Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/197

 MILLER

173 MILLER

farm he was well prepared for laborious duties in a new country. The country being new, the roads always poor, many times almost impassable, yet he perform- ed an amount of lal)or almost incredible, frequently riding on horseback thirty, forty and more than fifty miles a day, at all times, by night or by day, through storms and sunshine, with an energy that no obstacle could prevent.

He loved his profession, and while attending to its duties, amid all his incessant labors, he found time to culti- vate his mind by reading much of the current professional literature of the day, and his well-balanced mind and retentive memory enabled him to make the best use of what he read. He was elected an honorary memlier of the New "V'ork State Medical Society in 1808. He was the last of that band of physicians, who, in August, 1808, organized the Cortland County Medical Society, and its first vice-president and the oldest living mem- ber by ten years.

Having spent the first years of his life in laboring on the farm. Dr. Miller while yet in the vigor of his days, left his profession and tiu'ned his attention to agriculture. Notwithstanding he still manifested an interest in its welfare. Dr. Miller early l)ecame i)r(iminent in public Hfe. His first j)ubhc office was that of coroner, which appointment he received from Gov. George Clinton, in 1802. He was a justice of the peace from 1812 until 1821, and one of the judges of our county courts from 1817 to 1820.

They had eight children — five sons and three daughters. Mrs. Miller died in 1834, aged 59 years. Gf the family only one of the sons and two daughters sur- vived. All of them arriving to mature age, and most of them faUing a victim to that destroyer of our race — consumption.

In the temperance cause Dr. Millei took an early and active part. During his days of pupilage he once saw a beauti- ful child sacrificed in consequence of the intoxication of the physician called to its rehef in an hour of suffering. This made a deep and lasting imjjression on his mind,

and led him at the commencement of his labors as practising physician firmly to resolve to abstain entirely from all intoxicating drinks.

He retained his wonted faculties almost to the last hour of his long life. He actively and usefully lived, he calmly and ([uietly died, on the thirtieth day of March, 182, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, leaving behind him abundant evidence of his preparation for, and acceptance through, the grace of our Lord and Saviour, into the rest prepared for the just.

From a biography by Ur. G. W. Bradford, in the New York State Jour, of Med., .\ug., 1907, vol. vii.

Miller, Thomas (1806-1873).

Thomas Miller's father, Maj. Miller, came to Washington with his family in 1816, and was attached to the Navy Department. The boy Thomas was born February 18, 1806, at Port Royal and received his early education undei' the care of the Jesuits at the old Washing- ton Seminary, afterwards known as Gon- zaga College. His medical studies were begun with Dr. Henry Huntt. After graduating M. D., in 1829, at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, he practised in Washington, his office Ijeing in one of the famous buildings known as "Newspaper Row."

In 1830 he united with six others to form the Washington Medical Institute, for the purpose of giving instruction to students, and in 1832 began a course of teaching in practical anatomy. The same year, also, he was one of the physi- cians to the Central Cholera Hosjiital during the epidemic, and in 1833 was one of the original founders of the Medical Association of the District, and at the time of his death, president. In 1833, also, he married the daughter of a lawj'er, Gen. Walter Jones.

One of the incorporators of the Medi- cal Society in 1838, he was ever afterwards an active meml)er in furthering its inter- ests. In 1839 he became professor of anatomy in the National Medical College