Window to the Past Weekly

"William Ernest Miller (1898-1994) ---- A Proud Miller County Heritage"

Ernest Miller passed away in late April 1994 and his brief obituary may have gone unnoticed by many, but he had a wonderful story worth repeating… About 10 years earlier, in 1984, I had the honor and pleasure of visiting with Mr. Miller at his home near Etterville and we sat for a few hours as he told me the remarkable story of his ancestors… the Miller family of Miller County.

I wrote a story about his ancestral family in 1984 and it appeared in THE ELDON ADVERTISER and THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM SENTINEL. He was truly proud of his heritage and had every right to feel that pride. The Millers were among the county’s earliest settlers, homesteading on the prairies of Saline township several years before Miller County was formed. His grandfather, William Miller, was instrumental in getting the wheels of government rolling. The first session of the County Court was held in his one-room log cabin, located near the Osage River in 1837.

William Ernest Miller was born near Mt. Pleasant, in Saline township, on 27 Nov 1898, the 11th child of Thomas Hart Benton Miller and Emily Tindell (photo 01).

01 Thomas Hart Benton Miller and wife Emily (Tindell) Miller

His father was the 13th child of William Miller and Sarah (Mulkey), the early pioneers who settled in Miller County (photo 02).

02 William and Sarah (Mulkey) Miller

Ernest’s mother, Emily Tindell, was a daughter of Josiah Tindell of High Point in nearby Moniteau County, MO.

Ernest’s parents married about 1869, probably in Moniteau County. When they married, they lived near his parents in the Mt. Pleasant area.

Over the years Emily gave birth to at least 11 children because Ernest told me he was the 11th child of his family. Some of those children were:

LAURA BELLE MILLER 1872-1874

LILLIE JOSEPHINE MILLER 1874-1961 m. James Monroe Stark

IDA MILLER 1876-1878

MINNIE PEARL MILLER 1879-1968 m. Wm. I. Johnson

GERTRUDE LEE MILLER 1884-1976 m. Joseph Adams

ANNA MAUDE MILLER 1888-1963 m. Orville Bennett Baudy

INFANT DAUGHTER born & died 1891

THOMAS JEFFERSON MILLER 1892-1894

WILLIAM ERNEST MILLER 1898-1994 m. Jewell Mae Thomas

When Ernest was about 32 years old, he married Jewell Mae Thomas in Tuscumbia. For 52 years they shared their lives and were parents of one son, Daryl Miller. When I visited Ernest in 1984, he was a widower and was living in the home of his son and daughter-in-law in Etterville.

As I wrote in the life story of Mr. Miller, who among you can boast that when your grandfather was born in 1795, George Washington was serving as America’s first president; when your father was born in 1845, James Knox Polk was our 11th president; and when you were born in 1898, William McKinley was the 25th president… Ernest could!!! In only three generations of the Miller family, 199 years had been spanned and every American president from Washington to Clinton had led our country from its birthing pains to become the greatest nation on earth… What a heritage!!… What a story!!

Rest well, Mr. Miller ---- I am proud to have had the priviledge to meet you.

MILLER COUNTY'S HISTORIC SITES THAT HAVE BEEN NOMINATED ON THE "NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES" BUT NOT PLACED ON THE REGISTER

Even though 12 Miller County historic sites/structures have been nominated over the past years for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, only one has the distinction of that prestigious honor... the old Boeckman swinging bridge of Osage township. It was nominated in 1978 and place on the National Register in March, 1979.

Other places nominated but not accepted were:

1. Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Lake Ozark... It has since been demolished and replaced with a shopping area.

2. The Nixdorf House and Hotel, built in Ulman's Ridge in 1873.

3. Alder Springs country school, northeast of Iberia, built in 1878.

4. Groff slave cabin, located about a mile and half east of Iberia. It was constructed of hewn logs pre-Civil War times (possibly the oldest building still standing in Miller County).

