Patience Meeker's Surviving Child: Almira Miller

WILLIAM MILLER m Loraine Fountaine > MILO VOLNEY MILLER m (1) Patience Meeker > ALMIRA MILLER m George Fee

Last time, I talked about the very successful Milo Volney Miller of Center Point. Early on, he was married to a woman he met during the time he was working in the logging camps in NW Pennsylvania, Patience Meeker. She had two children, one dying as an infant, and Almira, born 23 Sep 1844. Patience died in Indiana prior to 1849 and Milo remarried.

Death Mention Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette

On 29 Mar 1863, Almira married George W Fee in Linn County Iowa. George was the son of George Fee and Abigail Means, who married in North Carolina, but were both Virginia natives who came to Iowa with the earliest wave of settlers.

The couple had three children. In the late 1890s, Almira became ill and remained so until her death on 27 Feb 1898.

Her husband George had his share of troubles during his lifetime. In October 1900, he was arrested and later convicted of assault on one Nicholas Zabosky. He lost on appeal as well and finally received a fine of $10 and three days in jail unless the fine was paid immediately. Zabosky later sued him for $2,000 in civil court for the assault. The outcome of that case is not known.

The year previously, he was pulled up in front of his church council for a church law court session which was highly unusual in the day:

CHURCH LAW COURTNovel Case Heard and Disposed of Before Elder AlbrookPresiding Elder Albrook of the Marshalltown district of the Methodist church last week conducted a court in Tama county that is somewhat novel in church procedure. Some years ago a Mrs Head requested her neighbor and brother in the church George Fee, to attend a sale and bid on an eighty-acre farm in her interest. This she claimed he agreed to do. He attended the sale and bought the farm, but was so well pleased with the bargain that he concluded to keep the land for himself. he contended that he was not acting as the agent of Mrs Head and that he was representing himself. The transaction and the talk that followed made trouble in the church, and the trouble grew perhaps faster than the membership and resources of the local body. Mrs Head claimed that the land was worth $5 per acre more than her agent had paid and as he had kept the land, she maintained that she had been defrauded of $400. The pastor in charge at the time, Rev Lee, concluded that he would put a stop to the talk if not to the trouble, and ordered a trial inside the church. five men were chosen, according to the rules of the denomination, to hear the case, attorneys were selected from the membership and Elder Albrook presided. At the close of the trial, Mrs Head was awarded $380. The case is peculiar in that it substitutes church procedure for civil court procedure.
Cedar Rapids Evening GazetteMonday, April 17, 1899, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Still, luck occasionally came his way. In late 1904, a vein of coal was discovered on his property at a depth of 100 feet. It was discovered while digging a water well on his farm in Tama County.

Fee died 12 Jul 1909 in Linn County.

Almira's children:

William H Fee was born in Mar 1864 and first married Lillas R Hoagland on 01 Jan 1885 in Linn County. They had two children before divorcing. Lillas died 10 Feb 1914 in Custer, South Dakota. I'll be revisiting the children of this marriage. His second wife, Isadora "Dora" Fanning was the mother of his next nine children. Married in 1897, it appears they divorced prior to 1925. William died 30 Mar 1928 in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa. Dora died in 1954.

Cynthia Abigail "Abbie" Fee was born in Nov 1865. She married William P Cress on 03 Oct 1886 in Linn County. They adopted one child, Leo, who was born 27 Aug 1890 to John Cress and Ida Cox.

Short Horn Cattle

William, born in 1863, died 09 Nov 1944 in Center Point. Abbie died 17 Mar 1951 also in Center Point. Leo would spend his entire adult life working on the Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Northern Railroad.

Wesley Bartlett was born 15 Jul 1867 in Linn County. He married Estella C Cox on 23 Mar 1892 in Linn County. Bart was very fortunate to have survived a case of typhoid fever in 1886. They had four children, two of whom died as young children. I'll visit back on their surviving son another day. Bart farmed successfully, building a large, beautiful residence in 1912. Along with short-horn cattle, Fee raised American Poland-China hogs. Just prior to selling his farm in 1932, his farm was damaged by a serious storm in May of 1932, destroying a brooder house; falling timbers killing many young chicks and rain drowning others. He still maintained a stockyard, where he died of a heart attack while working in 1934. His wife also died in 1934.