Miller, Jacob S.

MILLER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:56:42

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.967

JACOB S. MILLER
A well developed and highly improved farm comprising one hundred and sixty-eight acres on section 17, White Breast Township, is the home of Jacob S. Miller. He is numbered among the prosperous and progressive agricul­turalists of Warren County and his success is well deserved for it has been acquired through his own well directed effort. He is a native son of the township, born January 14, 1861, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Miller, pioneer settlers who came here from the Buckeye state. The father was a farmer by occupation and located on a tract of land which he purchased upon his arrival in Warren County. Here he reared his family and spent his last years, passing away in May, 1881. His wife survived him for about seventeen years, her death occurring in 1898.
Jacob S. Miller is the only son in the family of two children born of his father's marriage, his sister being Mary L., wife of Harvey Swift, a resident farmer of White Breast Township. The son was reared on the farm, assisting his father in the work of the fields from the time of early spring planting until the crops were harvested in the late autumn. He remained under the parental roof until his father's demise, being at that time a young man of twenty years. He then took charge of the homestead property, conducting the same for five years. On the expiration of that period he established a home of his own by his marriage in August, 1886, to Mrs. Eliza A. Strahan, a widow.
Following his marriage Mr. Miller located on a farm in the vicinity of his old home operating that place for a few years. During this time he saved a sum sufficient to enable him to invest in land, becoming the owner of his present farm, which comprises one hundred and sixty-eight acres, situated on section 17, White Breast Township. Since locating here he has remodeled the house, built a good barn and other substantial outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock, has built fences, set out fruit and shade trees and altogether has made it a model property. In addition to raising the cereals best adapted to soil and climate he also engages in raising stock, keeping thoroughbred cattle, horses and hogs, and this branch of his business is proving to him a profitable source of revenue. For several year's be has also engaged in thrashing during the harvest season and in this connection has become well known not only in his immediate locality but throughout various sections of the county.
After a happy married life covering eighteen years, Mr. and Mrs. Miller were separated by the death of the latter, which occurred in April, 1904. Her remains lie buried in the Shupe Cemetery. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Miller was blessed with five children, three sons and two daughters, namely: Eugene S., Miles N., William H., May and Junia J., all of whom still survive.
Politically Mr. Miller has allied himself with the principles and policy of the Republican Party but has never aspired to public office, preferring to give his undivided time and attention to his private business interests. He has spent his entire life in White Breast Township, covering a period of forty-seven years. He belongs to that class of representative men who readily discern opportunities of improvement and who are rapidly forging to the front. He has brooked no obstacles that could be overcome by honorable and determined effort and has therefore acquired a competence that now supplies him with all the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.