By Rev. Merle C. Rummel

William Miller Letters

William Toney Newspaper Article

Genealogy of the Hart‑Lybrook Families

THE OLDEST HOUSE  IN UNION COUNTY, INDIANA, NEAR COLLEGE CORNER

The Lybrook Cemetery ‑ History

Kanawha Trace Way Bill

Appendix 1:   THE MILLER LETTERS

These letters were found behind a corner cabinet in the home of William and Mary Miller.  William was the son of Tobias Miller and the families moved to LaPorte County in 1833.  Mary was the daughter of Col. John and Nancy Miller.  As will be noted on the letters, they lived near Contraras, on Pleasant Run.  She had a sister, Elizabeth, and four brothers, Martin (wife Cassandra), John (wife Emily), Thomas (marries Sally, then Sarah), Benjamin Franklin (marries Lorinda).  These letters were hand carried as people traveled between Union Co. and St. Joseph Co, IN.  Spelling and grammar are as seen in original manuscripts.

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To: Wm and Mary Miller  from John and Nancy Miller Union Township, Union County, Indiana   June the 1, 1833

       Honoured Son and Daughter  we received your letter bearing date May the 20, 1833 which gave us great satisfaction to hear that you had got to your journeys end in safety and good health which we are all enjoying at this time hoping that few lines may find you still enjoying that estimable blessing.  Son John had a vilent headache for four or five days last week but is now well.  Abraham Millers John departed from this life on Sunday after you left here.  We have had no word from Son Thomas since you left here.  We have had very seasonable weather since you left here rather cool latterly;  Day before yesterday morning a little frost to be seen etc.  Wheat crops looks verry flattering Corn looks well, great prospect of froot of every description the greatest prospesct of a beech mast that ever has been since we have lived in the country.

       Markets are about as they was when you left flower rather better.  The neighbours are general well so we conclude by subscribing ourselves your loveing fahter and mother.

       To Wm and Marry Miller                      # John and Nancy Miller

Addressed to:  Mr. William Miller       South Bend   St. Joseph County        Indiana

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To:  MARY MILLER from Emily Miller         Billingsville, Ind.        February 8th 1834

Dear Sister

       I embrace the opertunity of writing to you for the first time since we parted.  I have often thought of writing to you but it has been neglected, you must excuse me for sutch delay you must not think we have forgotten you yet, though we are at a great distance from each other perhaps out thoughts often meet half way

       We are all well at present and hope you are enjoying the same blessing, as I esteem health the greatest fortune we can possess we aught to think ourselves happy in its posesion

       I have nothing perticular to write you at this time though a short letter is better than none.  Father and mother were here a couple of weeks ago they ware well, we think likely we will go to see them tomorrow I have not been their latly when I saw Elizabeth last she talked of writing to you before long  I do not know wether she has or not.  we received a letter from Brother Tho some time since he ws married on the 3 of oct to Miss Susan Young I supose he has found one to please him at last he is only 31.  Sister Mary write soon to us and write along letter and then I will know beetter what to write  I have nothing worth writing at thihs time, our little boys grow finely I expect you would not know them  Benjamin S sais aunt Polly is gone to the St. Joseph.  Clark begins to talk prety smart  you must excuse all defects in this letter and try to write us a better one so I shall come to aclose I shall only add that we would like to see you very mutch you must tell us wether you expect to come to see us next fall or not.  so no more at present but

                                                       remain your afectionate Sister

Mrs Mary Miller                                                      Emily Miller

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To:  William Miller                   from John Miller          February the 8  1834

Dear Sir              I take my pen in hand to wright to you and in form you that we are all well and hope that these few lines may finde you in like helth

       I have nothing perticular to wright at thihs tim but we are all dooing very well  I have had very good luck the last year  I have got ouot of det and have a little surples left   I have inlarged my farm a considerable  I am going to put in a bout eight acres of new ground in the spring and I put in a bout  three in wheet

       We hear from you all once in a while and hear nothing bad about any of you but we hear that Jacob Miller still follows his old practis of stealing  I heard that he stold some flower from you and that  you attacted him about it and he trimbiled very mutch and I did not understand what the result was and I want you to wright to me and tell me the facts about thes things I hear other things.  I want you to write me his character in full and want you to do it as quicke as posable so no more at present but remain your sisnsear well wisher

                                                       John Miller to William Miller

Addressed to:   Mr William Miller        Portage peraree St Joseph County  Indiana

                             South bend post office

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To:  Mary Miller            from Ellizabeth Miller                   December the 28 1839

Dear Sister i once more take up my pen to informe you that we are all well at this time and hope these few lines may find you and yours enjoying the same blessing  I have got quite harty agane and a bout as fleshy as ever i was ‑‑‑‑ I received your letter favored by Jacob Miller which gave us great satisfaction to hear that you was once more enjoying food helth;   you stated in your letter that you have times quite easy it realy seames so for you have once more taken time to write me a letter and i hope times continue so with you that you may write to me agane  Benjamin received a letter from Brother Thomas not long since and they was all well Thomas was in again after he was on his visit he brought in some cattle to sell money being scarce he (not) only saved himself on them but he hnad the pleasure to meete an Uncle hear that he had never before sean  The next day after your Father and Mother in law had lef for hom Uncle martin Miller and his yongest son David Miller landed hear on a visit from pennsylvania they came by water and by the Stage they got hear on tusday evening and left the next saturday morning Father went with them to Abraham Reprogals he left them the nex Monday they alowed to leave for home in too weeks we have not herd from them since Father left them

       A few weeks ago we was visited by Samuel and Henry Darst from your cuntry they seemed to be purty well bleached with the ague and fevor Samuels cheeks had not the rosey hue they had when i saw him at your house last spring  they told us considerable a bout your cuntry all though they did not run it down nor prais it;  I understand that you have heard that it has been sickler hear las fall that it was with yuou the fall before if possable I hope you have to much sence to believe this tale and will consider the person that told you too much predigest in favor their cuntry for their own good  This cuntry was as helthy last fall as comen  to be sure their was with in five or six miles of us several deths  I hear the report was with you that their was three beried a day in Oxford is suppose their was three beried in one day their but it was but the one day and i supoose their was not as many beried their for a week before or since as their was in the one day  Their was a Mr Dunahew a son en law to the widow Munds who moved too Brookvilland himself wife and a prentus boy was taken sick  they then was brought to the widow Munds wher Mr Dunahew and the boy dide butt his wife recovred  It was said by some of their Dr that it ws the milk sickness some others sais it

was not

       Brother John and Benjamin is at this time at Cincinnati with their hogs their hands had returned home they say the highest they was ofred was three dollars seventyfive cents  Benjamin talked of salting his port so as to try and save himself he bought Stalk hogs last summer at a high price thinking that port wuold bare the same price it did last season he had a bout one hundred hed they was very fine hogs he thought they would avrige too hundrid and fifty

       Brother Martins family is all well at this time november the 28 they had their sixth son added to their family ant that rasing boys to an advantuge and they call his name Martin Miller i suppose they think he will be the last son but I hope they will have one more so they may have a Dr: ‑‑‑Brother Johns family is well about three weeks ago Jane had a boil under left eye but it has not left but a very small scare litt Mary grows finely her and Jane dos not favor atall.  Jane has black eyes and dark skin and Mary has blue eyes and fare skin

       I hav nothin more to write at presant only concerning men and their wives a parting this has become a comen thing hear Joseph Hartir and his last wife has parted also Dr. Gable and his wife has parted they had a son and it is dead he says he cold live with her if it ws not for her mother and her people they ag her up to extravegents and she obeys her mother rathe then her husband  Tell John I hope it will not be long til he can write me a letter  So Tell William he must write to us as soon as he can

                                                                      Elizabeth Miller

Mary Miller

Addressed to:   Mary Miller     St Joseph County        Indiana

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To:  MARY AND WILLIAM MILLER from THOMAS MILLER

                      Ramp Creek  Putnam County State of IN               May the 17th  1840 Dear Brother and sister  we take this opportunity to write you a few lines to let you know that we are all in reasonablehealth at this time hoping these few llines may find you in like health  I am in a great hurry at thhis time and my most earnest request is for you to write me a few lines by David and John Miller and the I will rite to you more lengthy and satisfactory  as I have wrote some four or five letters and have never rerceived a word of answer from you for three years and rite to me where to direct your letters to and write me letters an direct them to Bainbridge Post Office Putnam County Indiana

                                                     yours in great haste and respect etc

                      remember my best to your father and mother and all

                      enquiring friends etc

To:            WILLIAM & MARY MILLER from BENJAMIN MILLER

                               Pleasant Run In.  Nov.18,1841

Dear Brother & Sister‑.  I have once more taken my pen in hand to write you a few lines; although I have nothing particular to write to you, save that we are all well, at this time, and have enjoyed good health this season, and we earnestly hope these lines may find you all enjoying the same blessing; for health is a blessing and one for which our purest and most devoted thanks should be raised to our father in heaven, who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts ‑ "who is good unto all, and whose tender mercies are over all the works of his hands."

       We have had a general time of health in this country this season, less sickness, and fewer deaths, than we have formerally had, through summer and fall seasons.

       Times here continue hard, and business dull; however we are selling a good many more goods this fall than we did last, and chiefly for cash.  Produce of all kinds, except wheat, is verry low, wheat commands $1.00 in market Pork is likely to be verry low not more than 2 or 2 1/2 dollars pr hundred.  I am only feeding seventy this fall, and they are chiefly of my own raising; Corn is likely to be low not over 20 cts. and I suppose I can live if i get 2 1/2 for pork.

       In your last letter to father & mother you congratulate me verry much on my "pledge".  It is quite a happening, I must confess, to be presented with as fine a pledge as it was  we have named it Emeline Mary Elizabeth; here you say we gave it name enough, well we did, and it fattens on it finely, for it is the fatest little babe you ever saw ‑

       I must here notice your remarks concerning the Alanack.  You say "it is a correct calendar for this world, but I fear it will not do for the next world".  Now if you have only refference to the calendar part, I agree with you; for in the next world time will not be measured by days and weeks, months and years, but it will be one continual day without night.  Christ the great luminater, has risen there to set no more, his light will continue to shine forth, throughout the ceasless ages of eternity, to illuminate the spirits of a redeemed world;  But if you have refferenced to the doctrinal part of it, I am at issue with you, and supposing it to be that part you have refered will to, It will call forth my attention a few moments, to show you that it will do in the next world.  And in order that you may be benefitted by the few remarks I shall offer, I only ask of you to hear me candidly and patiently divesting yourself of all prejudice and preconseived opinion, and partiality to systems, so far at least, as to give my arguments all the weight they may be entitled to; and I pray and hope, that before i close i shall show you the beauty and loveliness there is in the doctrine I posses.  Now to the law and the tstimony, ‑ Prove all things hold fast that which is good.

       My belief that you think "will not do in the next world" is this,‑I trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, and Christ the Savior of the world;  that because he lives we shall live also.  I trust in the word of inspiration which declares that death, the devil and all his works shall be destroyed, that God will not cast off forever, but that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, and that all nations whom God has made, shall come and worship before him, and glorify his name.  I feel to praise God for the comfort I have derived in the belief of these glorious truths.  We love God because he first loved us.  Love is of God, and who so loveth is born of God.

