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MILLER Family History, Part V

Finetta A. (MILLER) SCHLEY^Δ (1841-1908)

11HBG41. Finetta A. Miller^Δ was born on February 23, 1841, in either Cedar County^{[Hunt 337]} or Solon, Johnson County, Iowa Territory. She married Frederick Wesley Schley, Jr., a German immigrant, on November 27, 1860, and had as many as 11 children:

11HB41A.	Henry I. Schley	5 Feb 1861	1937	(76)
11HB41B.	Sarah Jane Schley	12 Mar 1863	16 May 1863	(4 days)
11HB41C.	Dorothea Ann SchleyΔ	3 Oct 1865	1959	(93)
11HB41D.	Eliza Ellen SchleyΔ	26 Sep 1867	1960	(93)
11HB41E.	Finetta Barbara SchleyΔ	8 Mar 1869	13 Mar 1934	(65)
11HB41F.	Mary Catharine Schley	22 Dec 1871	1965	(93)
11HB41G.	Samuel Isaac SchleyΔ	17 Jul 1875	29 Jan 1968	(92)
11HB41H.	Frederick Wesley SchleyΔ	19 Oct 1877	25 Dec 1948	(71)
11HB41I.	Nevada May Schley	25 Feb 1880	7 Jan 1976	(95)
11HB41J.	Lewis Franklin SchleyΔ	1 Oct 1881	3 Aug 1964	(82)
11HB41K.	Iva Loretta SchleyΔ	19 Mar 1883	6 Oct 1979	(96)

When Finetta was 15 she lived for a time with her widowed maternal grandmother and Kester uncles and cousins in Newport Township, Johnson County, Iowa. There the Kester, Andrews, Ames, and Morse families all lived in close proximity.^{[Cen 1856]} Finetta returned home to Cedar Township by 1860^{[Cen 1860]} and later that year married Frederick.

It appears that Finetta and Frederick began their family in Franklin Township, just north and across the county line from Solon. In the early 1870s they returned to Johnson County and lived in Solon, Iowa City, Big Grove, and North Liberty.

Frederick Wesley Schley, Jr. died on July 14, 1884. He was 50 years old.

Finetta A. (Miller) Schley lived until April 9, 1908, when she died in North Liberty. She was 67 years old.

Five of the Schley children remained in Iowa, while three moved to South Dakota, one to Canada, one to Washington, and one to California.

PVT Isaac Dennis MILLER⁷ (1843-1896)

11HBG42. Isaac Dennis Miller⁷ was born in Solon, Johnson County, Iowa Territory, on December 8, 1843. He appears to have been named after both his paternal grandfather, Isaac Miller and his maternal aunt's widower, Isaac King Dennis. He enlisted in the 24th Iowa Volunteer Regiment and served with the Union Army as a private. He was wounded at the Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi, en route to Vicksburg, and was later crippled at Opequon Creek, Virginia, on the road to Winchester, Virginia. After the war, Isaac married Candace Mandana Andrews, a native of Pennsylvania and the niece of his maternal uncle's wife (William Kester and Harriet Andrews). They were wed in a ceremony conducted by Justice of the Peace, G. B. Nicholson, in Plattford Precinct, Sarpy County, Nebraska on June 19, 1868. From there they moved to San Luis Obispo County, California, likely on the road with Candace's Andrews grandparents, and raised a family of eight children:

11HBG421.	Hattie Mae Miller	2 May 1869	17 Jun 1954	(85)
11HBG422.	Orrin Elbert Miller	6 Jul 1870	1 Aug 1941	(70)
11HBG423.	John Walter MillerΔ	11 Nov 1871	19 Sep 1947	(75)
11HBG424.	Nellie Isabel Miller	(Jul) 1878	3 Nov 1879	(15 mos.)
11HBG425.	Cora Ethel Miller8	29 Jan 1880	18 Jul 1967	(87)
11HBG426.	Elma "Babe" Finetta Miller	12 May 1884	10 Mar 1962	(77)
11HBG427.	Minnie Isabelle MillerΔ	24 Jul 1886	7 Sep 1928	(42)
11HBG428.	Iva Edith MillerΔ	8 Jul 1892	20 Feb 1931	(38)

Miller Family, c. 1896

Back (L to R):

• John Walter
• Cora Ethel
• Orrin Elbert

Front:

• Elma Finetta
• Minnie Isabelle
• Iva Edith (fore)
• Candace Mandana
• Hattie Mae

According to Isaac's enlistment papers, he was 5' 9" tall with black eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion.

