Born December 9, 1835 Near Quincy, Illinois
Died October 111, 1911 at Farmington, Utah
After a very busy life, being relieved of most of my public labors, I, at the age of 73 (1909), begin to collect and compile a brief sketch of my busy and checked life associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
My earliest remembrance is associated with the arrival in our vicinity of the Mormons, who had been driven from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri, some of whom were locating near our home. My father and uncle, Henry W. Miller, were then farming and running a combined steam grist and saw mill on Bear Creek near Quincy, Adams County, Illinois.
Though I was only in my fourth year, (as dates given in Church Chronology show the arrival of the Mormons at Quincy in February 1839), I remember that Father and Uncle were speaking forcibly against the ill treatment the Mormons had received in their expulsion from Missouri. They were robbed, driven and murdered.
In September of this year, 1839, Father, Mother, Uncle Henry W. and his wife were baptized by Abel Lamb, one of the expulsed Mormons. He was a cooper, (barrel maker), who had located near us. The meetings and testimonials were so impressive that we children, preparing our play houses from Bro. Lamb's cooper staves, were holding our little meetings in imitation.
Father was soon ordained a High Priest by the Prophet Joseph Smith; as his Certificate of Membership, given at Nauvoo, April 6, 1840, reads, "Has been received.... and has been ordained a High Priest, etc." This ordination was given within seven months of his baptism and he was duly authorized to preach the Gospel.
FAMILY MOVES TO CARTHAGE, ILLINOIS
In 1840, Nauvoo having become the gathering place for the Saints, Father and Uncle Henry W. Miller exchanged their possessions in Adams County with a Mr. Totton located about three miles south of Carthage, the County seat of Hancock County and about eighteen miles from Nauvoo.
Papers now on file (1909) show that Father bought one-fourth section of land in 1832 for $200 which had been awarded to L. Schanck by Pres. James Monroe, October 6, 1817 and twice sold for taxes, in 1823 and 1832, the last sale for only $2.62 to Robert Tillman from whom Father purchased. Also, the deed shows that Father purchased of Henry W. Miller, 44+ acres in 1834 and after the exchange and location near Carthage, that he further purchased of J. F. Chase, 185 acres of land in March 1844. This was mostly uncultivated and partly in oak, hickory, walnut and other timber, with wild grape interspersed and, in the prairie portion, patches of wild may apple and strawberries. Work of breaking up and planting sod corn, etc. followed, with other grain planted on cultivated portion, on which was some small and large fruit.
Father and Uncle Henry were working together and the two families eating at the same table, their wives being sisters. Father was doing most of the farm work while Uncle was working more for the Church. He took his family one year, up the Mississippi to the pine country by boat. Here, with others, he erected a saw mill and sawed most of the lumber for the Nauvoo Temple and Nauvoo House.
1842 and 1843. Church Chronology states that Bp. Geo. Miller arrived from the pinery July 8, 1843 with 157,000 ft. lumber and 70,000 shingles for the Nauvoo Temple. They were floated down in rafts.
April 1843. Father was called and went on a mission to Indiana, returning in the spring of 1844, I think.
In 1844, I was baptized by Henry W. Miller and I think was confirmed by Father, date not remembered, but I think before the martyrdom. During this year, mobbing and burning of Saints' homes were quite common and repeatedly, have the homeless been sheltered at Father's home. It had become common for us children to look first thing in the morning for the smoke of some burning house. How well I remember the excited reports of the Martyrdom (June 27th), living, as we did, within three miles of Carthage Jail where it occurred.
EARLY TRIP TO NAUVOO
Before the martyrdom, when the Nauvoo Legion was called out, I went with Father to Nauvoo, saw the Prophet Joseph mounted and in uniform, and listened to the speech and drawing of the sword as represented in a certain picture, when he said, "I call upon God and Angels to witness that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination that this people shall have their legal rights and shall be protected from mob violence or my blood shall be spilt upon the ground like water and my body consigned to the silent tomb. While I live, I will never tamely submit to the domination of cursed mobocracy."