       Feeling this spirit of benevelence, I take the scriptures as my guide, and there I find to my great consolation that God loves the world ‑ and will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth ‑ and has puposed to bring every knee to bow, and every tounge to confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and to bless all the hundreds of the earth by turning away every one of them from their inquity.  Is it unsafe to trust in such a foundation;  Will this not "do for the next world?"  Do you not trust in the mercy and goodness of God, or do you put your trust in your own peculiar feelings, in your formalities, prayers and church gowings.  If you do, your hope is like a spider's web, and you cannot experience rest and salvation, until the evil is removed from your mind, and your heart becomes warmed with that impartial love which brought the Son of God from his Father's bosom to bless and die for a sinful world.  And now the question presents itself, what was the design of God in sending his son Jesus Christ among mankind, if it was not to save them?  St. John said, "We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world".  Christ himself declared, "God sent not his Son into the world to condem the world, but that the world through him might be saved"; again I come not to judge the world, but to save the world; Christ gave himself a ransom for all; he tasted death for every man.  But not only this he was delivered for our offences, he also rose for our justification ‑ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world.  Let us look a little farther.  Was he qualified to accomplilsh his mission? had he the power given him?  In a prayer to his Father he said, thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life, to as many (all flesh) as were given him, ‑ Will he finish the work given him to do? Most certainly he will; For the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his had; he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.  Yes dear Brother; all shall be made alive in Christ, death the last enimy shall be destroyed, this moratl must put on immortality, this earthly must bear the image of the heavenly, we must become as the angels in heaven, for the oath of God is pledged for its fulfillment; and

all the creation shall be delivered from this bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  And in this expectation, I do rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  Will not the word and oath of God do to trust in for the "next world".  Why is it that you will not receive this testimony, and come out from the darkness of unbelief, and rejjoice in the hope of the glory of God?  For myself I must believe in what the Scriptures teach.  that there is fullness in Christ, for every son and daughter of the human family, for they expressly declare, that it is God's will that all should be saved.  God is omnipotent and omniscient, therefore his will cannot be frustrated; it must be accomplished in his own good way and time;‑ The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.  Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, and let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth.  The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas ‑ Let me now give you a few practical remarks, before I close, on this doctrine you think "will not do for the next world"  It is a firm belief in the benevolence and immutability of God's designs, that inclines my heart to love and adore his holy name.  It was a firm belief in God's goodness that made David exclaim, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.  It is the goodness of God that leadeth men to repentance.  Oh! we should not despair his goodness, or limit his riches.  It will incline our hearts to virtue.

       It is of all principles the most ennobling.  It refines and improves the powers of the soul.  If we sincerely believe that God is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works, that he is governed by love and good will in all his dealings with his creatures, our own feelings will be the same.  But if on the other hand, we believe our heavenly Father has made a portion of mankind to suffer throughout the wasteless ages of eternity, our belief will and must incline us to a similar disposition; relition is the imitation of the God  that is worshipped;  to imbibe the same disposition he entertains, to imitate him as the ruler in all human actions, Jesus Christ requires all men to be perfect.  Paul exhorts us to be followers of God.  Nothing short of Universalism in theory and practice can make mankinnd universally good in theory and practice.  Love to God and all mankind will lead to the practical love of all duty, to hope in the grace  of God for ourselves, those we love and all mankind.  It is true that dark clouds of error have taken deep root in many parts of this world, that the frightful and horrid doctrine of eternal woe is yet proclaimed from the sacred desk, by men who profess the name of Christian.  Alas!  how many horrors and fearful sights have been seen in imagination, by the victims of error and delusion!  How much torment and confusion has entered into the world by creeds of men!  But all these clouds and horrors and fearful imaginations are fast passing away; although their creeds have been repaired and garnished, they are fast crumbling to the dust ‑ and may God save their downfall.  The glorious truth of a world's salvation is fast spreading over the land, and may it go on conquering and to conquer until all enemies shall be subdued, and death the last enemy shall be destroyed, and until that victorious song shall be shouted in heaven, O! death where is thy sting? O! grave where is thy victory? And until the Lord of heaven and earth will gather together all nations, kindreds and tongues in one common family. Oh! Glorious period! Oh! happy time!  Then sin, and death and pain shall cease, and the Saviour of the world rejoice, and the ransomed millions of God's happy children join in singing praises to God and the Lamb for ever and ever.  This I have shown you what answers to make me happy and sustain me in this world and what I am willing to trust "will do for the next world".

       I now tender you my warmest thanks for your kind admonition and my well wishes for your continued health and prosperity ‑ and allow me to express a hope that in the perusal of these few lines they will inspire in your bosom an ardent and generous attachment to the whole family of mankind, and may it enable you and yours to enjoy that joy which is unspeakable and full of Glory, and may the rich blessings of God's impartial grace sustain you in all the trying scenes and afflictions of life, and give you a hope of a blessed immortality, is the fervent prayer of your brother ‑

                                  Benj. Miller

       To Wm & M. Miller

P.S.       I am not quite a Universalist preacher yet, as you have heard, only in the way I have just been preaching to you.  I have done a great deal of that lately ‑ Lorinda presents to you her love and best wishes.     B.M.

Addressed to:   William Miller, Esq.

                               South Bend, In.

To:  WILLIAM & MARY MILLER from BENJAMIN MILLER             Pleasant Run In.   Dec.24,1842

Dear Brother and sister‑:  I have once more taken up my pen to write you a fw lines, in answer to you last letters.  Father received your letter of the 19th Nov. which he, in consequence of being unable to write very well, requested me to answer.  We were verry glad to hear that you were all enjoying good health.  I have the pleasure of informing you that we are, and have been, enjoying verrry good health since I last wrote you.  Our last fall and summer seasons were remarkably healthy.  Father and mother are both enjoying verry good health at this time.  I was verry sorry to here of the death of Uncle David Miller, but he,

as well as others, was subject to the power of the monster, Death.  It is great consolation to learn that he was enabled through the grace of God, to bear his afflictions with fortitude.  I have learned he was a firm believer in "the final restitution of all things to God"; a belief that will enable the believer to meet all troubles, affliction and even Death with a fortitude that nothing earthly can shake it ‑ You spoke in you letter of looking for some of us out there last fall we have come to the conclusion that it is your turn enxt; and are hoping to receive one from you ere another season passes.  You also complain of our not writing oftener; to this I have no apolojy to offer only carelessness and neglect.

       I was at Br. Thomas's in Sept. last and bought up a drove of cattle which I have done verry well with.  I now have on hand about 30 head and expect to buy 20 or 25 more and pack them.  I have sold my store and quit selling goods for a while, until I can setle up my business a little, and then if times get a little more prosperous I may go at it again. 

       Times here are verry dull yet money scarse and produce low Corn 12 1/2 sto 15 cts Wheat 44 Pork $1.50 to $2.00  Beef from $2.00 to $2.50 and every thing else in proportion.

       Samuel Darst is now boarding with me and teaching penmanship and landscape painting he has quite a class in our schoolhouse.

       Joshua Miller is also boarding with me and taking lessons in Penmanship and Painting from Mr. Darst.  I tell you sir we are doing up things about right here ‑  

 (next section unreadable due to paper damage ‑ reference to Saul of Tarsas) ‑‑‑nor nothing else could convince him but what he was right, yet when the power of God arested him how soon he ws led to see the error of his ways and see with what power he afterwards exhorted his breathern to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.  You say "you wish to keep up a friendly correspondence".  Here let me tell you that i desired nothing more than a friendly correspondence, and I did not think I had written anything that could be considered otherwise than fiendly and if I have I wish you to cast it aside for it was unintentional in my part, and if there is anything that to you seems adverce to it I hope you will excuse me.  Here permit me to give you a brief history of how the good cause is flourishing with us;  We have a first rate church completed and paid for and a preacher regular twice a month, have crowded audience ‑‑‑‑‑(more damage to paper)

       I have nothing more worthy of your attention at present. write as often as you can and I will hereafter try to answer all. May the grace of God rest upon and be with you to comfort, console, guide, guard and direct you in all the subsequent scene of life; and when you are called on to leave this eartly tabernickle may it give you fortitude, strength, peace and joy, is the cincere desire of your unworthy friend and brother

To Wm. & Mary Miller                                           Benjamin Miller

Addressed to:   WILLIAM MILLER               South Bend P.O., Indiana

note along edge of paper: M. Parrit, called at our house and delivered us the message you sent us which was verry cordially received.  B.M.

To: WILLIAM & MARY MILLER from THOMAS & SALLY MILLER                      (Sarah Ronk)

                      Ramp Creek, Putnam County, In.   March the 22nd 1843

Dear brother and sister I embrace the present opportunity to write you a few lines to let you know that we are all well at this time hoping these few lines may find you all in like health thanks be to God for his mercy towards us all.  We have had a long cold winter it set in about the 10th of November and with the exception of two weeks in january we have had cold winter weather all the time and yet continues this morning about sunrise it began to snow and is yet snowing and the snow at 10 oclock a.m. is about 7 inches deep the deepest snow we have had this winter, we have had a great many snows but little at a time. and  as to grain we had in abundance last fall but if the winter continues much longer grain will be an object yet this spring.  We have an astronimer in our county town who saiz there is a comet between us and the sun that is the cause of this cold weather and likewise that cause of a streak that is seen with us in the evening and some times in the morning runing from the sun a south east and south west direction.  Tho there are many prophecys with us some see the moon on fire some see the sun striped and stained with blood some say the world is to be burned the third of April some say one hundred years hence some say one thousand years hence and some say if the world is not destroyed this year they will burn there Bibles I say falce teachers Anti Christs and falce prophets have already gone out into the world and have got very numerous, but there is a cause.  Money is scarce and they are to lazy to work and they must start something to raise excitement to get to preach and prophecy a few lies to get people to listen to them but no smart, or Christian man be deceived by such men,etc, I have forgotten wether I wrote that we had a fine big son born on the 30th day of August last who we call Benjamin Samuel last Sunday he weighed 21 lb and is fat and grows fine.  I want you to write to me by the bearer of this letter if you pleas and let me know what milk cows calves and two and three year old stears is worth and what the chance would be to sell such stock as that and what your cash prices in general are  wheat with us is worth from 33 to 37 cts pr bushel corn 10 cts per bushel oats 8 to 10 cts per bus. pork was from $1.00 to $1.75 last fall, through the country it was from $1.00 to $1.25 oweing to the money for scrip it was higher than for state paper, and so on everything else in proportion and money out of the question.  I do not know what people will do if they were out of debt they could do tolerable well but that is the misfortune in our part of the country and in all countrys that I can hear from about the same.  If I could sell a lot of cattle of the kind I above stated to merely save myself I should try it.  I have six or eight to spare of my own and i could soon get as many more as I would want.  So i shall conclude by signing myself your affection brother until death

                                                               Thos & Sally Miller

                               to Wm & Mary Miller &

       all inquiring friends and relatives

       our connection is all well so far as I know at this time.

Addressed to:   To WILLIAM MILLER

                                       St. Joseph County, In.

                                                                                      Favored by: Reuben W. Moss

To:            WILLIAM & MARY MILLER                                                                                              Aprile the 28, 1844

Dear Brother and Sister,  I confess I have let my pen ly still to long; i will one my fault in the comencement of my letter for fear i shold for get it.  I received John F. Millers letter favored by Abraham Miller which informed us that you was all well at that time  I was very glad to receive a letter from my nephew it shewd to me he had not forgoten me  We are all well excepting bad colds Father and mother has colds which is atended with a bad coff  it is a commen complaint in the neighborhood I will informe you of the deth of Franklin Bake the youngest Son of Ewquire Bakes it is about too months since his deth.  his deth was cosed by a hurt his being the only child they had at home his loss is deeply felt; his Mother has become entirly deranged at times  John Sterns a brother of Samuel Bakes wife has become deranged the cause is not known he talks but little only when he is spoken to and then he often ansers corect he eats but little and seamis to be on the decline  he is a young man not more than ninteen the Cr roll and Dr. Cory said they could help him but he will not take any medacen ‑‑‑

