Sangamon County ILGenWeb © 2000
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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



JACOB MILLER - Jacob Miller, who follows farming on section 34, Mechanicsburg township, was born in Cooper township, Sangamon county, on the 22d of September, 1850. His father, Joseph Miller was a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, born near Harpers Ferry in 1825. The grandfather, Christian Miller, was likewise a native of the Old Dominion, but was of German parentage. He removed to Ohio, settling near Fletcher, where he resided for a few years and afterward came to Illinois, taking up his abode in Cooper township, Sangamon county, where he entered land from the government, thus securing several hundred acres. He was numbered among those who lived here at the time of the great snow fall so Memorable in the early history of the county. The snow fell to a depth unequaled in all the annals of this portion of the state and it was long ere the roads were free from their white covering. Christian Miller became a leading and influential farmer of Sangamon county in pioneer days. He reared his family in this locality and after arriving at years of maturity Joseph Miller was united in marriage to Miss Lucy Ann Branch, a native of Sangamon county, Illinois, and a daughter of Edward Branch, one of the early settlers who came from Kentucky to this state. Joseph Miller inherited a part of the old family homestead and, locating upon this tract, he began to improve it, carrying on the work of cultivation with excellent results. He has also added to his property and he now owns four hundred acres of valuable land constituting one of the well improved farms of the locality.

Jacob Miller is the eldest of a family of ten children, of whom five sons and four daughtersare yet living. He was reared on the old home farm and pursued his education in the district schools nearby, but his privileges in that direction were somewhat limited, as his services wereneeded in the operation of the fields. He remained with his father until after he had attained his majority and when but twenty-three years of age he located at his present home, keeping bachelor's hall for several years. He was married however, in Mechanicsburg township on the 22d of September, 1893 - his birthday-to Sarah A. Hancock, a native of Kentucky who was brought to Sangamon county in her girlhood days and was here reared. She is a daughter of Andrew Hancock and by a former marriage She has a son.. Jesse E. Isaac, a young man now at home. Mr. Miller has erected a neat and comfortable residence and has other good improvements upon his farm. There is an orchard which yields its fruits in season and good grades of stock indicate his progressive ideas along this line. He annually feeds stock for the market in addition to cultivating the cereals best adapted to soil and climate. His life has been character by unflagging industry and perseverance and he is justly accounted one of the thrifty farmers and stock-raisers of his community.

Politically Mr. Miller has been a lifelong Democrat, as is his father. He cast his first presidential ballot for Horace Greeley in 1872 and has supported each nominee at the head of the ticket since that time. His entire life has been passed in the county and thus for more than a half century he has witnessed its development and progress along substantial lines that have won it a place among the leading counties of the great Mississippi valley.



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