The Mystery of John Miller

There are tens of thousands of people named John Miller but only one of them is my great, great grandfather. How to I identify John Miller from all the rest? I try to establish a firm connection between at least two events.

I first found John Miller in the 1860 census record index at the Willard Library way back in the early 1980’s. I ask the librarian for the microfilm roll for Warrick County and scrolled to the section listing folks living in Newburgh. This record was made on April of 1860. There I found John (26), his wife Rebecca (22), his mother in law Ann Holden (47), his sister or Rebecca’s sister, I assume, Mary (17) and my great grandfather Thomas Jefferson Miller (2). This record shows that John was a Cooper (wheel or barrow maker) and he had $25 in personal property. The record indicates that Rebecca and Ann were born in Maryland. That John, Mary, and Thomas J, were born in Ohio.

The next record I find is a marriage license, dated 23 Dec 1861, issued at the Rockport, Indiana courthouse to John Miller and Celia Ann Whitlock. What happened to Rebecca Holden and her mother Ann? I first thought this is a different John Miller but John, Celia, and Thomas Jefferson Miller appear in the 1870 Census record. They are a household. In April of 1860 John is married to Rebecca. In Dec of 1861 he is married to Celia. I can find no record of a divorce or a death. I did find a record of a marriage between John Miller and Rebecca Holden in Jefferson County Ohio – April 5, 1858. If this is correct, then Thomas Jefferson Miller was likely conceived before they were married. If you add this to the stress of moving from Ohio to Indiana and living with your mother in law, it is tempting to surmise that a divorce was likely. Why did Rebecca leave her son with John? How and when did John and Celia Ann meet? In the span of 18 months John and Rebecca end their marriage and Celia steps in.

I found Rebecca and her mother Ann in the 1850 Census for Belmont County (near Wheeling, WV and Martin’s Fairy, Ohio). The ages fit and they are from Maryland. I also found another Ann who is 64 years old. It is likely Ann’s mother and Rebecca’s grandmother. In the household is a “Mary” whose age fits Mary Miller’s age in the 1860 census. Could it be the census taker wrongly named Mary as a Miller when she was a Holden? Ann has a younger brother named William (24) and sister named Mary. This is definitely a matriarchal family. Both Grandmother Ann and Mother Ann are not married. Both are named “Holden.”  Is it possible that unwed children is a family tradition? I could be completely wrong and the simple explanation is that Ann took back her maiden name or that Ann senior is her mother in law and not her mother. (This seems unlikely given that others in the household are named Holden.)

John and Celia show up in the 1870 census, in Spencer County, Indiana. There post office address is Enterprise, Indiana. Enterprise no longer exists as a post office or even as a town. It was on the Ohio River and had a landing for offloading River boats. It was very close to Yankeetown in Warrick County. This is where Thomas Jefferson Miller spent most of his life. It is where he is buried and where my grandfather (William) and father (Marion) grew up – till age twelve when the family moved to Evansville. The census shows John, who has aged fourteen years since the last census, just ten years before. Either John was older than 27 in 1860 or younger than 41 in 1870. The Census taker did not ask for proof of age. They merely accepted as fact that they were told by the person who answered the door. In the household, in 1870, was John (41), Celia (32), Thomas J (11), Mary A (9), William D. (5), and Ellen L. (2 months). Notice that Mary A is nine years old. John and Celia were married for only 8 years. (Census was taken August of 1870)  Maybe now we see what ended John and Rebecca’s marriage. Just saying . . . We learn that John cannot read, that he was born in Pennsylvania (contrary to 1860 census which has him born in Ohio).  Celia is born in KY. Thomas J in Ohio. They rest are born in Indiana. John is listed as “farm labor.” Under “value of real and personal property” this family has none. The land owner nearest John is the Boyd family, whose land is valued at $1,500. It is likely that John worked his land.

The 1880 Census is the most tell of all of them. More about that in due course. John’s age is listed as 55. In 1870, it is was 41, and in 1860, 27. This guy is growing older faster than most folks. Celia (now Sealy) is just 40 years old. John aged 13 years, while Sealy is only 8 years older. Can you guess who gave the information to the Census Taker? Thomas Jefferson is now married to Lucinda and is living only their own. Just down the road. Mary A is now 16 years old. William D. is 11. Ellen is 9. Peter is 2. We find another daughter of John and Celia, Julia, who is 7 and living with Jefferson and Lucinda. We learn that John was born in Ohio, not PA, and that his parents were both born in Pennsylvania.

We find Jefferson living down the road. The Census wrongly states that his mother was born in KY. This is a common mistake with Jefferson and late with his son, my grandfather, William C. In both cases, their mother is the first wife but it later confused with the second wife. The census record indicates that John was born in Ohio. I suspect this is true. However, the 1870 census has him born in PA, while the 1860 census has him born in Ohio.

John and Celia Miller drop off the face of recorded history after the 1880 Census. There is no 1890 Census due to a fire at the national archives – all but a few pages were lost. The 1900 Census have no record for their household. I have found no death records for John Miller or Celia Whitlock Miller. Nor have found records for Rebecca Holden or her mother Ann Holden. It is all very frustrating

I learned that Celia A Whitlock married a man named Sutherland after 1885 about before her death on the 25^th of December 1907 in Warrick County, Indiana. Her death certificate indications that she married Andy Sutherland and it listed as a witness, Peter Miller, who was one of her and John’s children. I know that John was alive in 1884 because they had a child together that year.