       Brother Benjamin has bin a trip to New Orleans he made up parrt of a lode he had one hundred barles of beaf Seventy five of flour and twenty barles of appels he started march the 11 and returned home April the 4 making the trip in three weeks and four days  he had a very pleasant trip he said he wold not like to live down their  their is all kind of people their black red and white and desparatly wicked with all I believe he don very well with his loding ‑‑ We have a very forward Spring the farmers has planted considerable of corn and is very buizy geting the balence of their ground redy to plant;   We have a great prospect of fruit of all kinds the cherys and peaches are mostly out of their hust it is quite cool today but i hope will not hasve any killing frost this season‑‑‑Father is building a barn on the Black farm this Summer the carpenters has ben and got out the timber but are not a going on with it at this time they want to get it done agane harvest is redy to take in  Mr. Black dos the most of the halling and lords the hands while building Samuel Ridenours famely is all well as can be expected i understand they have made a ras of a pare of twin boys that is adding to their family quite fast.  I think it is well they took their St Joseph trip when they did for i think it wold be a por chance for them this season  I wuant you to write to us as soon as you get my letter and tell us whether you are coming in this fall i wuold be very glad if you could come and see us all it has ben all most severn years since you made us a visit that is a long time between visits William you can come evry year or to as well as not.  hith up and start off with one weeks notice as we did last fall; I wuold have writen to you some sooner but knowing that Benjamin KS. Miller had written to John F Miller his cozen i wuold not write for a few weeks  Dear sister i wuold be very glad to see you and your family espescily little Martha if you come in you must bring all or as many of them as you can I wuant you to tell me in your next letter whether Miss matilda Summers ia a living with you yet or has she come out a miuller this Spring and left you Brother martins and John familys are all well their children has grown so much that you wuold not know them that you have seen little Emeline M and William grows finly and william can begin to wualk a few steps  I hav nothing more to write at present  But remain your afectionate Sister

                                                                             Elizabeth Miller

To:  William & Mary Miller

Addressed to:   Mr. William Miller

                                              South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana

To: WILLIAM MILLER from BENJAMIN MILLER                                  Pleasant Run In. Dec. 1st 1844

Dear Brother:‑ by the time this reaches you, I suppose you will be at the capital, at which place, filling the station that you do, some important dutyes will devolve on you.  There is a United States Senitor to be chosen by that body to which you belong, and there are intrusts that we of the east have at stake in that event, that are verry important to us, probably more so than to any other portion of the state.  We have a candidate to present, as well qualifyed as any in the state.  A real orthodox Whig ‑ a man that has been long and well tryed ‑ a man who with an untiring zeal has breast the storm for years, in short, a man whose whole life has been characterised by a devotedness to our country, our libertyes and our general wellfare, and now it is hardly necessary to say to you that that man is Samuel W. Parker.  And now if I were placed upon my dying pillow with but breath enough to make one request of you, it would be to cast your vote for him for U.S.Senitor.  There are ample reasons existing that i could assign to you, for this request, that would satisfy you in a moment if it were necessary, but i deem it altogether unnecessary to say anything farther than that we have a member elect at this time to Congress from this district that will do honor to it to continue him there, and yet there is a warm feeling for Mr. Parker, and to avoid difficulties that may originate we wish Mr. Parker to be elected U.S. Senitor.  I wish you to show this letter to Mr. Nutter, our representative, as I did not get to see him previous to his leaving; But hope he is well advised s to the matter.  It is a unanimous desire of the whigs ofthis section that if there is any possibility of getting the members to unite on mr. parker to have him elected.  And now Sir to conclude thismatter I would say to you and Mr. Nutter and all true and devoted whigs ofthat body, if you want to form an epoch in your political hystories that endear you to the people of Indiana, and one that your children and your children's children will look upon with pride and admiration, just vote and use your influence.  I  for the election of Samuel W. Parker as United States Senitor.  Now Sir I leave the matter with you hopeing that no circumstances will intervene to induce you to act otherwise.

       I will here state to you that we are all well and harty, or at least as much so as could be expected as soon after so unherd of defeat.  My God such a thing as James K. Polk to be elected President over Henry Clay is one of the wonders of the age, and one of the mysteryes only to be solved by looking at the class of community that elected him ‑

       Sir there is such a consternation prevailing among the business portion of Community that trade is almost compleltely parallized.  Pork is only bringing from $2.25 to $2.60 per hundred in Cincinnati.  Wool has fallen 12 1/2 cts on the lb and the manufactoring business completely panic struck.

       I just returned yesterday from selling my hogs.  I drove them a little ways up Salt River, there i found equally as good a market as at Cin ‑  There i found lots of Whigs and they told me a little farther up I would find Govrnor Todd, Auditor Brough, Sam Madera and a host of the locopoco office holders and office seekers of Ohio; but I returned without venturing farther than Camden O

       Not wishing to refresh the horid disaster again in your memory i forebare going any farther and shall conclude this already protracted article by signing myself

                                                               your friend and well wisher

                                                                      Benjamin Miller (F.)

To: Mr. William Miller Esq.

       P.S. I would state to you that father and mother are both in good health, mother is enjoying much better health now than she has done for some time past.  Father has a lame shoulder as you have been informed and it does not appear to be getting much better ‑ write to me as soon as you have leisure and inform me how matters and things are going on there, give my respects to Mr. Charles Nutter Esq. who I hope you will soon form an acquaintance with for he is a mighty fine fellow and an intimate acquaintance of mine, which by the way accounts for the whole of it ‑       B.F.M.

I herein enclose you one dollar for which i want you to give to the editor of the Indiana Journal and tell him to send me his paper during the next six months to College Corner P.O.

Addressed to:  Mr. William Miller Esq.       Indianapolis        Indiana

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To: WILLIAM MILLER from BENJAMIN MILLER                 At home Jan. the 5th 1845

Dear Brother your letter of the 14th of Dec was duly received and is now before me  I was glad to hear from you.  father received your last letter to him and br. John a few day ago in which you stated that you had heard that I had got badly hurt by my horse runing away

       I did get hurt in my right shoulder and hop but have got pretty much over it my shoulder is yet weak but I was for som time i had very little use of it my horse did not run away.  I was returning from Father in laws myself and family in a buggy while on a fast trot the hb of one of the fore wheels came in contact with a snag and broke off both shafts forward of the singletree and left the horse fast to the buggy withoutany meansby which to guide or controle it  the buggy run on to the horse and he fell to ckicking and I went to leap out to catch him by the head when my feet caught in the lines and threw me down under the horse and buggy and my little girl with me the horse having passed over us  I recovered from my fall and succeeded ingetting him by the head without any further injury only the hurt I befor mentioned.  And I and family and connexion as far as i know at this time all well

       You spoke in your letter to me of my comeing to see you during the cession etc.  my business is such that I cannot well leave.  I should like verry well to spend a week or so there but time will not permit.  You also state that Mr. Nutter informed you that I am to be the member to represent good Old Union at the next cession.  Well that would be puffing up my self esteemat a round rate.   tell Mr. Nutter that that I thank him verry much for the compliment and for his assurance of my success.  And do not say but I might be if it were not for two things, the first is the want of qualifycations for the office, and the second is the want of popularity, were those two obstacles removed there would be some probability.  Bkut even then I cant think that the people of Union would better themselves any by the change.

       You write me in your letter that Mrshall received the nomination for senitor, well it my be right but if I had bin there at the nomination I would have hoisted Sam Parker so high that he would have been received up in the third Heavens.  But from what i can learn it makes no difference who has the nomination as the senate refuses to go into an election.  You can tell Our Senitor Mr. Leviston for me if he fancyes that such a course will be received with approbation by his democratic friends in Old Union & Feyett that he is under rating their moral honesty.  for mark me now if they dont in August next teach him a lesson that he will no misunderstand.

       Even the Whihgs here have had a better opinion of Mr. Leviston than to think that he would take an oath to support the Constitution and thenfor  party purposes and influanced by party faction be led to an open violation of that instrument then virually purjering himself.

       I think the Locos have rather headed you in that matter, you should have went against the resolution to adjourn until the aggreed to go into eletion, told them you had taken an oath to faithfully discharge your dutieis, and that was one duty the Constitution enjoined upon you and whenever that duty was performed you was ready to go home and not before; But so it is if your do not elect this cession it will come before the people for their approvel or condemnation and if I have not verry much overrated the honesty and integrity of the people of Indiana, they will tell them a similar story next August as did the people of Tennessee on a former occasion

       Joshua Miller was with us night befor last and told us a good deal how you were getting along. he also said you wanted him to inquire about sheep through this country.  sheep sire through out this whole country were bought up last fall and summer and are now in but few hands  they cannot be bought here for less than 1.10 to $1.25 per head good sheep I have 230 head and I want to sell them  I have been offered $1.00 per head would take $1.12 1/2 if taken soon.  my sheep is a good a any you can find in fifty miles of here and if you want them I have no doubt if you could see them you would not hesitate to give it

       I supose Samuel Darst has been with you befor this time and told you about things so i shall conclude this already too long letter

                                                               yours with esteem

                                                                      B. F. Miller

William Miller Esq

Along edge of page 2: I wrote a letter this day to Elizabeth which will be mailed with this         page 3: Write to me again befor you leave the Capital

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To:  William Miller from John Miller                   January th 5th 1845

                                                                                              Napoleon, Ind.

Dear Sir  I received your letter baring date the thirtieth Dec which gave me grait pleasure to learn that you was well and that they ware all well I take the oprotunity to inform yu that we are all well and hope that these few lines may find you in like health I had thought some of going to Indianopolis this winter but the roads have bin so bad that I gave it up so that I do not expect to see you until you come in here I am going to start to Jennings County to morrow morning on some business there I expect to be gone five or six days from home  I have a farm out thare which i bought a bout one year ago which I have to tend to  I am sorry that you was wrong informed with regard to Benjamin Millers horses running away he did get some hurt by the braking of the shafts of his bugy but the horse did not runaway he has got well again I believe

       the health of this country is very good at this time I do not know of any one sick in my knowledg I have nothing to say about the Legislation I do not expect that there will be much done this winter as locopocoism and whig ism are to neare a tie

       So no more at present in haste

                                                                             John Miller

Addressed to: Mr William Miller  Indianopolis        Marion County        Indiana

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To:  WILLIAM & MARY MILLER from ELIZABETH MILLER               September 15 1846

Dear Brother and Sister  I have just received you letter bearing Date August the 30 which was a great sadesfaction to us to hear from you and yours;  you complane of not receiving a letter from any of us for the last six months; I confess I have neglected writing to you as aften as I shold have don  I confess my falt I hope you will forgive me.  we are all well at this time Father and Mother is quite harty at this time  last spring Mother had a little turn of the chill and fevor.  As for my part i had four difrent spells of it which reduced me very much.  I have not enjoyed good helth the last spring and summer till the last few

weeks past i now am quite well and harty  there is conciderable sickness in this part of the cuntry at this time but mostly chill and fevor;  Brother Benjamins family has bin greatly aflicted with the chill and fevor.  last spring himself Lorinda and all the family except the babe had it  Lorinda has had it avry few weeks for the last year past: herself all the children Thomas Orr and too young men they had hired has all had it this fall  Lorinda and the children is all about again.  the too young men has taken arelapse and is still a chilling it; neithe living nor dying keeping neithe hot nor cold  Brother is some time all most discouraged they have to depend on a hired girl to see to things about the house a great part of the time I expect you have something of an idah how thing go when the Mistress of the house can not attend to her house hold afares her self  Lorinda certnly has good ambition and strong resolution or she wude hav got out of all hopes before now; but when she gets over one spell of the chills she is in hopes that is the last she will have and her and her courage seems to be renewed also is his he tells her they may see many bright days yet.  but in a few weeks there is another darke cloud prezented to their view and so on;  if it ws not for hope sake the heart wold brake   Brother Martins and Johns familys are all well excepting the hooping cough their youngist children hs it but they have it quite light  Ssamuel Ridenours family was well the last I hird from them William Ridenour and Samuel Darst a son of Abreham Darsts was hear some three or four weeks ago making us visit  William said he and Sarah ws going to start to Daton in too or three days i hav not seen them cince they came back I understand they brought the wuord that John Miller had bin very sick but was better

       Their has bin sevrel Deaths of our old acquantence old John Lybrook departed this life September the 4 old man Sumter departed this life last February (5) not long since Rachel Eggebert a daughter of Sumters also Ambrose Giffens wife they both left babes about too weeks old  cince Rachel Eggeberts Death her babe has died  Concerning Fathers promising to mak you a visit when you ws hear he told you if he lived and kepthis helth he wuold make you a visit next fall a year which wuold be this fall it was in the spring when you was hear; but he has declined dooing so Father cannot make it convenient to go this fall  I wuold bin very much pleased if he col go i think i wuold try to get a pasage as i am in the habit of begging a pasage evry oppertunity;  Father has bin very buily this summer improving our new home  last spring he planted a small orcherd which we plantned in corn pupmkins beens Irish and Sweete potatoes and all kinds of garden stuff and no fence beatwen it and the house we hasve had things very handy this summer our sweetepotatoes is very large and we can role thim right in the pot; things will not all ways be so handy the posts are all set for a dore yard and garden fence then when it is finished we will have to go to the gates befor we can pass through  we have our wood shed and milke house finished also a sistren sunk  our kichen fire place smoked so bad we kicked it out a dore and has got a cooking Stove which we are very much pleasewith

       Sister  perhaps you wuold like to know what i imploy myself at this fall  last spring we bought 25 pounds of wool which we had spoilt? in carding  i am no imployed in spinning it and preparing it for a piece of carpeting  we ar drying some Appels we have all kinds of fruit this season excep peaches they are very scarce here ther is considerable many hald by for sale from the West they sell at 75 cents per bushel green

       Martha I hope you have not forgotten me your little cozen Emeline has just come hear she asked me what i was writing i told her I was writing a letter to her uncle William  well she said tell little Martha that she wanted to see her  I wuold be pleased to see their black eyes beam on each other but we can not be gratified with such scens when ever we wish;  Martha give Henry a kiss for me.