DEATH OF MOTHER
My Mother was on a sick bed when the news of the martyrdom reached our home, and I shall never forget how bitterly she wept, calling on God to avenge their death. Her sickness continued until her death, September 1, 1844. The two families, D. A. and H. W., were still living together and eating at the same table. D.A.'s children, five in number, were now in charge of Aunt Elmira, Mother's sister, until Father married Hanah Bigler, December 29, 1844. She had been aiding in the house during Mother's illness.
EARLY SCHOOLING LIMITED
Note. This may be a proper time to state that my opportunity for schooling was very meager, both in Adams Co. and in Hancock Co., and later, two or three months a year, in log cabins with puncheon floor, (a split log or heavy slab with the face smoothed), a dirt floor, slab seats too high for our little feet to reach the floor, and with a girl school teacher. My mother was very anxious for my advancement and would have me sit by her while she was sewing and doing other sitting work and read to her, I spelling the hard words for her to name to me. I was to have her Bible when I had thus read the New Testament to her, which I had earned and received before her death. Orthography (spelling) was easy for me and I usually stood at the head of the class with those years older than I.
With our two years at Kanesville, I had but a few months poor schooling, and on arrival in Salt Lake Valley, no schooling for sixteen months and later about two months in winter for five of the six following years in a mixed common school, part of the time by teachers whom I could excel on some points, especially in grammar, arithmetic and orthography. This constituted all my opportunity of education, except my private application and using author's works, often studying by fire light and at times, by the light of the full moon.
1845. Mobbing and burning of the Saints' homes was continuing and talk of moving to the Rocky Mountains beyond the reach of mobs was quite common. A song composed by Levi Hancock, "In the Spring, we'll leave Nauvoo and on our journey we'll pursue," etc., was much sung.
Negotiations for selling property and preparing for the move were pending. My Uncle H.W. had now moved to Nauvoo and at times, I was stopping with my cousins there. How I remember seeing them sitting by the fire shaking with the ague, moaning, and their teeth chattering. My brother, sisters and I had our experience in that line, and oh!, how I wished I could stop shaking and rest my aching bones and joints just a moment.
VISIT TO NAUVOO TEMPLE
On one of these visits, I had the privilege with others, late in the fall, to go through the Nauvoo Temple, from the Baptismal font, resting on its twelve oxen, to the tower from which I took a view of Nauvoo. I noted how it lay in a large bend of the Mississippi River which formed two boundaries of it. The Saints were now gathering, and being driven in from their scattered homes, to Nauvoo.
In 1846, Father and Uncle H.W. sold their farms and houses for a small consideration, part of which was for teams. After providing all the necessities, they were among the early movers from Nauvoo. They crossed the river with their families and aided others over in flatboats pulled by oars, while some crossed in skiffs. There they awaited the first advance for the west. We were in the advance to the Missouri doubling over the soft bottoms and aiding in corduroying the sloughs and bridging the streams. The first part was the cold winds and storms of March, with the subsequent exposure and suffering, many incidents of which might be given. After a few days lay-over at Garden Grove, 145 miles from Nauvoo, and another at Mount Pisgah, 27 miles farther, another move brought us to Council Bluffs, Iowa in June. Settlements were started at the two former places for those unable to move farther and for those following who were aided thus far. (More details in preceding sketch of D. A. Miller.)
LIFE AT COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA
At the Bluff, Father and Uncle bought out a Mr. Hildreth who had a log house and some orchard, garden and unimproved land near a block house, fortified with portholes. It was near a Portawatama Indian graveyard where we repeatedly witnessed the Indians feasting and moaning over their dead. The location was later called Miller's Hollow and still later named Kanesville in honor of Col. Thos. L. Kane who was kind to the Saints while the Mormon Battalion was enrolling, as well as later. Somewhere near 2,000 teams must have left Nauvoo, locating at Garden Grove, Mt. Pisgah, Winter Quarters and on the east side of the Missouri River. It was near our location (on the east side) that the liberty pole, floating the Stars and Stripes, was raised as the headquarters at Mosquito Creek where addresses were made for the five companies of the Mormon Battalion. Four companies were enrolled on July 13th and 14th, and a fifth a few days later. Some men with families enlisted, leaving their families in wagons and tents.