5. The old Iberia Academy (1890-1951), organized by Professor and Mrs. G. Byron Smith

6. Old Iberia Jailhouse... built in Iberia circa 1915.

7. Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks. Built 1929-1931 by Union Electric of St. Louis.

8. Willmore Lodge, Lake Ozark, owned by Union Electric and built in 1930 of logs. In 1983 it was owned by North Port, Inc.

9. Joshua Wells home... built downriver from Tuscumbia overlooking the Osage River. Built by the Wells family in 1889.

10. Brays Mill... northeast of Iberia. The first mill was built on the site in 1858; the present building constructed circa 1885.

11. Miller County courthouse, built "on the hill" in Tuscumbia in 1858; remodeled in 1913. It has been replaced by a new courthouse which is located on Highway 52 toward Eldon.

12. Boeckman Bridge, a timber suspension bridge, built in 1926. It is located a few miles southeast of St. Elizabeth in Osage township, measuring 240 ft. by 14 ft... One of six "swinging" bridges built in Miller County between 1926-1931. It is thought Miller County has more existing "swinging" bridges than any other county in Missouri... (September 1983)

NOTE: The old Boeckman bridge is now gone, replaced by a new modern bridge spanning the Big Tavern Creek. Several swinging bridges have been replaced since 1983 and very few remain standing and in use today.

MARY JANE BRANDON was born in Alabama 26 February 1851, a daughter of Calvin Brandon and Edith C. Arthur. Her parents came to central Missouri and settled in western Maries County during the 1860s. There were three other children of the Brandons including Pinkney, John, and a girl called Tiny/Tina. I did not find very much information on the Brandon family. I believe that John Brandon and his wife, Malinda (Rowden), lived in eastern Miller County and reared 8 children in the Big Richwoods. Pinkney later moved to Webb City, in southwest Missouri, and was living there when Mary Jane died in 1934.

Mary Jane married George Washington Shelton Jr. in Maries County on Jan. 5, 1870, the marriage performed by S. D. Burks, a Baptist minister. George was born 27 Jan 1849 in Miller County, a son of George Washington Shelton Sr. (1810-1860) and his second wife, Celia Burks (1825-1898). The Sheltons came to Missouri from McMinn County, Tennessee in the 1840s and homesteaded land in Richwoods Township near the Maries County boundary line.

NOTE: The Shelton family was part of my ancestry and I have conducted some research in McMinn County, TN in the past of the Shelton, Lawson, and Rowden families.

In the 1900 census of Richwoods Township, Miller County, George and Mary Jane were living near Iberia and some of their neighbors were the families of Dake, Shelton, Jones, Kellison, Shepherd, and Mayfield. According to the 1900 census they had lost 2 children, probably as infants. Seven of nine children were still living…

The children of Mary Jane and George Wash. included:

1. Doward Belmont Shelton 1878-1952 m. Mattie Jane Pendleton 1892

2. William Herbert Shelton 1874-1922 m. Rosa Rook 1908

3. Mary Ollie Shelton 1876-1894 m. Robert Butler Thompson 1893

4. Edmond I. Shelton 1878-1952 m. Flora Dake 1902

5. Edith Lue Shelton 1881-1964 m. James MonroeWhitaker’

6. George Wash. Shelton III 1883-1905 m. Cora Rowden

7. Sarah Eliza Shelton 1886-1929 m. James M. Skaggs 1909

8. Allen Taylor Shelton 1889-1984 m. Montie D. Humphrey 1910

9. Walter Shelton no record found

10. infant died young

11. infant died young

Mary Jane Brandon-Shelton died March 7, 1934 at the age of 83 years. She was in Granite City, Illinois when she died but was brought back for burial at Brays Union Cemetery by directors of Adams and Casey Funeral Home of Iberia. Her services were held at the Brays Union Church, conducted by Elder H. H. Dieselkamp.

George Wash. Shelton preceded her in death three years earlier. He died at the age of 82 years on May 1, 1931 and was buried at Brays Union Cemetery also.

Until next week!

Peggy Hake

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