Jacob Miller b. 1808

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Miller, my 3rd great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Jacob was born in 1808 in Virginia, not much is proven about his childhood or parents. On April 18, 1833 in Jackson, Ohio he married Sarah Davis, also from Virginia. Sarah’s siblings were in Jackson too. Jacob and Sarah had their first child in Ohio then moved to Elkhart, Indiana and had 9 more kids. On the 1840 and 1850 US censuses, Jacob and his family farmed in Baugo Township, 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, near Elkhart and South Bend, Indiana. In 1850, Jacob and Sarah’s oldest daughter Mary married Moses Mitchell. Moses and his family were from New York, neighbors to the Millers. Mary and Moses moved to Chickasaw County, Iowa after their marriage. 

Jacob died in 1854 at age 46 and there’s a pretty good chance he was hit by a train after a night of drinking. The Peru (Indiana) Wabash Valley Olio newspaper of January 13, 1854 shows detail.

This newspaper of Miami County, Indiana named intoxication, “the scourge of mankind”, as the cause of death. In 1854 the temperance movement was pretty well established in America. Maine passed the first prohibition law in 1847. The movement blamed immigrants and industrialization, big cities and alcohol for the moral decline spreading across the country.

At Jacob’s death, his widow Sarah, with 8 kids still at home, decided to move 400 miles west to Iowa, where her daughter Mary Mitchell and family lived. Jacob and Sarah’s kids set up homes in California, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.

Sources

  • 1850 US Census at FamilySearch
  • Public Ancestry photo “LanceL_Ferris originally shared this 24 Dec 2013”.
  • Newspaper Archive, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Peru (Indiana) Wabash Valley Olio 1854 Jan 13