Dear Brother and Sister i wold lik very much to see you and family this fall but unless you can come I fear i will not see you this season  come as Soon as you can make it convenient  I have nothin more to writ at presant but remain you Sister Rite as soon as you get this I received the brother Jonathan and other

news papers you sent me no more

William and Mary Miller                   Elizabeth

Addressed to: William Miller        South Bend     St Joseph County          Indiana                                 mailed from College Corner

To WILLIAM and MARY MILLER  from ELIZABETH MILLER      November the 14, 1847

Dear brother and Sister  I have taken my seat to write to you  I received your letter; and was very sory to hear the afliction of your dear babe # and am very anxious to hear from it again  I fear it will not regane the proper use of it self agane; I hope you are all enjoying good helth at this time  Father and Mother is very harty at thhis time  Mother and myself had the chills and fevor this fall but we are very harty now and i hoope we may continue to be so  Brother Benjamins family has enjoyed better health this fall than they have for the too last years; Brother Martins family has enjoid good helth this season Brother Johns family has bin sorly aflicted in the first place Benjamin took the chills and fevor he soon got well then Mary and Emmily the youngest child had it at difrent times they could not get entirley rid of it  then brother John took the flux he had it very bad he was fourteen days before we could see he was any better  he become very low and we began to think it doubtful whether he wold recover a bout the time he was at the worst Emmily the youngest child took the chills again she had the chills three days when the flux set in, she only lived five day after the flux set in  she is no mor hear; I believ she was too years six month and seven days old

                      Its the sweet flower that scents the morn,

                      Thus lovely seems the infants dawn;

                      Ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade,

                      Death timeley came with friendly care;

                      the opening bud to heaven convened,

                      and bade it bloom for ever there.

       they are all well at this time  John has got well so he and Benjamin has gon to cincinnati with their hogs this is a busy time with the farmers hear driving their porke, there has ben thousands of hogs drove this rode this fall pork is four dollars twelv and a half at this time; we have had a great deal of rain this fall perticular las monday and tusday it rained in torence the fresh has don conciderable damage on indian creek  we understand it has ruined the white water canal they has just dot it repared of the last winters fresh so it was just don and a few boats had past on it yesterday and day before we had a great deal of rain today it is cloudy and cool to what it has bin we have had no snow yet this fall and but little cool wether‑‑‑

       About too week ago I made a visit to Mrs Ridenours they was all well at that time  Sarah and Martha was to school at the corner; Abariah and i past the day in conversing of our friends in your country and other matters and things  when you see Martha Miller give her my best respects she is in favor of anexation; not of anexation of texas to the states  anexation of Mr. Ferand to Miss Martha Miller.

       William have you started your son John to college yet if you remember when i was there you wold start him to colledge in too or three years I said the way John wuold go to colledge wold be to folow the plow;  no you caid you was bound to sent him I said I wuold remind you of it  the three years is all most out and i think it is all most time he was started if he goes in too or three years from that time‑‑‑‑‑‑‑Sister i feel for you this winter if your babe is aflicted yet and William goes away you will be quite lonesom i think you had better come in with him and spend the winter with us it will only be that much of your time spent while doging through this world; you will say how do you think i can leave my afares so long, there it is again i wuold be pleased to have you come but when i think of the undertaking i canot ask it of you  I wuold be glag to see you all if it could be so‑‑‑‑

       Brother while you are at indianopolis i hope you will become acquainted with Brother Manford  he is a very abel minster also editor of a paper calld the western universalist published in indianoplis;  three wekes ago he was hear atendin a too days meeting;  he is now travling through your cuntry preaching  he has apointments at south Bend also at niles and to day the 14 he preaches at Laport he will be hear agane on Christmas day to atend a too days meeting  I have nothing very particular to write i supose you will think i had not when i was riting the last claus  Willian write to me when you get this  John I wuold be glad to have a letter from you  write to me and tell me wat you are adooing  so no more but remain your Sister til death

                                                                                      Elizabeth Miller

William and Mary Miller

Addressed to:   William Miller        South Bend   St Joseph County   Indiana

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To: William Miller from Benjamin Miller       Pleasant Run IN.  April 9th 1848

Dear Brother:  I received your favor of the 10th march which was gratifying to us to hear that you were all well. We are all in tolerably good health at this thime we have the measles in our family, our hired girl took them first and was quite sick; but has got well our little William has them now; But he has not missed a meal nor ceased his playful exercise yet and I think he is about over them.

       Father and Mother is quite harty at this time, father works almost every day as if though he had to do it or starve.  Aunt Phebe Miller was buryed on last Wednesday.  The old lady draged out a weary and troublessome end to her days on earth; but her spirit is freed from earth, and has gone to that mansion prepared for us in heaven.

       You wished me to write to you concearning my land etc.  I sold it this spring to James Sumter. he is to make me 300 rods of hedging for it.  Equivalent to $150.00, and he says if you can get something near that for it sell it for him and he will satisfy you for your trouble.  $150.00 is his price but he will sell it for $130.00 if you cannot get better with it.  I want you to pay the Tax on it until I make the transfer, and I will p[ay you for your trouble

       You want me to greese my legs and try it again for the legislature.  I am O.P.H. this year.  My friends are anxious I should run for associate Judge this year.  I have not fairly made up my mind whither I will or not.  I think Ambrose Ruby will be our candidate next August for Legislature

       As to the candidate for the next President, the whigs are some what divided here; though I think they all will support the nomination of the national Convention.  For my own part I will cordially and zealously support any true and undobted whigs for the offices of President and Vice‑President of the United States, who may be nominated by the national Convention;  But I will support no man for president but a thorough Whig of well‑tried principles, one of known capacity of civil qualifications who shall be able to maintain the distinctive doctrines and character of the Whig Party

       And I consider Hon. Henry Clay as a suitable candidate for the presidential chair ‑ as a statesman of the verry first order ‑ and that his eminent abilities, extensive information, political integrity, and long‑tryed services entitle him to the confidence and support of the American people, for the highest office in the gift of the nation

       Our Spring is verry wet and backward, few farmers have sown their oats yet. The weather has been fine for a few days past, and a busy time awaits us. Wheats looks remarkably well in this country. I have 20 acres of the finest looking wheat I have everhad at this season of the year.  Times is rather hard with us. there is quite a cry about money matters.  The Wooster Bank in Ohio has already failed, and there is a strong talk of all the Old Chartered Banks of that state going down.  We may look out for hard times soon

       I see the Mexican Treaty has been ratifyed with some slight amendments by a secret act of the senate of the United States and Mr Sevur apoinnted Commissioner to Mexico.  I do hope (as objesctionable as this treaty may be) that we shall be once more restored to peace, and this masscre and bloodshed, to satisfy the caprices of a disordered minded President, may be brought to a close.

       Write to me soon and let me know if you intend visiting us this summer or not as it will be impossible for us to go to see you

       Give our respects to all the friends, and please accept for you and your the best wishes of

                                                       Your friend and brother

                                                                      B. F. Miller

Wm Miller Esq.

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To:  William Miller from Thomas Miller                      Putnam County

                                                                                              July the 24th  1848

Dear brother and sister   I take the present opportunity to writ you a few lines to let you know that we are all well at this time hopeing thes fewe lines may find you all enjoying the same blessing etc.  I well and safely reached home the fourth day after I left you and found them all well and harty but Sally and Elizabeth has had some slight brushes since I returned home, And let me tell you so fare as this world's affairs conserne me if you would give me the best half section of land you have got in your country and compel me to live on it you could not give me greater insult, but still I will tell you the truth about the matter a rich man in your country can do well as to worldly affairs but God save and help the poor for they cant help themselves their and william to tell you the truth I think it but little better than a crime to live there and use the water you used when I was there you may reach out to gain popularity and wealth but that is but a poor pittence compared with health comfort satisfaction and content, And I think I verry plainly seen when I was there that you was not satisfied and I have no wonder at it. So I will leave that suject and you may infer from what I have wrote my opinion of your country etc.  Our wheat crops are good and in fact every thing is good and promising to be good the season is fine so far I want you to now without fail to write me a letter so soon as you get this and I will then write more lengthy as we some way cant get letters too and from each other

       Direct my letters to Fincastle Post Office Putnam County State of Indiana, and do not forget or neglect i do no know which.

                                                                                       yours etc.

                                                                                              Thomas Miller

To Wm Miller Esq

Addressed to: William Miller Esq

                               South Bend     Post Office    St. Joseph County        Indiana

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To:  William Miller from Benjamin Miller                   Pleasant Run

                                                                                              Jan 14th 1849

Dear Brother‑

       I received your letter some weeks since, one evening, after rideing fron Cincinnati home, and I returned again to the city next morning, and have been there most of the time ever since until a week ago, I have been busily engaged day & night for about one month past, in the pork business.

       I lost some $600.00 last year & I felt that this was the year to make up losses, and then quit the trade. Thus far my operations this year have been good I have made about 4700.00 on what I sold, and I have packed 600 head that I think will make me some money.  I have bought in all 2400 head and if the Cholera had not broken out in New Orleans I should have made $1500.00 on them.  But so goes trade.  I am done driving hogs now.  I will try something that is not quite so riskey. I should have written you sooner but I have had so much business writing, and so much care on my mind that I could not, so I hope you will excuse me.  And the same reason I have for not visiting you this winter.

       The good Whigs of Union say I must be their candidate next August for the State Senet.  I tell them I leave the matter soly to them, and if I should be selected as the candidate I am pretty certain I shall spend a part of next winter at Indianapolis, if I live, so you may look for me there next winter sure (If I have to go on my own hook.)

       We are in tolerable good health at this time with the exception of verry bad colds.  Father & Mother is quite harty. James Sumter started two weeks ago to go out to see you and took sick on the road and had to return home, he has been quite unwell ever since though not confined to his bed.

       I have nothing more of any great interest to write you at this time, and I have some 5 or 6 more letteers to write, to friends today that I have been neglecting as long as you.  Give my respects to H. Simpson & Dr. Starbuck.  Tell the Dr. that I was verry much pleased at receiving his communications but the same circumstances prevented me from writing him, that did to you. And I am verry much pleased with his course in the Legislature. And I hope he may yet live to wipe out the stain that he has brought upon his political character by voting for Martin Van Buren.

