1842, in Yearstead, Prussia, Germany. After completing his early schooling and training in the free schools of his native place he was apprenticed to a tailor, from whom he learned the trade of a first-class tailor. He was busily employed as a journeyman with several of the leading tailors in the city of his birth till 1866, when he took a steamer from Hamburg, Germany, to England, and thence came in an old-time sailing vessel to New York, where he spent some three months quickly learning the American methods of tailoring. July, 1866, was the date of his coming to Burlington, where he followed his vocation for five years with one of the merchant tailors. At the expiration of this time, 1871, he made a radical change in his business, buying twenty acres of farm land from Robert Hare, in Flint River township, where he lived for seven years, adding in the meantime twenty acres more. He then traded his forty acres to a man by name of Fred Schultz, for one hundred and sixty acres of land in Nebraska. A little difficulty arose, and he was obliged to take back twenty acres of the original farm, and then later sold that, and traded with Edward Johnson the one hundred and sixty acres in Nebraska for three pieces of property in Flint River township, - sixty-one acres on Section 15, eighty-one acres on Section 9, and one hundred and forty-one acres on Sections 10 and 15. When he took possession of this place it was in a very wild condition with unbroken prairies, and much of it containing old dead trees and huge stumps, with no buildings on it at all. Mr. Miller has erected many necessary outbuildings for his convenience, and also erected a comfortable house in the year 1883. The house is of stone, cemented on the outside. Beside his general farming he raises a good deal of stock – about twenty head of cattle, eight head of horses, and from twenty to forty hogs annually. One can hardly believe his beautiful home of today is the one that was in such an uncultivated condition such a short time ago. In 1872, Mr. Miller married Miss Dorothy Schultz, a daughter of Andrew Schultz. Mrs. Miller was born Nov. 30, 1846, in Quinabeck, Prussia, Germany. This union was blessed with eight children: Louisa, born June 18, 1873, who is Mrs. William Isoman, of Burlington; William, born Aug. 25, 1874, resides on eighty acres in Flint River township; Emma, born January, 1870, at home; Minnie, born Feb. 2, 1878, is the wife of William Schultz, whose sketch also appears in this review, and lives in Flint River township, on the property recently owned by William Griffith; Edward, born April 28, 1881; Clara, born Nov. 1, 1883; Herman, born April 29, 1885; and John, born July 5, 1887. The last four children are at home with their father. Mrs. Miller died July 28, 1899. Mr. Miller is a member of the German Lutheran church. In all the work of improvement and general progress of the township, Mr. Miller has always done his part, and as a citizen is one of the most highly respected in the community.