William J. Miller 1844-1914

MILLER, PERRY

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 08:40:46

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

WILLIAM J. MILLER.

One of the best known and loved men of Osceola County was the late William J. Miller, who died on July 17, 1914, at his home in Sibley, Iowa. He was born on a ship bearing the United States flag while his parents were, coming from Ireland, their native land, to this country, his birth occurring on November 7, 1844. He was reared to manhood in the state of New York and received an excellent education in Potsdam, New York, graduating from the Saint Lawrence Academy in that city. He entered the teaching profession in the state of New York and followed that profession in New York until 1872. He then went west and located in Sibley, Iowa, where he lived the remainder of his life. He taught in the schools of Sibley for several years and then served his county in various official capacities. He filled the office of superintendent of the Osceola County schools for a number of years in a very creditable manner. His next official position was that of clerk of the county and he administered the duties of this office in an efficient and painstaking manner, giving his fellow citizens honest and conscientious service. For the past sixteen, years he had officiated as justice of peace in connection with his insurance business. After leaving the office of county clerk he engaged in the insurance business, and for twenty years was the financial correspondent for the Connecticut Life Insurance Company for the negotiation of farm loans. He had built up a large and lucrative business for this company by his careful and conservative methods.

Mr. Miller was married to Frances H. Perry in Potsdam, New York, in August, 1868. The one child born to this union died when two years of age. The only other relative which Mr. Miller left in this county is a brother, J. O. Miller, of Sibley. Mr. Miller was a regular attendant of the Congregational Church and always very much interested in its welfare. Fraternally, he was a loyal member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Sibley lodge attended the funeral in a body and performed the Masonic services at the grave.

The life of this excellent citizen was singularly free from everything which might bring censure upon himself and that he was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens is well shown by a glowing tribute paid his memory by the Hon. J. F. Glover, one of his closest friends. In view of the fact that this summary of Mr. Miller's career was written by one of his most intimate friends and a man who appreciated his worth it is here given in full as published in the Sibley Gazette on July 23, 1914:

"In the death of William J. Miller, pioneer of Osceola County and Sibley, the entire community received a distinct shock and suffered a distinct loss. Mr. Miller, as a homesteader, as a teacher, as a county official, as at all times a prominent citizen, has left wide circles of friends to mourn his loss, as well as his more immediate family. He was a man who made friends and held them. As a youth he was desirous of an education. As a student he was diligent; as a teacher he was faithful. While a teacher he was a student as well, of wider range than the school room, thus graduating into the educated, intelligent man.

"By nature he was quiet and unassuming. In all the relations of his busy life he was helpful to his community. He enjoyed the religious and social meetings of his church, which he always attended. He was interested in agriculture, in horticulture, in the poultry yard; interested in the quiet of his home life, in the society of his faithful wife and family relatives and in his books and papers. He was naturally conservative and not given to harsh expressions in political or religious discussions. He was always better pleased to have people meet on a reasonable plane of agreement than to have people 'at the outs.'

"He belonged to the world's peacemakers. Himself a worker, he sympathized with laborers; himself industrious and provident, he was a friend of the man of means, as well as a friend to the man who toiled with his hands. He was a man who preferred to consider the virtues of the individuals of the community than to dwell upon the faults of the members of the public. In his long service as a justice of peace, he was better pleased when men settled their differences without acrimony and without litigation. He was attentive at trials and conscientious in his judgments.

"He was a man of purpose and a man of moral earnestness. Mr. Miller loved nature as he loved men. For him the bright sun and the blue sky, the fleecy clouds and the gentle rain, the growing trees and the wild flowers of the prairie land of his pioneer days, all had an interest and all contributed to his enjoyment. He was provident, but hospitable; reserved, but sympathetic; quiet, but thoughtful. He was interested in his home and in his home surroundings. He was interested in school, church and public affairs. He was one of the safe and sane men of his community. He had little sympathy with men's differences, but enjoyed joining them in their harmonious relations. He was not of an aggressive disposition, but had the firmness to do the right as he saw it. While his life as farmer, teacher and official was of a prosaic order, yet his nature was of the poetic character. He accepted conditions of toil and privation in the rough, hard years of loss by grasshoppers, but such conditions and small rewards of the pioneer and homesteader did not blind him to the beauties of the country, or shut his eyes to the brighter vision of the country's future. And when better days dawned, his rejoicing was as moderate as his fortitude was commendable before the better days came.

"Loved and respected by all people of all pursuits, by all parties and all creeds, by young as well as by old, it will be many years before the loving personality of William J. Miller shall be forgotten. As he has gone over to join those who have gone before, so others shall follow him into that beautiful land where the brighter visions shall all have their full realization."

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