After Isaac's marriage to Candace Mandana Andrews on June 19, 1868, the family continued to live in Iowa through at least the end of 1871 before heading out to California. The first-known California home was in Morro Township, San Luis Obispo County by 1873, the location to which Candace's grandparents had moved a few years earlier. (Candace's death certificate confirms this by stating she had lived in California for 39 years at the time of her death in 1912). In 1880 they lived only a few households away from her grandfather Nathan Andrews and Isaac worked as a farmer. Isaac was further noted as being lame from a gun shot wound^{[Cen 1880]}.

Isaac and Candace lost daughter Nellie Isabel on November 3, 1879, in Morro Township. She was only 15 months old and Candace was pregnant with daughter Cora at the time. Nellie was buried the following day at San Luis Cemetery in San Luis Obispo.^[Grave]

By 1881, the family moved a little further up the coast to Old Creek (Cayucos), where Isaac was a laborer and his daughter, Cora Ethel, was born. They lived there not more than two years before they moved to the Cholame valley in southeastern Monterey County, in and around Parkfield and Imusdale near Isaac's younger brother, John V. There, Isaac worked as a butcher for about five years. In May 1887, the Miller family moved to Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, where Isaac continued to work as a butcher.

Isaac's lands were fed by the Branch Mill Ditch, which was cut in the 1870s, and brought water down from the Branch Grist Mill. Among others, the ditch watered the lands of Zenas G. Bakeman.^{[Madge 250]} This description roughly conforms to a later account of son Orrin's home. Orrin, who is believed to have inherited his father's home, lived in a large log house east of town, along the southeast bank of Arroyo Grande Creek, and identified with that later covered by the Zenas G. Bakeman home on the 300 block of Coach Road.^{[Madge 181]} This area had been belonged to Francis Ziba Branch and given to his daughter, Mrs. Anna Branch Newsom, ^{[Madge 246]} families for whom the nearby Branch Mill Road and Newsom Springs Road are named. While the Branch land grant from Mexico dates back to 1836 and his mill to 1844, American settlement of the area picked up in the 1870s and 1880s. By the early 1880s, Arroyo Grande had three churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist; and by 1890 the town began having county fairs.^{[Madge 255]}

Isaac Miller died on May 25, 1896, probably in Arroyo Grande. He was buried at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery (since known as the Arroyo Grande District Cemetery^[Grave]) and a year later a marble veteran's headstone was placed at his grave.

Soon after his death, eldest son Orrin allegedly "tricked" his mother into signing over the estate to him. The family was forced to leave and is said to have moved in with eldest daughter, Hattie, where they lived in a shack. By December of the same year, the family was in Healdsburg for a while, and daughter, Cora Ethel, stayed there when the rest of the family eventually moved on to Gridley, Butte County, and later to San Francisco.

On January 13, 1910, Candace Mandana (Andrews) Miller was institutionalized at the Stockton State Hospital in Stockton, San Joaquin County, by her eldest daughter, Hattie. Two years later, on June 1, 1912, Candace died there of a broken heart, as her granddaughter Elsie put it.

Margaret Elizabeth (MILLER) AKERS^Δ (1854-1938)

11HBG43. Margaret "Maggie" Elizabeth Miller^Δ was born on September 15, 1854, in Johnson County, Iowa. She married Rufus Sanford Akers, a native of Tennessee, on May 29, 1871, in Jackson County, southwestern Oregon and had eight children, six of whom survived beyond 1900:

11HB431.	Henry Jasper Akers	11 Mar 1871	1 May 1893	(22)
11HB432.	Ida Lavina AkersΔ	17 Feb 1874	8 Mar 1963	(89)
11HB433.	Iona Margaret AkersΔ	13 Jul 1876	19 Jan 1972	(95)
11HB434.	Charles Sanford Akers	4 Mar 1879	--	--
11HB435.	Isaac Calvin AkersΔ	29 Sep 1882	8 Nov 1973	(91)
11HB436.	Elbert Virgil Akers	5 Feb 1885	26 Mar 1979	(94)
11HB437.	Ethel Adella AkersΔ	20 Oct 1887	Mar 1967	(79)

After their marriage, the young Akers family had their first son in Jackson County but then moved a little to the west in Josephine County where the next three children were born. They settled in Kerbyville, up Redwood Highway (Highway 199) in the hills southwest of Grants Pass on the edge of what became Siskiyou National Forest.^{[Cen 1880]} Maggie's parents and younger sisters, Mary Jane, Sarah Ellen, and their husbands had settled in Slate Creek Precinct, likely halfway down the hill toward Grants Pass by 1879, or perhaps as early as 1871.

By 1882 the Akers family moved north a county to Dillard, Douglas County, just south of Roseburg where the last three children were born.

Come 1900, the Akers may have been separated. Maggie was living her daughter Iona and her young family in Merlin Precinct, north of Grants Pass, while Rufus was working as a day laborer about 13 miles further north in Leland Precint.^{[Cen 1900]}

Maggie moved in with her youngest daughter Ethel and her family in Merlin Precinct by 1910. She was notated as being divorced.^{[Cen 1910]}

Rufus died on February 1, 1913, in Oroville, Butte County, California.

