JOSHUA MILLER



Hon. Joshua Miller, attorney at Centerville, was born in the year 1822 in Columbiana County, Ohio, a son of Rev. John J. Miller and Elizabeth (Koontz) Miller, who were both natives of Pennsylvania and of German ancestry. His father was adherent of the Lutheran faith, his ministerial labors being confined to the western reserve in Ohio. He died in Stark County, Ohio, about the year 1826. The mother married again, living till 1847, when she died in Bartholomew County, Indiana. Our subject left his home at the age of twelve years, going to Louisville, Kentucky, where he began to learn the carpenter's trade, which he followed in that city till seventeen years of age. He then worked at his trade in Lawrence County, Indiana, about six years, when he went to the Ozark Mountains, Missouri. The following year he went to St. Louis and in the spring of 1846 he came to Iowa, locating first at Farmington, Van Buren County, where he worked on the Croton Mills for some time. He came to Appanoose County in the fall of 1850 and began breaking prairie land. In his youth his educational advantages were very limited, but by reading and private study he acquired a fair business education. At intervals from 1844 to 1855 he studied law when Hon. H. Tannehill became his preceptor, and in 1856 he was admitted to the bar at Centerville. He then engaged in the practice of law at Centerville, which he has since followed with the exception of about two years, which he in Colorado for his health. While at Pike's Peak, Colorado in 1860, with others was chosen by the Territorial convention to formulate a code of laws. In politics he was formerly a Whig, and was one of the organizers of the Republican party in Appanoose County, since which he has voted that ticket. In the spring of 1856 he was elected justice of the peace and served one term of two years. In 1876 he was elected State Senator of the Fourth Senatorial District of Iowa. Mr. Miller was married July 8, 1844 at Leesville, Lawrence County, Indiana, to Rhoda A. Swindler of that place, who died at Centerville, March 15, 1883. Seven children were born to this union - Arthur M., a farmer of this county; Sara E., wife of John F. Stephenson, a farmer near Centerville; Frank, a farmer and coal operator; Charlie A., civil engineer in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company; Lee L., of Centerville; Henry R., a law student, and Anna, attending the Centerville schools. Mr. Miller has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1844, and has always held some position in the church, and at present is a class-leader. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Jackson Lodge, No. 42, at Centerville.


Source: Biographical and historical record of Wayne and Appanoose Counties, Iowa : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States from Washington to Cleveland, with accompanying biographies of each, a condensed history of the state of Iowa, portraits and biographies of the governors of the territory and state, engravings of prominent citizens in Wayne and Appanoose Counties, with personal histories of many of the leading families, and a concise history of Wayne and Appanoose Counties, and their cities and villages.. Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co., 1886. Page 595.