A number of men were selected to take care of the families of the volunteers, Father and Uncle being among the number. The log houses for the volunteers' families were among the first erected.
After the people were housed for the winter, Pres. Brigham Young called them together and arranged to have a large log tabernacle built for conferences, meetings, and amusements. This was erected up the Miller Hollow less than one-fourth mile from our house.
It was in this tabernacle at a conference December 27, 1847, after the first Pioneers returned from Salt Lake, that Brigham Young, President of the Twelve Apostles was sustained as President of the Church with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as Counselors. In April 1848 at conference in this place, the name of Kanesville was given to the settlement.
1847. This spring, I aided in breaking up more land and planting to sod corn, which was mostly fed on the stalk to the livestock during the following winter.
FAMILY MOVES WEST
In the spring of 1848, it was arranged for Father and family to start for the Salt Lake Valley. The Pioneers had located the place under the leadership of Brigham Young in July 1847. We crossed the Missouri River in flat boats and traveled 27 miles to Loup Fork. We were made a part of Wm. Perkins' Company, but soon separated with Father as captain of 20 teams, five of which were his own. We arrived at Salt Lake City on September 4, 1848.
FIRST PLOWING IN FARMINGTON
I held the plow and my Father drove the team that turned the first soil in Farmington. This was done in the area one block east of the present site of the Davis County Court House.
My other early labors on the farm located in Farmington, Utah are reported in my Father's history in the previous section of these writings.
In 1851 in August and September, I had a severe attach of what was then called mountain fever, but I am since convinced it was typhoid fever. It lasted several weeks. Much of the time, I was bedfast and delirious.
1855. I labored on the farm with Father and the family. As I was handy with carpenter tools, (a large chest of tools of sufficient variety having been brought with us), I soon learned to stock the necessary farm tools. I also learned to mend the shoes and later to make the shoes and then the boots for the family and sometimes for the employees.
I was not rugged and had at least my share of illness. In the fall and winter of 1855, my Father, my Stepmother, brother James and some of my sisters were sick. I was trying to tend the cows, do the milking, feed the oxen and horses, cut the wood for two fires and get a few hours in the school room part of the time.
BAPTISMS AND ORDINATIONS
In 1844, baptized by H.W. Miller, confirmed by D. A. Miller. June 27, 1849, rebaptized by John Harris, confirmed by Jos. L. Robinson. March 30, 1851, rebaptized by Gideon Brownell, confirmed by Gideon Brownell. It was recommended that everyone be rebaptized after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley and start anew in the Gospel. Just why the second (March 30, 1851) occurred, I cannot tell, but I find it on record.
May 18, 1856 at Fort Lemhi, on arrival we were rebaptized. When the Jedadiah Grant Reformation occurred in 1856, I was at Fort Lemhi on a mission to the Indians and as the spirit of it reached us, we were all rebaptized November 9th with the floating ice in the river.
In August 1875, another general baptizing occurred while I was on a mission to Australia. After my return, September 1, 1876, I with Job Welling and Thomas Steed, my associates on that mission, joined in that baptism and on July 1, 1877, I was baptized by Oliver L. Robinson and confirmed by Thomas L. Smith. This was in acceptance of the United Order. This made six baptisms. In 1852, I was ordained a Teacher and was laboring in that office for nearly three years, visiting the Saints.
March 4, 1855, I was ordained a Seventy by Thomas L. Smith and for a number of years, I was the clerk and corresponding secretary of the 40th Quorum and later was one of the seven Presidents until 1877, I was ordained a High Priest by Bp. John W. Hess and set apart as his second counselor.
July 29, 1882, I was set apart as first counselor to Bp. J.M. Secrist, acting in that capacity until the end of 1906.
December 23, 1906, I was ordained a Patriarch by Apostle George Teasdale.
July 29, 1882, I was set apart as first counselor to Bp. J.M. Secrist, acting in that capacity until the end of 1906.
December 23, 1906, I was ordained a Patriarch by Apostle George Teasdale.