       Write me again as soon as convenient

                                                                      Yours & etc. ‑      B. F. Miller

W. Miller Esq.

To: William Miller from Benjamin Miller               Pleasant Run In. August 28th 1849

Dear Brother,

       I have once more lifted my pen to endite you a friendly epistle.  The first and most important fact that I will relate to you is that we are all enjoying a reasonable measure of health;  Our little William that was so sick last spring has got quite hearty, and goes to school now.  Mother is fast declining in health & strength. She is unable to walk any distance, and seems to be loosing her presence of mind, somwhat like old aunt Phebe Miller was.  The rest of the connezion here is all well.  We are enjoying as good, if not better health in this part of the country now, than we usually do at this season of the year.  The Cholera has almost entirely subsided throughout towns and country; there are some cases of the flux yet, a disease that has universally followed the cholera.  The cholera prevailed to an alarming extent all around us; but none of it in this neighborhood.  No case nearer us than four miles.  Oxford & neighborhood north of it suffered severely, some 150 cases and 40 or 45 deaths;  But it has gradually disapeared and health and prosperity now seem to have taken the place of death, consternation, gloom & dispair.  For while that fell destroyer marked out its victims, without regard to age, sex, rank, or condition, the people throughout the whole country appeared to be wraped in complete inactivity and gloom, and all countenances were impressed with an awe and consternation that would almost make one think that all nature was wraped in one complete deep, dark, and masssive habiliment of mourning;  But now, thanks to

the great dispensor of events, the hand of the destroyer is stayed, the gloom is dispelled, and joy and gladness appear to once more have take their places and nought but the freshly raised mounds in the church yards, or the sable dress of some lonly widow or orphin are left to tell the sad history of the past.

       We are anxiously looking for you to pay us a visit this fall, in fact we expect it.  It is generally thought we will have a healthy fall.  I do not think you could select a better time, as I learn you are not (as well as myself) a going to be troubled by having to go to Indianapolis this winnter.  I was somewhat more fortunate than you.  I was beten before the convention; though there were five candidates before the convention I was second best only having been beaten 3 votes by Mr. Yaryan who received the nomination, by a little political wire‑working and I was the only candidate that was before the conv. that came out and laboured for the election of the nominee, while some of them oposed it, thereby I gained a popularity (that is said by those who were before unfriendly to me) that no other whig in the county has, before the election was over in the county, the verry whigs that were instrumental in nominating Yaryan said if I had have got the nomination I would got 150 votes more than any other whig in the county, so you see that my day is yet a coming.

       But such a complete effectual defeat as the whigs sustained this election was altogeather unlooked for by me. A complete union of the free dirt and loco pocos in this congressional district was the means of Sam Parkers defeat.  I learn that out of the ten congressment elect in this state the whigs have elected all but nine.  And for the state senitors and repr. the whigs will hold a verry nice ballance of power in the next cession.

       Our wheat crops last harvest was a complete failure.  hundreds of acres of this country that was not cut, and hundreds more that will not pay the cutting & thrashing, and but verry little if any that will make merchantable flower, our grass was light, oats tolerably good, and corn crops promise an abundant crop.  A great panic is produced among the farming community in consequence of the failure of the wheat crop. Money is hard to get and promises to continue so for some time to come.

       The Universalist State convention meets at Doublin on the National roade on the 28th of Sept and continues over Sunday I should like to meet you there first rate. And the United States Converntion of Universalists meet in Cincinnati on the next Wensday following.  And if you will come in we will go to the city and see some of the great guns of Universalism Old Father Ballou will be there. But suit youself as to time.  But if you are all well we whall undoubtedly look for you in some time this fall.

       Write to me immediately on receiving this and let us know whether you are coming in or not, and what time you will be in etc. My business will call me away a good deal this fall, and I should like to shape up my affairs so as to be with you while you are here.

       I am settleing up my Brother‑in‑laws estate and James Sumter and I have a machine that we have invented (or he has rather) for loading and unloading steam boats and ships etc., that we intend puting into operation this fall. We are offered ten thousasnd dollars for it now and I have nodoubt but we shall makae fifty thousand out of it. My sheet is getting full and I must stop

                 I am sir your most obt.

                                          B. F. Miller

William Miller Esqr.

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To: John F. Miller from Clark R. Miller        Home (Contreras, O) October 30th 1851

Cousin John

       I shall now attempt to write you a letter in which I shall give you a brief account of things in general. We arrived at hom Friday evening October 25th at 7 o'clock and found our relatives and frieds all well except Aunt Lorinda.  She has been unwell for some time but is now able to be about.  Grand Father has been well so far as I have heard.  I have not yet seen him. The first night after leaving you we got to the Tavern with the sign of the Lion now kept by one Smith.  The second night 10 miles south of Logansport.  The third night to Eagle‑Ballards home it is about fifty miles the last day being the longest drive.  We did not stop at Indianapolis as we had talked of doing for the reason that after we had traveled one or two days we found that we should have liked it very much if we could but stoped an hour or two to look around the State House etc.  It is a splendid Building from outward appearances.  I think much more of the country by Indianapolis than I do by Marion, and Peru, east of Indianpolis on the National Road there is some fine country and the people look more like living than they do mony other places.  By Indianapolis there are better roads than the other way from about 8 miles south of Rochester we had plank road about 30 Miles after we left the plank we had a taste of the corduroys if you believe me.  Somewhere betweeen Michigantown and Kirklin our cedars came up missing I suppose they got tired of being jolted,  It did not exactly please me when I found they were gone, but it was then to late to think of watching them more close.  I suppose Widow Miller is going to sell out and move to your country in her old years.  I think she should be satisfied to live the remainder of her life here.  But if she is satisfied I am, There sale is to be the 26th of November, Aaron thinks the Farm will bring $8,000 but it will not do it in my opinion.  Since we left hom there has been plenty of rain. Wheat fields now begin to look green but they do not look as well as they do in your country.  As it is now geting late  I must quit writing.  I hope you will write soon and let me know in your next where you are going to school this Winter and if you have got over the California Fever.

       Tell Newton I want him to write me a letter before long how he is geting a long learning to play the Violin etc. etc.

       Give my respects to Uncle, Aunt and Cousins and please except of my best wishes for your Happiness and Prosperitiy

                                                                             Yours Affectionately

                                                                               Clark R. Miller

Addressed to: Mr. John F. Miller        South Bend     St. Joseph Co   Indiana

To: William and Mary Miller from Elizabeth Miller                     June the 20 1852

Dear Brother and Sister I take this opertunity to write to you I received your letter a few days since and was glad to hear from you though sory to hear Sis was not well   we are all well and hope thees lines may find you all enjoying the same blessing   I have nothing particular to write but I will try to scrach down a few lines made up of itoms.

       you spoke of Benjamins trip to New Orleans he made a safe trip though not very profitable  In the round I supose he saved him self and perhaps made something  he paid mostly for the corn he bought in goods and bought suger and coffe and a quantity of other grocerys in Orleans which he makes some prophet on  we had word from brother Thomas they have bin sorly aflicted Sarah was taken sick last December the letter we receive was dated the seventeenth of may and she was then only able to be about the house alittle  their son Joseph is maried  Well I must tell you I have bin taking a little Rail Rode ride  last week Benjamin

Lorinda myself and several others of our friends took a ride to Daton to the Ohio State convention of universalist  we had a great and good meeting we saw friends their from all parts of the cuntry  O, i dearly love to travel on the cars;  If you will find me spending money I will travel the world over where ever their is a Rail Rode and as soon as they get one to Oregon i will go their and when I return I will make you a viset and tell you how I like the cuntry for me to stay their and write to you  but dont you start their till you get a letter from me after I get their; I think I hird you say that is enough on that subject

      last winter was cold in the extreme; it was thought the fruit trees was mostly killed by the cold but we have bin hapily dissapointed they was ful of bloom but the late frost killed the most of the fruit though we will have som appels and cherys their is some kindes of cherry trees killed by the cold winter  we hav had a very cold backward spring and summer so fare; the wheat crops look well the wheat is now mostly out of blom it will soon be harvest times  Father has had conciderable hedging don this spring he has also planted one gallon of Osage orange seed this spring it come up fine but the moles has injured it very much Hedging is a great business hear  your cuntry had better try it; James Sumpter has and is about to engage the hedgeing in of several rail rodes in this cuntry which will be quite profitable buizness he has planted twenty bushels of Osage seede this season  all things are going on about the same old way   Brother John and Emily has made araise of another son they call him Albert Dwigh he is about too munths old  they are all well  Martins and Benjamins familys are well  Lorindas health is some better that it was last fall and winter though she is fare from being stout yet

      I do not know whether any of our folk will be out this season or not we will look for you in next spring if you live and kepe well

      I will tell you what I wish you to have don  I want you to have your likeness take both in one case and bring them in the first oppertunity you have and I will pay the cost of them if I am abel  no more at present but remain you Sister till death

                                                                        Elizabeth Miller

William and Mary Miller

      give my best respects to John when you write to him

Envelope addressed to:      William Miller   South Bend   St Joseph County       Indiana

To: William and Mary Miller from Ellizabeth Miller     December the 19 1852

      Dear brother and sister I take my seat to write you afew lines to tell you we are all well and hope these lines may find you all enjoying the same blessing  Father and Mother is quite hearty but not very suple they enjoy good health for persons of their ages  Sister I received you letter some time since and was very glad to hear from you:  you wished to know which had wrote last I had and was very impasiently wating for a answer  I had also writen to John and has not received a anser from him yet;   excuse me for not writing sooner   Brother Thomas and Sarah and Elizabeth their yongest child was in about the middle of October and made us a visit they was hear about ten days.  we have had a letter from them since they returned home they was all well except one of the boys had the chills and fevor but was better  Our friends and neighbors are generally well;  Lorindas helth is better this fall than it was last fall, but she is not stout yet

      James Sumpter has had a very bad turn of his old complaint the dispepsy  he has bin confined to his room some thre or fore weeks but he is now on the mend and thinks he will soon be about  Benjamin is dealing in pork some this fall, he is on the rode with about three hundred head at this time  they are about the last that can be gethered up;  he drove one small lot before and dun very well and he expects to do well with what he has now  the hog drivers has don well hear this fall them that went in the buizness to any extent has made lots of money  pork at the city is six fifty and on the rise   wheat at hamilton is seventy five cents per bushel

      well I hardly know what to say next  Father Mother and I are living hear all alone  Marietta the girl we rased was eighteen in october and went to hir mother in November to live with hir it was hir choice to do so and we had no objections; I know it is best for us but it is doubtful whether it is best for hir

      well marth I must say a few words to you I hope you are a good girl, I spose you are going to school  Martha I wish you wuold write me a nother letter it has bin along time cince you wrote to me  Marthe give little Grely one dozen kisses for me bless his life  if I had holt of him how I wuold shake and kiss him Do you reckolect the morning we started home how he wuold toddle back and forth and kiss Jane and I  Martha your cozen Emeline is going to school this winter  She is also tending a singing schoool and is trying to learn to sing good buy Martha

      Sister write to me soon; if you can not write have William to write  tell John I want him to write and tell me all about his oregon fevor  whether it has cooled of yet;  I hope it has and he is entirley well or it and can get in buiziness and do well niger home

      well Christmas is all most hear it will be along next Saturday  I wish you all a happy Christmas; I wish you could all be hear and we wuold have a rosted chicken if we could not scare up anything larger  write and tell us when you ar coming to make us a visit  I have nothing more to write at present so I will close I ever remain your afecinate sister til death

                                                                                    Elizabeth Miller

William and Mary Miller                                                       January 2

Dear Brother and Sister  we received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear you was well; and sory to hear you had bin sick  we are all well and hope these lines find you all enjoying the same blessing;  you will see the fore part of this letter was writen some to weeks ago  I have had no opertuniity to send it to the ofice  Since I wrote the first part of this letter we have had great rains and high waters  our small streams became rivers and our rivers became navigable so much so they caried of mill dams fense and every thing that was in their rech  Canals and rail rodes has bin very much injured by the high waters;  we have had a very wet disagrable winter so far, it has rained in torents with in the last toe weeks  we have had no snow the ground has not bin entirly covered this winter  Benjamin has returned from the city he had some bad luck;  he drove his hogs to Hamilton and had them slautered their and they was then to be delivered in the city by the rail rode  he had three hundred hed;  he sold at six eighty five per hundred;  the hevy rains come on about the time he had his hogs slautered  they was delivered in toe lots  the first lot went safe   the second lot only seventy five head was detained till they was a little damaged he had them sent and then sold them at six dollars per hundred;  he engaged some of his hogs in the fall and got them cheap  the balance he bought just before he started down at six and six and a quarter  so he has made some prophets with his bad luck and he thinks he can make the railrode compny pay the damage he sustained  I just mention this to let you know   perhaps you may hear a more                     tale

things are going on about as comen   I have nothing more to write

at present

                        but remains your afecinate sister till death

                                                                                                            Elizabeth Miller

William and Mary Miller                                                     write soon

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To:  William and Mary Miller from Casandra Yeaman Miller   December 24th 1861

William and Mary

      Dear friends, I will just write a little now, as it is about fifteen minutes cince we heard of little Ada Ridenhours death, she died this morning of sore throat.  I suppose you have heard by this time of Ellas death, she died the 9th of this month of sore throat and Martha you know is gone also, and we just now learn that Barbary Reidenhour thare mother is not expected to live.  She made her will yesterday and has give up to die ‑ it is thought the great trouble is too muche for her ‑ if she dies it will make four out of the family in five weeks.  The family is sorely stricken indeed

      We do pitty the boys, they will feel like giveing up.  They will be very desolate indeed ‑‑‑

      Our Samuel has been gone to war two months.  he is in kentucky, the Regt moved from Elizabethtown to Camp Nevin on the 9th of this month, and samuel seen a man from Col John Millers Regt, which was about one mile from him, and Samuel was on guard and by the time he got ready to go and see John he learned he had left with his Regt, and Samuel did not get to see him.  I was sorry it happened so.

      it is hard to have our children go to war, not knowing that we shall ever see them again alive, but it has to be so and we will trust in the Lord and do our duty, it is all we can do, for this Rebelion must be put down and there is no respect of persons ‑ I am afraid there will be war with England and if there is we will have to spare more of them, but I hope it will be arested.

