THOMAS MILLER, a retired agriculturist and one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Canonsburg, was born October 15, 1815, in Mt. Pleasant township, this county. Andrew Miller, his father, came from Ireland to America in 1812, bringing his wife, his parents (Thomas and Sarah Miller), and their children---Andrew, Thomas, Sarah, Margaret and Mary. These children all settled in Mt. Pleasant township, where many of their descendants are now living. Andrew Miller was married, in Ireland, to Sarah Steele, a sister of Rev. James Steele, who for many years was a Presbyterian minister at Strabane, Ireland, where his son, Frederic Steele, attorney at law, now lives. After his arrival in Mt. Pleasant township Andrew Miller commenced farming, an occupation he continued many years, and then, some forty years ago, moved to Chartiers township, where he died in 1853, at the age of seventy years. After his death, his widow lived with her daughter in Mt. Pleasant township, dying there in 1856 at a very advanced age. Andrew Miller was a prominent Democrat in his day, and held carious offices of trust in his township and county, such as director of the poor. He was a member of the old Associate Church. Of their marriage four children were born, viz.: James (who was an attorney in Wooster, Ohio, and died in 1844), Thomas (our subject), Andrew (who died in Allegheny county, Penn.), and Jane (widow of Andrew Russell, residing in Chartiers township, with her daughter Mrs. Homer Wilson). Thomas Miller received the rudiments of his education in an old log school house on Chartiers creek, and his first day's attendance was indelibly fixed on his memory by his being an eye-witness to the singular freak of a snake climbing up the wall of the house. He had a thorough, practical training in all the departments of agriculture, which was his life vocation, and in 1875 retired from active labor. On May 17, 1843, Mr. Miller married Annie, daughter of David Reed, of Cecil township, Washington county, and the following named children were born to their union: Andrew S. (who served in the Union army in the defense of his country, and is now an attorney in Pittsburgh), David R. (a United Presbyterian minister in East Palestine, Ohio), J. Martin and John C. (both on the farm in Chartiers township), Almira (wife of Rev, W.T. McConnell, of Des Moines, Iowa), and Sarah Jane (Mrs. W.H.S. Ritchie, of West Point, Ky.). Mrs. Miller died in March, 1858, and November 20, 1860, our subject married Elizabeth, daughter of James Linn, who was born in South Strabane township, this county. No children were born to this union. In 1875 Mr. Miller built the elegant house in Canonsburg, into which he and his faithful wife moved the same year, and in which they now live, calmly awaiting the summons that shall call them from earth. They are lifelong members of the U.P. Church, in which he has been an elder for about forty-five years. Politically Mr. Miller was originally a Democrat, but left the ranks of that party on the slavery issue, and united with the old Whig party; he first voted for Martin Van Buren, then for William Henry Harrison. He was a delegate from Canonsburg at the first National Convention of the Republican party, held in Pittsburgh in 1856. In 1884, with a sense of duty to his fellow-man and to his God, he enlisted under the Prohibition banner. Although earnest and most conscientious in his political associations Mr. Miller has, nevertheless, consistently refused office. At the first Republican county convention he declined to become the nominee of his party for the State Legislature. He was a delegate to the Congressional Convention that nominated Hon. T.M.T. McKennan to fill the vacancy in Congress through the death of Hon. Joseph Lawrence, in 1842. Mr. Miller's old farm in Chartiers township, comprising 250 acres of highly improved land, is now owned and worked by his sons, J. Martin and John C. Miller. J. Martin Miller, son of Thomas Miller, was born November 27, 1848, on the farm above mentioned. He grew to manhood under the parental roof, and was educated in the schools of Chartiers township, then taking the freshman and sophomore years at Washington and Jefferson College. In 1875 he was united in marriage with Mary B. Stewart, a native of St. Clairsville, Belmont Co., Ohio, and daughter of John Stewart, who was born in Pennsylvania, and when a young man moved to Belmont county, Ohio. In 1832 he was married to Ann Bell, a native of the same county, and they settled on a farm in Ohio, where their children were born and reared. he was ruling elder for sixty years in the U.P. Church at St. Clairsville, Ohio. He died in February 1892, aged eighty-seven years, and the faithful wife was laid to rest beside him three weeks later, having passed through eighty years of life. The Stewart family are of Scotch origin, and trace their ancestry to Robert Bruce, of historic fame. They first settled in Pennsylvania, afterward moving to Ohio. After his marriage to Mary B. Stewart, Mr. Miller bought the old homestead, consisting of 150 acres of land. He has since carried on general farming, including the raising of Holstein cattle and Delaine Merino sheep. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have had six children, viz.: Anna Bell, born November 7, 1875, died at the age of eight years; Stewart, born July 3, 1877; Lena Alice, born August 16, 1879; Karl Martin, born September 6, 1882; Edna Bruce, born December 11, 1886, and Mary Bell, born June 29, 1892. J. Martin Miller is a Republican, and in religious connection he and his wife are members of the Chartiers U.P. Church, Rev. W.B. Smiley, pastor, of which he was elected ruling elder in 1886.

Text taken from page 770 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Jack McNatt of Valrico, FL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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