Margaret lived on another 25 years until she passed on April 3, 1938, in Delight Valley, Lane County in west central Oregon. She was 83 years old.

John Valentine MILLER^Δ (~1856-1940)

11HBG44. John Valentine Miller^Δ was born in Solon, Johnson County, Iowa, on September 24, 1856 or 1857. It appears his middle name may have been in honor of his step-grandfather Valentine Fackler whom his grandmother married following his grandfather's early death at the age of 32.

John migrated to California with his parents around 1870, possibly together with his elder brother, Isaac Dennis, 14 years his senior, after the Civil War. On July 24, 1892, he married Lulu May Craig, a native of California and orphan of a gold miner and pioneer, who was 16 years his junior. Together they had 12 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood:

11HBG44A.	Ernest Vincent Miller	12 Aug 1893	30 May 1907	(13)
11HBG44B.	Emmet Craig Miller	12 Oct 1894	2 Nov 1984	(90)
11HBG44C.	Lester Eustice Miller	1 Nov 1896	1971	(74)
11HBG44D.	Cecil May MillerΔ	13 Jan 1898	18 Jan 1937	(39)
11HBG44E.	Mabel Elkin MillerΔ	25 Apr 1899	28 Apr 1982	(83)
11HBG44F.	Nellie Frances Miller	13 Oct 1902	24 May 1908	(5)
11HBG44G.	Frederick Arthur Miller	30 Oct 1905	16 May 1997	(91)
11HBG44H.	John Walter Miller	20 Apr 1907	25 Apr 1907	(5 days)
11HBG44I.	Bernard Jessie Miller	12 Apr 1908	16 May 1934	(26)
11HBG44J.	Henry Irving Miller	--	--	--
11HBG44K.	Charles David Miller	20 Jan 1914	11 Mar 1993	(79)
11HBG44L.	Herbert Archie MillerΔ	21 Mar 1915	29 May 2016	(101)

John lived in Monterey County, in the Cholame Valley around Imusdale and Parkfield from around 1882 to at least 1892. John V. is described in the 1882 Great Register of Voters of Monterey County as standing six feet tall, with a dark complexion, black eyes, dark hair, and a scar on his left wrist. He was employed as a laborer at the time. John's elder brother Isaac Dennis also lived in the Cholame/Parkfield area from around 1882 but moved to Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County in 1887.

As noted above, John married Lulu May Craig on July 24, 1892, in Davis, California, but returned to the Cholame/Parkfield area where his first few children were born.

By 1900 the young Miller family resettled in Bucksport Township, Humboldt County, California, where he worked as a teamster.

By 1910, the family was reestablished in Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California. There John worked as a farmer. As noted above they then moved south to Prunedale in Monterey County where the children attended Lake School. Later the Millers headed east over the Pacheco Pass to Dos Palos in Merced County about 1918 but not long after backtracked to Paicines in San Benito County.

John Valentine Miller died on April 13, 1940, in San Jose, Santa Clara County, California. He was 83 years old.

Lulu May (Craig) Miller died 20 years later in San Jose on July 2, 1960. She was 88 years old.

Mary Jane (MILLER) WOODY^Δ (1859-1940)

11HBG45. Mary Jane Miller^Δ was born in Johnson County, Iowa, on January 4, 1859. She married Marcus "Mark" Lafayette Woody, a native of the Oregon Territory, abt 1875, probably in Jackson or Josephine County, Oregon. Four of eight children survived past 1900^{[Cen 1900]}:

11HBG451.	Percilla Woody	(1876)	(< 1880)	(< 4)
11HBG452.	Charles Willis Woody	29 Dec 1880	5 May 1942	(61)
11HBG453.	James Arthur WoodyΔ	3 Jan 1884	29 Dec 1970	(86)
11HBG454.	Laura Alice WoodyΔ	10 Apr 1891	26 May 1977	(86)
11HBG455.	Mary Woody	1893	(< 1900)	(< 7)
11HBG458.	Nora Christine WoodyΔ	6 Apr 1900	5 Mar 1919	(18)

The Woody family is first recorded in 1880 in Slate Creek Precinct, probably up Redwood Highway (Highway 199) in the hills southwest of Grants Pass and on the edge of what became Siskiyou National Forest.^{[Cen 1880]} There the lived next to Mark's parents, James and Susan Woody, and Sarah Ellen's parents and younger sister Sarah Ellen had settled in the same precinct. Mary Jane's elder sister Maggie and her family lived further up Redwood Highway at Kerbyville.