      The folks are all well, I expect you have snow out there, for it is quite cold hear and has been snowing some.  you must write us a letter.  I thought I would write now a Otto Greene is hear to take the letters and papers to the Corner                                                      Your sister Casandra Miller

William Toney Newspaper Article

Appendix II.  William L. Toney (1827‑1923) McMinnville, OR.

OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE JOURNAL MAN

                                                                                                                                                   by Fred Lockley

April 18, 1922

          A sketch of the life of a near‑centenarian of Oregon, prepared by Mr. Lockley, will appear in this space in four installments, of which the present is the first.  It is the story of a man who was 20 years of age when he came to Oregon and has been here 75 years at that.

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          Though William L. Toney of McMinnville lacks but five years of reaching the century mark, he is more alert than many a man half his age.  I spent several hours at his home while in McMinnville recently.  The Toney's are of old English stock.  They are also of a fighting stock.  All six of a family of Toney brothers served in the Revolutionary war.  A son of one of these brothers was James Toney.  Long after the close of the Revolutionary war this son became the father of William L. Toney of McMinnville.

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          Mr. Toney of McMinnville is tall and slender.  His hair is long and white and he wears his beard after the manner of Horace Greeley.

          "My father, James Toney, was born in Virginia, and my mother, whose maiden name was Patsy Thornton, in South Carolina," said Mr. Toney.  "I am their eldest child.  I was born in Missouri, January 30, 1827.  Yes, I am 95 years old.  Did you notice that a cracked cup lasts longer than one that isn't?  I guess they take better care of it.  In spite of lack of Health in my early manhood, and many other handicaps, I am still here, after 95 years, hale and hearty.

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          "I have the uneducated man's reverence and respect for books and education.  You see, I could not read when I was married, so I was also handicapped by lack of education.  I never spent but 25 cents in my life for a school book, and that was for a copy of the old‑fashioned Blue Back spelling book.  I started to school when I was 17 years old, but the teacher got sick after six weeks, so my education stopped with six weeks schooling.  When the school started again I had to help my father.  My father had bought the county rights to a shingling machine.  He was to pay some cash and to give 40,000 good oak shingles for the county rights.  We set up the shingling machine, and I ran it.  We hired men at two bits a day to fell the oak trees and to saw them up into blocks.  We had to pay an expert machinist $10 a month to run the steam chest and to look after the shingling machine.  We used to put the oak blocks into the steam box and boil and steam them all night.  Next morning he and I would run the shingling machine and make about 3000 good oak shingles a day.  When I left St. Joe in the spring of 1847 there were not over 10 houses in the entire place that were not shingled with oak shingles that I had helped to make.  You see, I ran that shingling machine from the time I was 17 until I was 20.  I figured on going to school when I got father's debts cleared up, but I had a spell of sickness that settled in my eyes, and for three years my eyes were very weak.  We used to make about 3000 shingles a day.  We got $2 a thousand for them.  That meant we were amking $6 a day;  but of course we had to pay out of this $10 a month for the machinist and two bits a day to the men who got out the oak blocks.  And then we had to pay for the timber;  so it wasn't all profit by a long shot."

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          "When we started from St. Joe in 1847, we organized as a military company.  We busted up within a week.  Pretty nearly everyone in the company had a different notion of what we ought to do and who should be officers.  For example, Henderson Luellinig said he didn't start across the plains to kill Indians or to learn army tactics.  He was a sort of Quaker and believed in doing to others as he would be done by.  He believed that if we treated the Indians fairly they wouldn't bother us.  You know, I have about come to that conclusion myself.  Away back in 1854, I decided that from that time on I was going to treat people the way I wanted them to treat me, and, surprising as it may seem, it works.  In any event, that company busted into little groups, and after that we didn't have any captain.

*************************

          "Before I forget it I want to tell you about Henderson Luelling.  Pretty nearly everyone that saw him told him how many kinds of a fool he was for trying to bring his traveling nursery across the plains.  He had built two long narrow boxes that just fitted into the bed of his wagon.  He had filled them with charcoal, manure, and earth, and planted apples, pears, plums, cherries, quinces, grapes and other fruits in them.  He would water his trees, which ranged from three to five feet high, every night and morning.  In spite of everybody's advice, that he could never get them across the plains, he did get them to The Dalles, where he took them out of their boxes, wrapped them up carefully and took them down the Columbia river by boat and started a nursery not far from Milwaukie.  Those fruit trees became the parent stock of most of the orchards in the Willamette valley.

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          "There were five wagons in our bunch ‑ our family, my brother‑in‑law, Owen P Turner, Henry and Bill Warren and John Watts.  We traveled together clear across the plains.  Coming across the plains the Indians stole two of our animals, a mare and a horse.  We also lost one at Willow Creek, but Tom McKay sent out word to the Indians they would have to bring it in;  so we got it back. When we got to the Dalles there was two feet of snow in the mountains.

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          "About two weeks before we got into The Dalles three men overtook our wagon train and said they were going to Portland.  They told father that he would have to build boats at the Dalles, and if he would board them for the rest of the trip they would stop over and helphim build the boats to go down the Columbia river.  We boarded the men until we got to The Dalles, when they immediately vamosed and that was the last we ever saw of them.

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          "Daniel Barnes, my cousin, who was already in  Oregon, came up to The Dalles to take the women folks down the river in his boat.  The men cut timber and made a raft.  My father and my two brothers drove the cattle overland down to Fort Vancouver, while Collins and I took charge of the raft and brought the wagons down the river."

*************************          April 19, 1922

   In this installment, the second, of the story of William L. Toney, he tells of the Columbia river stage of his family's migration, of their settling in the Willamette valley and of his service as a soldier, enlisted for Indian War.

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          William L. Toney lives at McMinnville.  He is 95 years old.  He came to Oregon in 1847.  He has been miner, hotelkeeper, livery stage proprietor, farmer, boatman and Indian fighter.  When I visited him recently at his home in McMinnville, he said:    "We were pretty nearly out of money when we got to Vancouver, so father and I stopped there and worked for a man named Covington.  He had been an employee of the Hudson's Bay company and he had a big log house out on Fourth plains, not far from the present town of Orchards.  And, by the way, that old log house is still standing there and is one of the oldest in the state of Washington.  Mr. Covington was a teacher, a very aristocratic man and rather good looking.  He hired us to cut rails for him to build a fence around his place.  He paid us $1 per 100.  In those days the Hudson's Bay company's cattle ranged all over the country.  He didn't want them to get into his wheat, so he had us make a stake‑and‑rider fence nine rails high.  We didn't care how high it was, so long as we got our dollar a hundred for cutting the rails.  We made a good, substantial fence and locked it so the cattle couldn't knock it down.  After we got the place fenced, he had us plow and seed 15 acres.  We worked for him until the middle of February, 1848.

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          "My brother‑in‑law came and got the stock and took them into Yamhill to Uncle Jesse Henderson's place.  We left our wagons at Portland.  We went over the Indian trail past Wapato lake and on to where the town of Sheridan is now located.  My father took up a donation land claim near Sheridan.  He didn't exactly take it up.  He bought the squatter's right from Zed Martin.  The way it came about was like this:  A young fellow had taken it up, but had enlisted to fight the Cayuse war.  This young chap died of the measles in Portland.  Zed Martin claimed the young fellow owed him about $50 so he took the claim in settlement of the debt.  Father gave Martin a yoke of oxen for it.  My brother‑in‑law, Owen P. Turner, traded a pony for a fine half section of land.  Later we bought Zed Martin's place for $800.  He had a good cabin put up and 30 acres under fence.  I took up a claim in the fall of 1848.

          "In the spring of 1848 they decided to raise more troops to serve in the Cayuse war.  They raised three additional companies.  One company was enlisted in Polk and Clackamas counties under J.W. Nesmith.  Captain William P. Pugh raised a company in Linn county and William J. Martin raised a company in Yamhill and Tualatin.  I enllisted in Bill Martin's company.  We were mustered in about the middle of April.  The different men that knew each other chipped in and formed different messes.  G.W. Burnett, father of George H. Burnett, now supreme judge, with the three Martin boys and Riley Bean and I made up the mess.  Bean furnished an extra horse for us to use for our pack horse.  Grandmother Cooper had just brought in some groceries from the Sandwich Islands to Portland, so we bought from her some sugar, tea and coffee.  We also bought 100 pounds of flour.  We then started for The Dalles.  When we got to the lower rapids Martin thought the road was too rough for our pack horse to carry our load.  He found out that a boat with rations for the soldiers was about to start up the river to The Dalles, so he asked the man in charge if they could take our provisions.  They said if we would furnish a hand they would carry our supplies.  Martin asked me if I could help row the boat from the Cascades to The Dalles.  I had had considerable experience boating when I had lived on the river near St. Joe, Mo., from the time I was 17 until I was 20, so I told him I would do it.  We portaged the goods around the Cascades.  Then the man in charge of the boats tried to cordelle the boat around the falls.  One man was put into the boat with a pike pole to keep the boat from hitting the rocks.  The boat got caught in the current and came back like chain lightning.

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          "I was a modest Missouri boy, and kind of bashful, but I saw right away that if they did not change their tactics they were going to wreck that boat and lose our provisions as well as their own.  An officer named Coffin was in charge of the boat.  They stood around talking quite awhile about how they were going to get the boat through the rapids and over the falls.  Finally I mustered up courage and stepping up to him, said, "Sir, if you want me to, I can rig up a tackle on that boat so she will go up the river."  He turned and saw how young and inexperienced looking I was and, turning on his heel, said, "What in hell do you know about it?  When I want your advice I'll ask for it."  Well, sir , I didn't like that very much but he was an officer and I was a private, so I kept out of their way and let them go on with their pow‑wow.  Finally, when they had all concluded they couldn't get the boat up on account of the rocks, he came to me and said, "If I should decide to ask your advice, what would be your plan?"  I know by the way they had handled it tht there wasn't aboatman in the crowd  I showed him how I would rig up ropes from bow and stern.  He said, "I don't understand your scheme, but it looks reasonable.  I will put you in charge and hold you responsible for getting the boat through the rapids."  I directed the men on shore how to manipulate the ropes and I took charge of the boat and in 30 minutes we were up and beyond the falls and above the rough water.

