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By Joseph Royal Miller, son of Jacob Miller

We can understand the early life of Jacob Miller better, if we examine the atmosphere and moods of the country as he started to grow up. Slavery was a most controversial subject throughout the United States. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had made Missouri the only slave state north of the Mason—Dixon line. Feelings were running high. There was no middle ground. One was either for, or one was against slavery.

When, in the early 1830’s, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began to pour into Missouri in substantial numbers from the northern free states, the Missourians became aroused, fearful lest their slavery rights should become jeopardized. On the western frontier there was a segment of the population composed of the lawless renegades who had fled from their former states. 

Rabble rousing ministers found both classes easy to incite against these Mormons, with their complete expulsion from the state of Missouri, the final result. Many of the Mormons crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois with no worldly possessions left, save the clothes on their bodies.

Jacob Miller’s family lived near the river and mingled with these new arrivals. Their stories of atrocious mobbings and murders were among Jacob’s earliest remembrances. They left deep impressions on his growing mind.

Shortly thereafter, the Millers caught the message of the Gospel and joined the Latter-day Saints Church. After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith; and the agreement, under duress, for the Mormons to leave Illinois, the Millers were in the forefront of this second exodus. 

By this time, Jacob’s mother had died and his father had re-married. These were stirring times, especially for a young person. It is hoped that this book on the life and labors of Jacob Miller will be stimulating and faith promoting to all who read it.

He was plagued with poor health much of his life, from his early youth on. A chronic weak lung condition, (then called consumption), was part of his trouble, In spite of his health problems, he pioneered in many fields and made great contributions to his community, his state and his church.

WAS SELF EDUCATED 

Jacob Miller was a self-educated man. Although he could account for only fourteen months of formal schooling, during some of which he claimed he knew more than his teacher, he taught school for nineteen terms and was Davis County Superintendent of Schools for four years, making a total of twenty-three years of school activity.

For mental ability and innate resourcefulness, there was no one his equal in Farmington, Utah, where he lived, and few in all of Davis County.

As I was growing up, I found his grasp of mathematical problems was remarkable, not only in arithmetic, but also in algebra, trigonometry and geometry. When I was studying analytic geometry, I found he was able to tell me things that were not in my textbook. It was not until I studied calculus that I lost him. 

Like Abraham Lincoln, he did much of his studying in the evening, after a hard day’s work, by the light of pitch pine knots frequently tossed into the fireplace; and sometimes by the light of the full or nearly full moon.

Among other things, he taught himself to write shorthand and became adept at it. It was the old Pitman method and in his later life, those who had learned the new Gregg style could not read his, nor he their system. I remember that when he found me looking at his old shorthand instruction book, he told me not to waste any time with it because it was obsolete. He said to get myself an up to date manual if I wanted to learn shorthand.

His original journal was in shorthand. It was in his 73rd year that Mother, realizing that few people could read his shorthand, and eventually not anyone, induced him to transcribe the journal into longhand.  That winter, having to help pay the taxes, I was not financially able to go away to school and I took a correspondence course in drafting. Father and I occupied opposite sides of the dining table - he with his journal and I with my drafting. He frequently would tell me interesting experiences as his notes brought them to mind, often with more detail than recorded in his journal. Consequently, I felt that I knew his journal without having to read it. It took many long hours for him to write it all out in longhand. But it was really worth while because it makes such interesting reading. 

Shorthand is a means of writing by sound and, in transcribing to longhand, sometimes his spelling of names is not the accepted spelling.


His shorthand journal was written with day-by-day item entries.  In transcribing to longhand, he left much of it in that form rather than putting it in narrative. This is particularly so in the section on his Australian Mission.

After much deliberation, it seemed better judgment to publish his journal as it was originally written, rather than revise, combine, delete or change tense and form. Such changes would almost seem to take Father out of his journal, which we chose not to do.

DEDICATED TO CHURCH ACTIVITIES

His devotion to his faith was sincere and outstanding. He followed literally the injunction of Christ: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…”(Math. 6:33). This is evidenced by his leaving his bride of only one month to go to the Salmon River Indian Mission in Idaho; and also in accepting the unheard of call to depart for the Australian Mission on just three day’s notice.

His 29 years as Counselor to two Bishops were day by day examples of his devotion to his church, First, he was Second Counselor to Bishop John W. Hess for a short time, then was appointed his First Counselor, he held these positions with Bishop Hess for five years. Then he was First Counselor to Bishop J. M. Secrist for 24 years.

Bishop Secrist lived on his farm three miles north of town and came in Sunday afternoons to preside at the Sacrament Meetings and sometimes on the afternoon of the first Thursday of the month to preside over the Fast Meeting. At these times, he would consult with his counselors as needed. Otherwise, Father had the leadership of the Ward pretty much on his own. There were no telephones in the homes in those days and there seemed to be no definite divisions of responsibility among the three members of the Bishopric as is standard practice today.

In those days, tithing was paid in kind as the people produced it. Tithing was one of Father’s responsibilities. Much hay was harvested in the fields west of the town and during the haying season, he set two days a week to receive tithing hay and everyone knew those days. But there was frequently some one with one excuse or another why he could not wait until the proper day. So Father would have to leave his own work to help unload and stack the tithing hay.

Receiving the tithing was only the beginning. It had to be disposed of to the best advantage and there was always the problem of giving the contributor a satisfactory cash value on the books. Sometimes it called for real diplomacy to avoid offense and not show too much loss on the books. It was a great boon to his successor when, shortly after the death of Bishop Secrist, the Church requested every one to stop paying tithing in kind and to pay in cash from then on, This has been standard ever since.

Surely no one outside his immediate family had any idea of the amount of his time he spent on the affairs of the Church. His life was an example of intelligent devotion to duty that everyone in the Church should become familiar with. How many today, while trying to make a living, would, if they could, be willing to devote the same amount of time and effort to the Church?

He was intimately known and respected by the Church leaders of his day. When I was a small boy of about eight years, he took me with him to a general conference in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. At the close of the meeting, he took me up to the long seat on which the Apostles sat and told me to wait at the end while he talked to one of them. Apostle George Albert Smith, who later became the eighth President of the Church, came to me and asked who I was.  Pointing, I told him that Jacob Miller was my father. He said: “If you turn out to be as good a man as your father, you will be some one to be proud of.”


Several years after Father’s death, his journal went through a flood in Farmington, Utah and was subjected to severe water damage. Some of the ink was so thinned out that it was difficult to decipher. Much credit is due my daughter, Ruth Miller, who, while in school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, either typed or rewrote in longhand, all of the journal so it would be more easily read. Ruth was named for her great, great grandmother, Ruth Arnold.

Appreciation is expressed also for the encouragement of the late Dr. Howard R. Driggs, a noted historian of the Old West, who has so strongly urged the preparation of this journal for publication. He gave many helpful suggestions.

After reading excerpts from it, which I had given him, he said it was the best written and most interesting pioneer journal he knew of, and he had examined all he could find. He thought the Church should publish it and had discussed the proposition with some of his friends among the Church authorities.

The First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles were in a meeting in the Salt Lake Temple when word came to them that Jacob Miller had died Oct. 11, 1911 and gave the time for his funeral. John Henry Smith, second the counselor to President Joseph F. Smith, said, “I will be there”. Joseph F. said, “I will be there if I am able”. John Henry died before Father’s funeral so he didn’t make it. Joseph F. was there and his son, Joseph Fielding, preached the main sermon. The Farmington Ward meeting house was filled and overflowing. There was a man whom many men were proud to have known.