The Original Milo Volney Miller, Mr. Successful

WILLIAM MILLER m Lorain Fountaine > MILO VOLNEY MILLER m (1) Patience Meeker (2) Cynthia Sprague

1800s NW PA Logging Camp

Milo Volney Miller, not to be confused with nephew Milo Volney Miller, was an early settler in Linn County, Iowa. His father was born in England and came to the US as a young man. Lorain was the daughter of a French-Canadian who emigrated to the US. They lived much of their lives in Onandaga County, New York.

The trek to Iowa was a long one, but fruitful for Milo. Born 08 Sep 1821, in Onadaga County, York, he was reared there until age 19, when he as a single man, went down to Warren County, Pennsylvania for work. Lumber camps were big, successful business in this area during their heyday. Camps were always located along a stream or near a good spring. Logs cut from mountainsides were manually floated to the river or hauled to the Allegheny by horses and chains by teamsters. Pairs of lumberjacks would fell large trees while another man worked clearing space 10-foot around the next tree. Most farms in this area were carved from the bounty of these camps, once cleared, the ground could then be cultivated and farmed. Milo would "follow the saw" for a few years.

While there, he met and married Patience Meeker in 1843 in Pennsylvania. The couple then had gone to near Milan, Ohio. In the 1840s, Milan was experiencing a big grain boom. Located in Erie County, it was also a port town where commodities could be easily transported across the lakes in a time when railroad building was still rather inefficient. They then moved to McHenry County, Illinois where he briefly farmed. Then, it was on to Boon, in Porter County, Indiana, about 10 miles from Valparaiso. The couple had two children,  Almira F Miller, born 23 Sep 1844 in Indiana and an infant who died. Patience would die in Indiana.

Breaking prairie. Done with horses or oxen.

He married Cynthia Sprague on 02 Jul 1849 in Porter County. She hailed from Allen County, Ohio and had come to Porter County with her father, Mr. Solomon Sprague. The first of their four children was born here during the nearly five years they would spend here before they moved on to Jackson County, Iowa. Most of his family was in Boon in 1850 including his widowed mother, brothers Edrick and George, and their families, and sister Mary Jane and her husband Simeon Lisk and family.

While in Jackson County, Milo bought a 200-acre farm, 60-acres of which was "under the plow." Just two years later, he sold that place and moved to Linn County. It was now 1853 and the settlement of the area was still relatively new and burgeoning. He bought a 220-acre improved farm in Grant Township and farmed there until he again moved on in 1876 to nearby Center Point in Linn County.

His brother Edrick would end up settling in Portland, Whiteside County, Illinios, but the rest moved on to Iowa and by 1860, with the exception of Edrick, were all in Linn County, Iowa.

Milo blossomed while in Center Point, moving into the real estate business. He began purchasing land and improving farms. He bought land in town, as well, and owned two business blocks along with over a dozen residences in and out of town which he rented. His rental farms totaled 600 acres of highly-desirable Linn County farmland. Over the course of his nearly 50 years in the area, he developed a reputation as "an upright, reliable businessman of strict integrity and sterling worth," according to The Biographical Record of Linn County, Iowa, 1901.

Milo reportedly died 28 Dec 1912 in Center Point, his wife having departed just before on 06 Jul 1911. However, a news item in the 01 Jan 1913 Cedar Rapids Republican says Miller was "gravely ill" and not expected to survive. My guess would be it was a late-posted article and they had not yet received word of the death. Son-in-law Ted Lampman was named executor of the Miller estate and posted a $2,000 bond.

The children:

1 Almira F Miller, born 23 Sep 1844 (to Patience Meeker). Married George Fee, born 08 Nov 1837 in Crawford, Illinois. He farmed. She died 27 Feb 1898 in Linn County and he 12 Jul 1909. They had three children.

Annie Obit - No mention made of
second marriage to Hein

2. Adelia "Delia" Miller was born 22 Jan 1851 in Porter County, Indiana. She married Theodore. Lampann, another successful Linn County farmer who originally hailed from New York and was born in March 1849. You can read about them here

3. Samuel W Miller was born in 1854 in Linn County, married Margaret (unknown), born 1856. They had three children. He died  in 1913 and she in 1899 in Linn County.

4. Mary Philena was born 01 Mar 1857 in Linn County. She married Edmund James Sarchett on 08 Nov 1874 in Linn County. He was born 10 Jun 1853 in Cambridge, Guernsey, Ohio. They had eight children. She died 08 Oct 1932 in Washington Township and he on 23 Jun 1939 in Center Point.

5. Annie Elizabeth was born 08 Mar 1860 in Center Point. She was married to John D. Wormer, who was born 21 Nov 1856 in Ohio and died on 06 Oct 1898. They had three children. She then married Oliver Hein, a widower with adult children, on 13 Sep 1900 in Marion, Iowa.  The bliss in the union seems to have been short-lived, though because they divorced prior to 1910.  Ann was buried with her first husband in Center Point and died 19 Aug 1936.