Miller Family History, 5th Generation (B)

Michael Miller (1784-1856)

11831. Michael Miller was born on May 10, 1784, in either Washington County, Maryland, or Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and appears to have been named after his great-grandfather, Johann Michael Miller². He married his cousin, Salome “Sarah” Creamer, about 1806 in Montgomery County, Ohio. After about 30 years of marriage and 12 children, Sarah died in 1836. Michael remarried the following year to Elizabeth Brumbaugh and had another 10 children!

Michael likely moved with his parents to Randolph, Montgomery County, Ohio, by 1800 as a teenager. All of his 22 children were born in Montgomery County.

Salome “Sarah” (Cramer) Miller died on February 26, 1836. She was 49 years old.

Michael Miller died on December 18, 1856, in Montgomery County. He is buried at his father's old homestead at present-day 9476 Haber Road in Randolph, along with his father and several descendants who make up a family cemetery of 20 graves. Michael was 72 years old.

After Michael died, Elizabeth remarried to David Hull and moved southwest from Randolph to Perry Township in Montgomery County.

Elizabeth (Brumbaugh Miller) Hull, died on March 6, 1901, in Montgomery County, Ohio. She was 89 years old.

Lydia (Miller) Shively^Δ (~1785-~1805)

11832. Lydia Miller^Δ was born about 1785, likely in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. She reportedly married Isaac David Shively (Sr.), in Clermont County, Ohio, about 1801; she was about 16 years old and he about 42 years old. He was a widower with eight children between the ages of about 2 and 18 and had lived near her family in Woodbury Township, in modern-day Bedford and Blair counties, Pennsylvania when she was young.^{[Tax 1788, Cen 1790]} They had two sons together before her untimely death and then Isaac remarried again and had two more sons:

Lydia (Miller) Shively died about 1805, perhaps related to giving birth to son John. She wa only about 20 years old.

After Lydia's death, Isaac remarried to Catherine Raysor (Raser) about 1808. They had two more children:

Isaac David Shively (Sr.) died in Montgomery County, Ohio on September 25, 1823. He was 63 years old.

Catherine (Raysor) Shively died eight years later in 1831. She was about 62 years old.

Esther Miller^Δ (1787-1861)

11833. Esther Miller^Δ was born on May 30, 1787, in Morrison's Cove, Woodbury Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Her family moved from Pennsylvania to Clermont, Montgomery and Preble counties near Dayton in western Ohio, probably by way of Campbell County, Kentucky. It was in Montgomery County that Esther married John B. Miller^Δ (11826), her first cousin and son of her paternal uncle Daniel Miller⁴, around 1807. They raised five sons.

Catharine (Miller) Overholser^• (~1791->1860)

11834. Catharine “Katie” Miller^• was born about 1791, likely in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. She married Abraham Overholser on August 11, 1811. They had at least three daughters:

Abraham Overholser died on November 9, 1819, in Darke County, Ohio, north-northwest of Dayton. He was about 32 years old and left Catherine pregnant with their third daughter.

Catherine remarried to a Jacob Overholser, Abraham's widower uncle or cousin, on October 9, 1821, in Montgomery County, Ohio. Jacob had five children from his prior marriage.

Jacob Overholser died on March 15, 1850, in Montgomery County, Ohio, just days after his 80th birthday.

Catherine (Miller) Overholser died sometime after the 1860 census where she is last noted in Jefferson Post Office, Neave Township, Darke County, Ohio, with her daughter Susannah (Overholser) Cable's family.

Elizabeth H. (Miller) Fackler⁵ (1793-1865)

11835. Elizabeth “Betsy” H. Miller⁵ was born in 1793 in Morrison's Cove, Woodbury Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Her family moved from Pennsylvania to Clermont, Montgomery and Preble counties near Dayton in western Ohio, probably by way of Campbell County, Kentucky. She married her first cousin, Isaac Miller⁵ (11827), in either Miami or Montgomery County, Ohio, on July 2, 1812. They had five children before Isaac's early death at the age of 32. Betsy soon after remarried to Valentine Fackler and had eight more children:

Isaac Miller died in Montgomery County, Ohio, in August 1822. He was only 32 years old. They had only been married 10 years.

Betsy remarried to Valentine Fackler soon after Isaac's death and went on to have eight more children.

The Facklers have yet to be located in the 1830 census, but they reportedly stayed on in Ohio until about 1833 when they moved west into Indiana, likely in Elkhart, Elkhart County. In 1837 they picked up again, crossed Illinois and the Mississippi River, and resettled in Ely, Linn County, Iowa Territory, before shifting slightly south across the county line into Big Grove Township (Township 81 North, Range 6 West), Johnson County, Iowa Territory, by 1839, where the area later became known as Fackler's Grove (estimated to be roughly the NW quarter of Section 3 and about 70 acres NE quarter of Section 4). Son George died in 1839 and was buried at the Fackler's Grove Cemetery. In 1840, the family was enumerated with five boys, fitting the ages of the five Fackler boys, and three girls, fitting the ages of the two Fackler girls and Elizabeth Miller. Son David Miller and his young family were enumerated adjacent to the Facklers.^{[Cen 1840]}

The Facklers continued on at Big Grove Township through 1850, and in that year an 8-year old boy, Henry Devantt, was counted with their family. Nearby lived Rudolph Startzer, the widower of daughter Mary Ann who had died three months prior. The following January daughter Sarah Ann married Rudolph.^{[Cen 1850]}

In 1856, the Devantt boy, recorded as “S. H. Devantt,” was living with son Martin and his wife Mary on the Fackler farm. That year Valentine and sons Samuel and Martin netted 254 bushels of spring wheet from 25 acres; 1,878 bushels of corn from 25 acres; 227 bushels of oats from 10 acres; 25 bushels of potatoes from a half acre; had 5 acres in hay and another 5 acres in meadow; and sold 27 hogs valued at $216. They also manfactured 150 pounds of butter.^{[Cen 1856]}

In 1860, the Fackler family included grown sons Jacob, John, and Samuel; and Jacob's wife Elizabeth and their first four children. Their farm in Big Grove Township was valued at $3,000.^{[Cen 1860]}