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          "We went up 10 miles and camped.  We were afraid of being surprised by the Indians, so they put out sentries.  There were 16 of us with the boat.  Jess George of Polk county and Jim Robbins of Salt Creek were selected to stand the first watch.  It happened that I was the only man in the party with a gun.  The others were to get their guns at The Dalles.  They borrowed my gun so as to take a shot at any prowling Indians who should come around.  I had shared my blankets wtih one of the men and was sleeping with my boots for a pillow.  We were all sound asleep when suddenly we heard a gun discharged and our two guards called, "The Indians are on us!  Run for your lives!"  The fellow that was sleeping with me grabbed the blankets and started for the boat.  I didn't want to lose those blankets, so I hung onto them.   He ran as fast as he could and made a jump for the boat, missed it and went head first into the river.  I was glad I had held onto the blankets.

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          "Waking men up at the dead of night in an Indian country makes them kind of panicky.  I figured that if the Indians were coming there would be more than one shot, and there would be some Indians yelling, so I decided to watch developments.  But the rest of the men beat it for the boat, except George, Robbins and myself.  George and Robbins couldn't go, they were laughing so;  but finally they went down to the boat and told the rest of the bunch that it was just a joke and they had been having a little sport with them."

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April 20, 1922

   Episodes of the Cayuse war as related by William Toney form the principal part of the third installment of that aged veteran's story.   .....

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          William Toney of McMinnville is a veteran of the Cayuse Indian war of 1848.  He told me of his experiences as a soldier, when I visited him recently, he said: ************************

          "When I got to The Dalles I found my company camped on Three Mile creek.  When I joined them I found the whole company swarming like bees.  You never heard so much talk.  We found out that Colonel Cornellu Gilliam had been accidentally Killed and that H.A.G. Lee had been appointed colonel.  Some of the men wanted to do one thing and some another.  Some were for going home and some were for sticking it out.  Captain Martin decided to resign, and his lieutenants resigned with him;  so that left our company without any officers.  Cy Nelson and I talked it over and decided we would try to get into some other company, since our company was going to be disbanded and the men sent back home.  We went to The Dalles and asked Uncle Billy Shaw if we could fight with his company.  He said, "Boys, I would be glad to have you, but I can draw rations for only the regular number of men;  so you fellows will have to furnish your own grub."  We went back to Three Mile creek to get my share of grub, but when we got there we found the head officers had said that if 60 of our men would stay and fight, we could elect new officers;  so Cy Nelson decided to stay with our bunch, and we voted for G.W. Burnett to act as our captain.  Burnett had been in my mess.  Riley Bean, another of my mess was put in for lieutenant, and they elected me to lead the packhorse with our grub.  Cy Nelson stuck with us until he ran across a company ;that was in command of his brother‑in‑law, Clark Rogers, when he joined his company.

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          "It was a mighty unlucky thing for me that they found out I knew how to handle a boat in the river, for whenever we came to a river, I was elected to rustle the logs to make a raft and then ferry the men over.  We crossed the Snake river just below the mouth of the Palouse during the June freshet.  We took the men over in canoes and swam the horses beside the canoes.  When we reached the bank of the river it looked as though we were not going to get across.  One of the officers and I rustled some drift logs, made a raft, crossed the river, and located four Indian canoes.  I worked from 11 o'clock that morning until 2 the next morning taking men over.  It was dangerous work, for it was so rough.  The men had to bail pretty lively to keep the canoe from being swamped.  Captain Burnett was still on the wrong side of the river.  He was waiting until all of his men got over.  He and I lay down in the sand together and rested from 2 to 4 o'clock.  Then he awoke me and we aroused the other men and began to take them over.  I finally got so weak from lack of food‑‑for I had not eaten anything for 24 hours‑‑that I told them unless I could have something to eat, if the canoe would swamp I would be too weak to swim out.  They then let me stop an hour or so.  I walked to where some of the other men were they gave me a chunk of beef that had been cooked by putting it on a stick and holding it over the fire.  They also give me bread and               It sure tasted good.

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          "When we got to Red Wolf crossing we found out the Cayuse Indians had just pulled out.  Our company started to scout around and located a big band of horses down near the river.  I was riding a Spanish horse that happened to be one of the fastest horses in the company.  A man about 35 years old, from Linn county, who belonged to Captain Maxon's company, was also mounted on a fast horse.  We rode ahead of the others.  A young Indian about my age, naked except for his breechclout rode toward us and told us to stop.  We didn't aim to do any stopping, for we wanted to capture those horses.  The Indian tried to catch hold of the bridle of the other man's horse.  He cracked the Indian over the head with his gun barrel, and said, "I'll teach you to grab my bridle.  The young Indian wheeled and started away as fast as his horse could run.  My friend from Linn county yelled to him to stop, and when he didn't stop he took aim the best he could with his horse running so fast as it could go, and shot at the Indian.  The bullet caught him just between the shoulder blades.  He kind of sagged down, and rolled off his horse.  Just then Dick, our guide, came up as fast as his horse could run and said, "What for you kill that Nez Perce boy?  He our friend."  The Linn county man swung his gun around and was going to shoot Dick.  I yelled to him not to shoot, that Dick was one of our scouts.  I never saw an Indian more scared.  He didn't shoot, and then Dick told us the horses belonged to the Nez Perce Indians, who were fighting with us and not against us.  When Captain Burnett rode up he gave us Hail Columbia for shooting a friendly Indian, and said we ought to be court martialed.  But I guess he figured it was all a mistake;  so nothing came of it.  The Nez Perce Indians were pretty sore about it.  Chief Lawer, one of the Nez Perce warriors, explained to the Indians that it was a mistake, so they let it go at that.

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          "Well, not long after that we came up to Fort Waters, and from there we went to Foster Prairie.  We sent word in to the governor to come on out and muster us out, but the secretary of state sent back word that the governor was at Astoria, and for us to consider ourselves mustered out and to go home, and then later he would issue a formal proclamation mustering us out of service.

***************************

          "Some big officer once said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs;" and its the same way with fighting.  Not all of our boys came back.  The worst of it is that most of the wars, whether they are with Indians or with white folks, could be avoided if both sides wanted to do the fair thing and not take advantage of the other fellow."

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April 21, 1922

   In this installment, the fourth and last of the story of his life, William Toney appears as argonaut with about the average argonaut's luck, the same being none at all.  The scene shifts, and he is innkeeper and doing very well indeed, and giving his children meanwhile educational advantages.

‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑

          Pioneer, prospector, Indian war veteran ‑‑ such has been William Toney of McMinnville.  He has spent 75 of his 95 years in Oregon.

          "After being mustered out of the service in the Cayuse Indian war," he said, "I went back to our donation land claim.  The next spring my father and I went to California on a Spanish boat.  We worked in San Francisco, sawing redwood logs into lumber.  We sawed about 400 feet of redwood flooring every day and were paid

$5 a day.  After that played out we got a job helping Sam Brannon load an old boat that he was going to take to Sacramento.  While we worked in San Francisco we camped out near a spring on beach.  There was a big mud flat there, so the ships couldn't come in close.  There was a sand beach, and back of that the land rose in benches and hills.  Tents were pitched helter‑skelter all along the beach and on the benches.  We acted as deckhands on this boat going to Sacramento, and got our trip for nothing.  When we got into the mines I cut down a couple of good sized trees and hollowed them out and we used them for rockers.  On our way into the mines there was nothing at Sutters but some tents and shacks, but when we came back they had started a city there, which they called Sacramento.

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          "We decided to come back to the Willamette valley overland, so we bought a horse and saddle from a miner at Mormon Island and a couple more at Sacramento and with eight other Oregon men we started for the Willamette valley.  I would not have gone back to the Willamette valley but for the fact that I had sown 40 acres of wheat in the spring and there was no one at home to harvest it.  When I got home I cut the 40 acres of wheat with a cradle, hauled it on a mud sled to the corral, and tramped it out with horses.  It didn't turn out very well, though, because I got only 400 bushels on the whole 40 acres.

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          "After I had harvested my wheat I went with my cousin Dan Barnes back to California.  We went to the Shasta diggings.  Tom Ramie went with us down to Sacramento to get grub for the winter.  You remember about the big flood they had that year.  We got water‑bound, and for two or three months you couldn't get a horse out of the country.  They would bog down.  Ramie took sick.  Dan Barnes was a good nurse.  He told me to go on back and hold down our claim.  They took $5000 out of it, and we could not find another good claim;  so in midsummer of 1850 I again struck back for the Willamette valley.  I needed to make some money that winter, so I went in with Reuben Gant.  He had a turning lathe and we spent the winter making chairs of maple wood with split bottoms made of ashe.

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          "On March 4, 1851, I married Elsie Carllisle.  She was a Canadian.  We had 11  children‑‑eight boys and three girls.  Most of our children died of diptheria or scarlet fever.  Only two of the boys and the three girls grew up.  Our twin boys died of the diptheria.

          "In 1863 we went to California, where we bought a ranch.  My crop burned out that summer and fall, so I traded my ranch for 30 pack horses and came back to Oregon with the intention of running a pack train into the Idaho mines.  I put my Spanish horses into a pasture in Polk county;  until I could get the rest of my outfit together.  A cold storm came up, with driving sleet and rain, and when I went out to get my horses the next day a lot of them had pneumonia and 12 of them died.  That ruined my pack train.

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          "I had to sell a band of sheep I had to get money to buy some more horses.  I had a band of mutton sheep, some yearlings but mostly 2‑year‑olds with a few 3‑year‑old wethers.  I decided to drive them up to Canyon City, where rich diggings had just been struck and where money was plentiful.  When I got to Portland with my sheep I got word that there were 16 cases of smallpox at The Dalles.  I figured that I was not particularly anxious to die of smallpox, so I decided to sell my sheep in Portland.  I put my sheep into Johnson's corral, at Second and Yamhill streets.  There used to be a butcher named Joe Bergman.  I asked him if he would buy the sheep.  I told him I had to sell them and I would take a profit of two‑bits apiece for them.  He thought he had me where he could get them still lower, so told me he would think it over.  Meanwhile I ran across a man named Johnson, who said, "I am going up to Victoria, I will give you $3.50 apiece for your yearlings and $4 for the rest of your sheep.  They are in prime condition, and I can make enough profit on them in the Victoria market to pay my expenses for the trip."  Shortly after he had bought and paid for my sheep I ran across Bergman, who said, "Well, have you decided to sell me your sheep?"  I told him I had sold them, and what I got for them.  He was greatly upset by it and said he would have paid me four bits a head more than that.  He asked me if I could get him 75 yearlings, as he had an order for some sheep and needed them badly.  I knew where I could pick up 75 yearlings, so I went out to Reuben Gant's place, bought them and brought them in.  Then Bergman asked me to go out and buy him some cattle.  The upshot of the matter was that he hired me as a stockbuyer, and for the next nine months I rode all over the valley buying stock for him.

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          "My wife thought the children should be in school, so in the fall of 1863 we moved from our ranch near Sheridan to McMinnville.  We didn't have the money to keep the children in school and pay our expenses at McMinnville unless we could scheme some way to make money as we went along, so we rented Uncle Tommy Shaddon's hotel and the whole family pitched in and worked.  The next year I built a house.  Our old boarders liked my wife's cooking, so a good many of them followed us to board with us.  I finally had to build an addition to the house to accommodate the transients.  I decided it would be cheaper to own a butcher shop so I could get meat at wholesale cost;  so I ran a butcher shop in connection with the hotel and soon was making good money selling meat.  So many travelers wanted to put their horses up that I bought out a livery stable and ran it in connection with my hotel.  I ran the hotel, butcher shop and livery stable for eight years, until all my children had a good education.  Then I sold out and went back to farming.  I saw to it that my children got what I had always wanted, and that was a good education.  I figured that if I could get along without education they could get along a heap better if they had it, and I didn't want them to have any more handicaps in life than I could help." 

