Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/405

 MILLER

MILLER

MILLER, Warner, stMiator, was born in Han- nibal, U.->\\ ego county, N.Y., Aug. 12, 1«3« ; son

of Hiratn and (Warner) Miller; grandson

of Col. William Miller, an officer in the American Uevolutioii, who married his Hr«t cousin, Martha, laughter of Elijah Miller ; great-grandson of An- tiiony Miller, and gr«*at''-grandson of John Miller, who settled in Westciiester county, N.Y., about 16S0. Warner was graduated at Union college, ISaO; taught Greek and Latin in Fort Edward collegiate institute, 18G0-61 ; enlisted in the 5th N.Y. cavalry as private in 1861 ; served in the Shenandoah Valley, Va., and was promoted for gallantry, having reached the rank of lieutenant when he took part in the l)attle of Winchester and was taken prisoner, and while in the hospital, was paroled. He returned to Fort Edward, N. Y., and found eniployment in a pai)er mill, soon be- coming superintendent of the xnill. He then or- ganized a company to manufacture paper from wood pulp at Herkimer, N.Y., invented the ma- chines and made the first wood pulp paper pro- duced on a large scale in the United States. He was a delegate to the Republican national conven- tion at Philadelphia, June 5, 1873 ; a member of the New York assembly, 1874 and 1875, and was a representative from the twenty-seconcrNew York district in tlie 46th and 47th congresses, 1879-83, and on July 19, 1881, after a joint session of the legislature from May 31, he was elected U.S. senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- tion of Thomas C. Piatt, and he served from Dec. 5, 1881, to March 4, 1887. He secured the crea- tion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Labor-Bureau. He was temporary chairman of the Republican state convention of October, 1881 ; a delegate to the Republican national con- vention of 1888 ; the unsuccessful Republican can- didate for governor of New York in 1888, and in 1889 became a promoter of the Nicaragua ship- canal, and president of the company formed to carry out the project, which met with a succes- sion of reverses, but in 1902 was still in the field awaiting favorable legislation to continue the project. He was married in July, 1864, to Car- oline, daughter of Henry Churchill of Gloversville, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Union in 1886, and from Syracuse university in 1891.

MILLER, Warren, representative, was born in Meigs county, Ohio, April 2, 1847 ; son of Lewis M. and Elizabeth Miller, and grandson of Stephen Kittson Miller. His parents removed about 1850 from Ohio to Virginia, where he was brought up on a farm. He attended the Ohio university, 1864-67 : taught school ; was admitted to the bar in 1871 : practised in Jackson, W. Va., 1871-99 ; w^as assistant prosecuting attorney of Jackson county one year, and prosecuting attorney, 1881-

89. He was a delegate-at-large from West Vir- ginia to the Republican national convention of 1884, and supix^rted James G. Blaine for Presi- dent. He was a representative in the state legis- lature, 1890-91 ; was an unsuccessful candidate for judge of the supreme court of West Virginia in 1892 ; was a Republican representative from the fourth district of West Virginia in the 54th and 55th congresses, 1895-99, and became judge of the sixth judicial circuit of W^est Viiginia in 1901.

MILLER, William, founder of a religious sect, was born at Pittstield, Mass., Feb. 15, 1782: son of Capt. William and Paulina (Phelps) Miller; grandson of William and Hannah (I^onard) Miller and of the Rev. Eluathan Phelps, a Bap- tist minister. His grandfather removed from West Spring- field, Mass., and settl- ed on a farm in Pitts- field, Mass., about 1747, and his father served in the Revolu- tion and removed to Low Hampton, N.Y., in 1786, where Will- iam was employed on the farm. His education was acquir- >'

ed chiefly through /l/f/Qz. y// V/

reading books which rlf *y(/UMXA^

he procured with

money earned by chopping wood. He was mar- ried, June 29, 1803, to Lucy Smith of Poultney, Vt., and engaged in farming there. He served as sheriff, 1809-10, and commanded a company of volunteers sent in 1812 to Burlington, where he was transferred to the U.S. army. He fought in the battle of Plattsburg, Sept. 11, 1814, was pro- moted captain, and resigned from the army, June 25, 1815. During his residence in Poultney he became interested in the writings of Voltaire, Hume, Paine, Ethan Allen and others, and pro- fessed to be a deist, but was converted and joined the Baptist church at Low Hampton, to which place he removed in 1816. In 1818, at the close of two years' study of the Bible, he announced his conviction that in twenty-five years (1843 by Jewish time or 1844, Roman), Jesus Christ would appear in person to judge the world, and in 1831 he entered upon his self-imposed mission as a preacher on the topic of the second advent of Christ. He had been licensed to preach by the Baptist church at Low Hampton, but was never ordained. He spoke in Vermont and New York in the pulpits of all denominations, the Episcopal and Roman Catholic alone excluding him. Peo- 2>le flocked to hear him and matiy were converted