They remained in Oregon at least through Laura's birth in 1891 before moving south into Sisikou County, California, where they resettled by the time of Nora's birth in 1900. There they are noted in Butte Township, perhaps referring to the town of Edgewood at the foot of Mount Shasta. There Mark and teenaged sons Charlie and Arthur worked as laborers at a box factory.^{[Cen 1900]}

Later they continued south to Red Bluff, Tehama County, California, where they lived at 1204 Grant Street, along the Sacramento River, and Mark worked odd jobs. Son Charlie and his family lived on the same block at 1225 Grant Street and also worked as a sheep sheerer. Son Arthur and his family lived cross town at 1154 Hickory Street.^{[Cen 1910]}

The Woodys returned to Oregon by 1920 and settled at 111 Tripp Street, Medford, Jackson County. Mark worked as a sheep sheerer and 1-year-old granddaughter Kathleen E. Knox lived with them. Mary's sister Sarah Ellen lived across the street at 122 Tripp Street. Son James Arthur had also moved to Medford and lived on the west side of town at 302 Willamette Street.^{[Cen 1920]}

The Woodys later moved to the west of town to Spring Street where granddaughter Kathleen continued to live with them and worked with Mark as a gardner and landscaper.^{[Cen 1930]}

Marcus Lafayette Woody may have died on March 21, 1931, in Jackson County, Oregon. He would have been 75 years old.

After Mark's death, Mary Jane likely moved to Eureka, Humboldt County, California, where her eldest son Charlie had resettled by 1920 and her daughter Laura had by 1925^{[Dir 1925]}. By 1935 she moved in with daughter Laura (Woody) Craft and her family at 2306 Garland Street in Eureka and remained with them until her death.^{[Dir 1935-1937, Cen 1940]}

Mary Jane (Miller) Woody died on July 3, 1940, in Eureka, Humboldt County, California. She was 81 years old.

Sarah Ellen (MILLER MURRY) DOOLITTLE (1861-1932)

11HBG46. Sarah Ellen Miller was born in Johnson County, Iowa, on March 21, 1861. In her younger years she appears to have gone by "Ellen,"^{[Cen 1880,1910]} and later, after her mother, Sarah Ann, died, she appears to have gone by "Sarah."^{[Cen 1920,1930]} She married Thomas James Murry, a native of Kentucky, on June 3, 1879, in Josephine County, Oregon, probably near Grants Pass. He was about 30 years her senior—she 18 years old and he in his upper 40s. They raised two daughters:

11HBG461.	Eliza Jane Murry	25 Feb 1883	24 Jun 1965	(82)
11HBG462.	Iva Avada Murry	2 Jul 1893	18 Oct 1981	(88)

The Murry family settled in Slate Creek Precinct, probably up Redwood Highway (Highway 199) in the hills southwest of Grants Pass and on the edge of what became Siskiyou National Forest, where Sarah Ellen's parents had settled.^{[Cen 1880]} Sarah Ellen's elder sister Maggie and her family lived further up Redwood Highway at Kerbyville.

The Murrys, or at least Thomas, may have moved for a time down to Monterey County, California, by 1900, where a "T. Murry," born on October 16, 1832, in Kentucky, worked as a farmer in Cholame Township.^{[Cen 1900]} The Cholame Valley is also connected to Sarah Ellen's elder brothers, Isaac Dennis⁷ and John Valentine Miller.

Thomas James Murry died on February 6, 1907, in Merlin, Josephine County, Oregon, north of Grant's Pass. He was in his mid-70s.

Sarah Ellen later married Oliver Benjamin Doolittle, a native of Michigan, between 1907 and 1909. It was Oliver's first marriage in his late 40s or early 50s. They lived at Oak Bar Township in Siskiyou County, California, near the Oregon border by 1910. There Oliver worked in a gold mine, presumably in one of the many mines in the Oak Bar mining district, upriver along the Klamath River from Oak Bar in the Klamath National Forest.^{[Cen 1910]}

Later the Doolittles moved north into southern Oregon, settling in downtown Medford, Jackson County, by 1920, where they lived at 122 Tripp Street.^{[Cen 1920]} Sarah Ellen's daughter Iva's in-laws lived one house over at 114 Tripp Street, and Sarah Ellen's sister Mary Jane lived across the street at 111 Tripp Street.

By 1930 they moved north of Medford to Willow Springs Precinct.^{[Cen 1930]}

Sarah Ellen (Miller Murry) Doolittle died on November 6, 1932, in Gold Beach, Curry County, Oregon, at the age of 71 years. She was buried at Gold Beach Pioneer Cemetery.^[Grave]

Oliver Benjamin Doolittle died 6 years later on August 16, 1939, in Gold Beach at the age of 82 years. He was buried on August 19 at Gold Beach Pioneer Cemetery.^[Grave]