Appendix III                   Genealogy of the Hart‑Lybrook Families

                        As transcribed from Notes dictated by MARIA LYBROOK HART

                                                                                                                                                            During the Year A.D. 1904

Compiled and Collaborated by:

                                                                                                Minerva Anne Druley,  Daughter

                        1915                                                     Minerva Hart Irwin,   Grand‑daughter

                                                                                                Bradford G. Williams, Grand‑son

PHILLIP AND ANNA LYBROOK

            Phillip Lybrook was born in Franklin County, Virginia, Septermber 23, 1757.  His wife, nee Anna Miller, was born October 28, 1765, and they were married in the year 1781.

            In 1806, Phillip lybrook moved from Virginia to what is now Union County, Indiana, entering four quarter‑sections of land, the farthest south of which was the one where the Lybrook Cemetery is at present located.  He returned to Virginia, and the following spring, 1807, sent his two sons, John and Jacob, who cleared some of the land and built a log cabin on the quarter‑section north of the Lybrook Cemetery.  Jacob remained along through the winter, working when he could, but John returned to Virginia and was married.  The next spring, that of 1808, the entire family, including John and wife, left Virginia for the new home in the new log house prepared for them in Indiana.

            Thirteen (13) children were born to Phillip and Anna Lybrook of which the following is a record:

            1.            Barbara was born January 1, 1782.  She was married to Jacob Kingery, Februrary 12, 1800.  They settled on a quarter‑section of land adjoining her brother, John, on the west.

            2.            Catherine was born February 1, 1783, and married Poindexter Toney November 20, 1818.  They settled in Preble County, Ohio, one mile east of where Frank Druley's residence now stands.  They had no children.

            3.            Elizabeth was born November 15, 1784, and married William Moss, January 2, 1806.  They lived on a farm adjoining Jacob Lybrook on the north.

            4.            John was born December 3, 1785, and married Fannie Toney August 17, 1809.  They lived on a farm adjoining his father on the north.

            5.            Jacob was born July 24, 1787, and married Elizabeth Crawford August 24, 1809.  They settled on the farm where John Hart later lived.

            6.            Baltzer was born March 14, 1789, and married Mary Eikenberry, October 14, 1813.  They lived on the quater‑section where the Lybrook Cemetery was reserved by his father.

            7.            Phillip was born October 7, 1790, and married Hannah Pentecost, October 8, 1818.  They lived on the farm with his father.

            8.            Nancy was born March 11, 1792, and married John Nelson December 26, 1809.  They first lived just across the Ohio line, but later on a farm where the Hannah's Creek church now stands.  They were both buried in the cemetery at Hannah's Creek.

            9.            Polly was born march 14, 1796.  She was weak‑minded, and never married but lived with her sister, Sally Toney, until she died.

            10. Eve was born September 3, 1797, and married Jesse Toney, May 11, 1818.  They lived north of Catherine and Pendexter Toney.

            11. Phebe was born march 10, 1799, and married Martin Kingery.  They lived on what is now called the College Corner Pike.  She left four small children when she died.

            12. Sally was born May 6, 1803, and married James Toney.  They first lived on a farm west of her brother, John;  later, they moved to Cass County and lived with their youngest son until they died.

            13. Suzanna was born June 15, 1806.  She never married but lived with her sister Phebe's children until she died.

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JACOB AND ELIZABETH LYBROOK

            In 1809, Jacob Lybrook married Elizabeth Crawford of Botetourt County, Virginia, at her father's home two miles south of what is now College Corner, where her people had settled.  They settled on the quarter‑section north of his brother John, and their home is still the present home of their daughter Maria.

            They first lived in a two‑room log house on the hill just back of the present home, and afterwards built a five‑room brick house near it which has since been destroyed.  Jacob had nothing except an axe and a horse to start him in life and the whole place was heavily timbered.

            Their son and first child, Baltzer, was born August 9, 1822, and their daughter, Maria, was born August 7, 1826.  These were their only children but they raised five orphans‑‑

            George and Hiram Claypool both came when boys, married when they were of age and moved to northern Indiana.

            Sallie Smith came when quite small and remained until she was seventeen.  At that age she married Enoch Gordon who lived just one week.  Later, she married again and died in Park County.

            Atlanta Gard came at the age of two years, and remained until she was married at the age of twenty‑one years to John Moss.  She died four years later.

            James Wyatt was taken when he was eight years old, stayed until he was of age, then married Elizabeth Moss and at present lives in California.

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BALTZER AND JANE LYBROOK

            Baltzer Lybrook married Jane Cunningham December 12, 1844, and settled on the two quarter‑sections north of the old home.  They had eleven (11) children:

                        1.  Jacob Henry (died when small).

                        2.  Margaret Eleen (also died when small).

                        3.  Anna Maria (died at the age of 19 years).

                        4.  Leander.

                        5.  Elizabeth Alice (Edgworth).

                        6.  Sarah Estella (Bulla).

                        7.  Mary Jane (Ramsey).

                        8.  Belle (Edgworth).

                        9.  Henrietta (Orbaugh).

                        10. Minnie Luella (Hart).

                        11. Madison (died when five years old).

RECORD OF GRANDCHILDREN (1904)

                        Lee Lybrook, Alice Murry ‑ No children.

                        Alice Lybrook, James Edgworth ‑ No children.

                        Estella Lybrook (died 1903), John Bulla ‑ Walter, Marie (baby), Lilly,                             (married, baby, Walter Eikenberry), boy.

                        Mary Lybrook, Abner Ramsey ‑ Pearl, married Harry Ramsey, Stanley (2                                 yrs.), Edna (21), Lee (18), Marie (14), Homes (12), Murray (4).

                        Belle Lybrook, Samuel Edgworth ‑ Clyde (17), Ruth (4).

                        Henrietta Lybrook, Daniel Orbaugh ‑ Hubert (10), Floyd (7), Esther (2)

                        Minnie Lybrook, Isaac Hart ‑ Earl (14), India (12), Herbert (10).

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JOHN AND MARIA HART

            Maria Lybrook married John Hart December 4, 1845, and they lived with her parents.  They had five children born over in the old brick house and six where she now lives.  The large brick house was built in 1857, and Jacob and Elizabeth Lybrook had the present parlor for their room.  Jacob died April 14, 1869 and Elizabeth March 28, 1874.

            Of the eleven (11) children born to John and Maria Hart, the following is a complete record‑‑

                        1.  James Baltzer was born June 3, 1847, and married Rebecca Roberts                                                 February 22, 1876.

                        2.  Nancy Marcella was born September 18, 1849, and died August 6, 1859.

                        3.  Jacob Homer was born April 19, 1852 and left home in 1880.

                        4.  Elizabeth Jane was born July 18, 1854, and married Joseph S. Cramer,                                            November 22, 1876.

                        5.  Minerva Ann was born July 21, 1856, and married Frank Druley,                                      December 1, 1881.

                        6.  William Crawford was born April 21, 1858, and married Elizabeth                                               Haworth, October 28, 1886.  She died March 9, 1897.

                        7.  Nora Malinda was born February 14, 1860, and married Howard Williams                                                February 8, 1883.  She died in Kansas.

                        8.  Oran Leander was born January 20, 1862, and died January 12, 1864.

                        9.  Annie Laurie was born August 1, 1864, and died at Earlham College                                                 March 3, 1883.

                        10. Sarah Olive was born October 31, 1866.

                        11. Edith Maria was born August 10, 1868, and married Everett Owen                                        October 31, 1889.

            Maria Hart united with the German Baptist Church November 18, 1849, and John Hart in 1879.  He was born May 6, 1821, and died September 16, 1889.

RECORD OF GRANDCHILDREN (1904)

                        James Baltzer, Rebecca Roberts ‑ Sarah Olive (dead), Lessie Coleman,                                              Elston, Gladys, Minerva, Thomas.

                        Elizabeth Jane, Joseph S. Cramer ‑ India (26).

                        Minerva Anne, Frank Druley ‑ Ralph (19), Rhea (17), Carrie (14).

                        William Crawford, Elizabeth Haworth ‑Hazel (17), Marcia (14), Hallie (12)                          Nora Malinda (dead), Howard B. Williams ‑ Oran (died age 2 yrs., 1886),                                       Clem (died age 9 yrs., 1895), Bradford (17), Hugh (15).

                        Edith Maria, Everett Owen ‑Marie (14), Addie (12), Joe (10), Estaline (2)

Appendix IV.     THE OLDEST HOUSE  IN UNION COUNTY, INDIANA, NEAR COLLEGE CORNER, THERE IS AN HISTORIC RESIDENCE

(This article appeared in a local, I presume, paper around the turn of the century ‑ 1900.)

George Wilson, of College Corner, is the owner of the oldest brick house in Union County, Indiana.  It is a substantially built farm residence, located on his country place about two miles south of College Corner.  The old landmark was erected in 1812, on the first settled farm in the County, by John Miller an emigrant from the old Virginia State.  He removed to this locality in 1803, making the trip on horseback, and established a pottery near where the old house now stands.  He was titled "Potter John" and was well known as a deer hunter, ofttimes hunting for his neighbors while they worked for him.  The old house which stands today is a monument of his skill and thrift, is a six room, two story, 30 X 40 ft. house, having walls 18 in. thick and floor sleepers made of logs faced upon one side and about a foot in thickness.  The floor is oaken and is now as good almost as new.  The magnificent orchard which surrounds the house is the growth of thirty fruit trees which Miller brought from Virginia in his saddle bags.

Mr. Miller disposed of the farm in 1830, to Josiah Wilson, father of the present owner, who was the first Presbyterian in the County and in the old homestead was preached the first Presbyterian sermon ever preached in Little Union.  The ministers were Prof. McCarthy and Prof. John M. Scott, father‑in‑law of Ex President Benj. Harrison and at the time President of the Scott College at Oxford.  Over thirty converts were made that day, which was the origin of the Presbyterian congregation.

Mr. Wilson sold the homestead to his only son, George Wilson, the present owner, in 1837, who in turn occupied it until a few years ago when he moved to College Corner and took up residence with his daughter, Mrs. George Bargelt.  Since then the well preserved old house has remained vacant and stands nestled among the stately old trees by the little lake, a silent reminder of the architectural skill of 85 years ago.

Appendix V.  The Lybrook Cemetry ‑ history  Aug. 1, 1891

This cemetry ‑ situated on what is now the Smith Railsback farm in section (36) Harrison Township Union Co. Ind., was one of the first places of burial in the County, the first interrment within its sacred precincts being the body of a young son of John Lybrook ‑ the then owner of the land ‑ about the year 1823

(corrected to 1819).

          It was at first intended only as a family burying ground ‑ but soon began to be used by the general public as a last resting place for their dead.

          Previous to the year 1872 there was no deed or title held by any one to designate this plot of ground as seperate or apart from the balance of the farm on which it was located and it had been transferred with the land whenever the farm changed ownership.  As a natural consequence the grounds were neglected and fences out of repair, but on the 10th day of April of that year a deed for one acre ‑ comprising the cemetry limits ‑ was given by Benjamin and Susanah Cooper to a board of Trustees consisting of John Hart ‑ Daniel Moss and Baltzer Lybrook ‑ who had been previously selected to fill that capacity.

          During all these years the grounds were kept fenced and cleaned by donations of money and work from friends interested, but as the present fence ‑ a board one ‑ is now so badly out of repair as to be almost useless, and so many of surviving ones of the families who have used this as a buring ground having removed to other parts and many others selecting other places of interrment for their dead, it was thought best to erect a substantial and comparatively ever‑lasting fence while there were still some of the more interested ones living.

          Therefore a general subscriptson list was circulated by Baltzer Lybrook and Daniel Moss (John Hart having meanwhile been laid to rest in the place he had so long assited to care for.)  Friends and relatives of the dead responded very generously and soon there was enough enrolled to insure the erection of a first

class fence.

                                                                                                          Wm. C. Hart.  Sec.

(Note:  Elder Baltzer Lybrook lived on the Cemetary farm.  The father, Philip, lived north of the Cemetary farm.  John Lybrook lived next north of their father.  David Landis, in his will, 1814, wants to be buried with the Christians known as Dunkers at Lybrooks.  So there were burials here before John, son of John Lybrook, in 1819.)

The Kanawha Trace Way Bill