MILLER FAMILY GOES TO NESS CO., KANSAS
This is an account of my Miller family going to Ness Co. Kansas to homestead in 1879. After nothing but tragic experiences there, they returned to Ohio in 1880. This story was written by my gr aunt Susie Miller McCann who was only 8 yrs. old at the time. Aunt Susie doesn't mention it but I believe there may have been other Pike Co. OH. people who made this same pilgrimage, others may have been more lucky.
THE MILLER FAMILY GOES TO NESS CO. KANSAS TO HOMESTEAD
James Isaac and Mary (Whaley) Miller took their family to Ness Co. Kansas in July or Aug. of 1879 to homestead. They were joined on the trip west by their eldest son George and Rachel Rapp Miller and their children Louisa and Billie, and eldest daughter Arletha Ellen and her husband Benjamin Franklin Donaldson and baby Scioto Ellen (born 14 Dec. 1879), Also Thomas Miller who was single and 19 at the time with four minor children: Mary Catherine, age 14, Susie, 8, Emily, 6, John Wesley, 4, and Huston James, 2. While in Kansas they lived in a "soddy": a house constructed partially underground with walls and roof made of sod. George's wife Rachel, Mary and newborn baby, died there in Aug.1880.
Mary was buried in a homemade dress in a coffin made of white poplar boards intended to make into a new table. James then brought his family and George's family back to Jackson Co. Ohio. James Isaac then married Margaret Whaley (Mary's sister; d/o Luke Whaley and Selinda Weese) Dec. 23 1880. (Three more children were born to this union: Joseph, Abraham Lincoln and Jacob.) Franklin (Frank) Donaldson and family and Thomas Miller went on to Missouri. Frank took up a quarter section (90) acres to homestead. Arletha was often called upon to nurse the ill and comfort the dying, since medical help was almost non-existant. The Donaldson family and Thomas Miller returned to Ohio between 1883 and 1886.
As written by Susie Miller McCann.
My grandmother, Mary Catherine Miller Wallrodt, wrote the following:
I was 14 yrs. old when my mother Mary Whaley Miller died in Ness Co. Kansas. My father James Isaac left me with 4 small brothers and sisters, while he returned to Ohio to marry my mother's younger sister, Margaret Whaley , who was 21 yrs. his junior. I had to keep the doors locked to keep the wolves from getting us.
Contributed by: John Emmitt
Copyright © 2007
Pike Co. Genealogy & Historical Society
P. O. Box 224, Waverly, Ohio 45690
|