DANIEL L. MILLER , born May 1, 1858 is a son of J. J. and Sarah (Robenolt) Miller, natives respectively of the state of New York and of Ohio. He lived with his parents till his marriage. His wife was Miss Mary Butz, daughter of Edward and Jane (Kistler) Butz, natives of Pennsvlvania, who came to Seneca county in the days of pioneering. Her grandfather when he came moved into the woods and tried to start a farm, but for some time was unable to make a living, so he and his wife separated temporarily, each seeking work. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were married December 30, 1880 and have five children: Earnest, born March 15, 1882; Orrin, born December 24, 1883; Alton, born December 20, 1885; Roscoe, born October 21, 1889; and Wade, born October 11, 1891. Rosco and Wade were educated at public schools near their home and the latter passed the Boxwell examination. After his marriage Mr. Miller began farming for himself on his father's farm and lived there eight years. In 1889 he bought fifty acres and later a hundred and sixty acres. He gives attention very profitably to general farming and to stock breeding, in which he has been markedly successful. Beginning as a poor man, he has made for himself a competency. He is a member of St. Jacob 's Reformed church, one of the leading religious institutions in his vicinity, active and generous in support of all its varied interests. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat, reserving the right to independence. Interested in public education, he has cheerfully and very ably served his townsmen as a member of the school board, J. J. Miller, father of the immediate subject of this notice, was born in the empire state February 21, 1829, and was brought to Ohio by his parents, Daniel W. and Anna (Bergstresser) Miller, in 1836, They located in Adams township, Seneca county, on two hundred and forty acres of land bought of Daniel Rule, and on that farm the parents lived out their days, the father dying at the advanced age of eighty-six years, without having been sick a day in all his life until his fatal illness, which began three days before his death. He was a member of the Lutheran church, generously helpful in its support and devout in his attendance upon its worship. A Democrat, he was loyal to his party and to his country, for the freedom of which his ancestor, Daniel Miller, had fought in the Revolutionary war so valiantly that he won the attention of General Washington and was chosen from among many others to be the patriot commander's cook. Daniel was a weaver by trade, and there are preserved by his descendants specimens of his handiwork, fine cloths in good preservation which he manufactured from warp and woof made by his wife from raw material by means of the old fashioned carder, spinning wheel and reel.

J. J. Miller passed his boyhood days on a farm in a new country, learning a good deal about farming by hard experience. In the winter, when he could be spared, he went to a district school three miles away, walking sometimes through deep mud, often through snow from a foot to a foot and a half deep, finding the journey twice a day very tiresome but persevering, for what he hoped to gain by such hardship. His recollections of other pioneer experiences are vivid. Among the relics of those days that he has preserved is one of the first wagons built in this part of the country-one of the old "crotch skein" affairs, with linchpins to hold the wheels on. When he was sixteen he began to learn the cooper's trade. Much of his time till 1852 was spent on his father's place, however. In that year he went overland to California, in the hope that he would win success as a gold miner. He left Independence, Mo., with a wagon train and was one hundred and one days in completing a journey memorable for its dangers and vicissitudes. About two thirds of the way out from Independence he was left in the desert to die of thirst and exhaustion, he being ill and unable to travel. He had a companion in misery not quite so far gone who scouted ahead and found some water that was being sold at two dollars and a half a gallon by some enterprising wayfaring pirates who were temporarily absent from their stock-in-trade, Mr. Miller's comrade went back and brought Mr. Miller to the place, not without some difficulty, for by this time the latter was bleeding from the mouth, his throat parched and cracking. The man thus providentially and singularly saved tells that he drank of that confiscated water till he was nauseated. It revived him, however, and he was able to make his way to the site of Carson City, Nevada, where he built the first house, a primitive structure, for Kit Carson, the great scout and Indian fighter, for whom the place was subsequently named. After completing that work he went on to California, where he found employment with a contractor in digging for gold at five dollars a day. Later he took up mining on his own account and was satisfactorily successful. In 1854 he returned to Ohio, and October 17, 1858, bought forty acres of land in Adams township, on which he lived till he moved to Greenspring and which he still calls his "home." At Greenspring he has a fine village house. From time to time he has made other purchases of land until he owns two hundred and four acres. A part of his town property is a lot of about an acre, on which, at the age of eighty-two years, he is successfully gardening, raising vegetables as noteworthy for their size and excellence as for their variety. He married Miss Sarah Robenalt in 1855 September 1, the anniversary of her birth in 1837. She was a daughter of Sol and Catharine (Powell) Robenalt. She died in 1909, having borne her husband children as follows: Ida J., wife of A. R. Young, a prominent citizen of Greenspring, was born in the year 1856; Warren P ., was born March 15, 1857 ; Daniel L., was born May 1, 1858; Delia A., was born April, 1861 ; Noble A., was born November 29, 1863; Almarinda, was born May 12, 1867; Mary B., was born August 3, 1870; Minda, wife of Henry Everett was born October 19, 1875; Jacob P., was born May 29, 1879, As a Democrat of independent leanings, Mr. Miller was elected township trustee and member of the school board. He is identified with the Lutheran church.


Page 782
History of Seneca County, Ohio
By A. J. Baughman