Miller, Emory

MILLER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 16:07:02

EMORY MILLER
born Dec 23, 1834, PA

Emory Miller, D. D., LL. D., Presiding Elder of the Des Moines District, Des Moines Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, is a gentleman whose name is well known in Iowa, and whose life has been such that it has endeared him to the people with whom he has been associated and to whom he has ministered.
Dr, Miller was born at Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, December 23, 1834, his parents being Samuel and Mary (Eichar) Miller, both natives of the Keystone State. In the Miller family were nine sons and one daughter, and of this number seven are still living, viz.: David S., William E., Samuel, Henry Bascom, Alexander J., Emory, and Eliza A., wife of William S. Holleck, editor of the Dayton Herald, Dayton, Tennessee. William E. was Chief Justice of Iowa for a term of years when Judges Wright, Cole, and Beck were on the bench, filling out Judge Dillon's term and subsequently being elected to the office. He was also the first Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry in the late war. Alexander was Lieutenant of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and acted as Brigadier the last year he was in the war. His service in the army covered a period of three years. The eldest brother, David S., is a farmer. Samuel is a master mechanic, and Bascom is at present shipping clerk in the Buckeye Machine Works in Salem, Ohio. The brother, Clark, who died in 1893, was a lawyer The father of this large and highly respected family was an iron foundryman in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and in 1854 moved from there to Iowa, locating on a farm near Iowa City, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits the rest of his life, and where he died April 30, 1881 at the advanced age of eighty-four years and ten months. His wife survived him until 1890, when she died at the still more advanced of ninety-three. Both were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Miller's paternal grandfather, Henry Miller, was a native of Virginia and of German origin. He was the father of eight children, spent many years of his life in Pennsylvania, and died there at the age of eighty-five years. He was a pottery manufacturer. Of the Eichars, Dr. Miller's relatives on his mother's side, we record that they figured as early settlers of Staten Island. Henry Eichar, the Doctor's grandfather, was born on Staten Island, his father, Daniel Eichar, having purchased it from the British Government and brought the ancestors of the Vanderbilts and others from Holland and colonized the island. When the British army landed on Staten Island in Revolutionary days, the inhabitants were driven away by the soldiers and in the hurry of their departure Mr. Eichar lost his papers and deed, and thus it happened that his heirs were never able to prove their claim to this now valuable property. Moreover, they were Mennonites and were opposed to war and opposed to taking an oath, and never even tried to recover the island. Henry Eichar was then a small boy and with his parents and the rest of the family located at Detweiler's Mills, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he lived until about eighty years of age, and then moved to Cass county, Ohio. He attained the remarkable age of nearly ninety-nine years, Notwithstanding his religious creed, he felt it his duty to go out in protection of his country during the war of 1812, had his knapsack on his back and was all ready to start; but when he reached the gate a messenger informed him that the war was ended. By trade he was a wheelwright. Personally he was of medium height, with broad shoulders, fair complexion, and blue eyes, and in his manner was quiet and dignified; and at the age of ninety-nine, without any disease whatever, he quietly passed away.
Having thus briefly referred to the family history of Dr. Miller, we now turn for a sketch of his own life. His birthplace and the date have already been given. The first nineteen years of his life were spent at his native place, his time being occupied in work on the farm and in his father's foundry, and in attendance at the common schools and Mt Pleasant College. Then he entered the theological seminary at Evanston, Illinois and began preparing himself for the work of the ministry. In 1858 he commenced preaching in the vicinity of Iowa City, Iowa and in the fall of that same year entered the Iowa Conference and has preached in Iowa from that time up to the present, with the exception of one year in Missouri and two years in St Paul, Minnesota. He has had charges at Burlington, Muscatine, Clinton, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Des Moines, and many other places and for nine years was at Davenport. He has been Presiding Elder altogether eleven years.
November 13, 1860, Dr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Polly H. Millar, daughter of William H. and Rebecca (Stienbergen) Millar, of Muscatme county, Iowa. Five children were born to them, one son and four daughters: Eva B., Besse, Grace, Mary, and William E.. Grace and Mary died in infancy and Besse when a young lady. Eva B. married C. L. Nourse, a prominent attorney in Des Moines, and they have two sons: Emory Miller and Roderick. William E. married Miss Foley Barnett. He is engaged in the practice of law at Bedford, Taylor county, Iowa.
Dr. Miller's political views are those advocated by the Republican party, with which he casts his franchise. During his ministerial career he has many times performed the marriage ceremony and has frequently officiated on funeral occasions, always ready to respond when called upon and always using the right word at the right time. The Doctor is also noted as an author. Probably the most popular among his many works is “The Evolution of Love,” which has received much favorable mention from the press both in England and America. From a prominent writer in a London monthly, we clip the following: “This is one of the most remarkable books which have come into our hands in recent years. Its speculative power is great; its range of thought is wonderful; it is luminous in style, and its grasp is firm and tenacious. He discusses with great lucidity some ef the most difficult problems in philosophy and theology. Old truths appear in a new setting which gives them a more profound significance. The doctrine of creation seems to take on a newer meaning; the old, old perplexing question of the existence of evil and its meaning seems to assume a more hopeful aspect. The atonement, on which so much has been written that one might suppose nothing fresh could be said, seems to attain to a larger fullness in the light of the evolution of love. The doctrine of eschatology obtains a fuller statement. They are the old doctrines in a larger setting. The book deserves the most careful study.” Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.477