Ancestors
of Gerri (Stewart, Miller, Henley) Ingram
Chapter 1 - Miller Family
As and written and posted by permission - from Weldon Merchant.
The Miller name is derived from the Latin mola, a mil. The moline cross,
the basis of the Miller coat-of-arms, represents a mill rynd which is
the iron clamp used to secure the upper millstone to a water powered
shaft for grinding grains. The Miller Family thus received the name
from their previous occupation.
Shortly after the flood, the Millers were first recorded near Bavaria,
Germany. One branch of the family was of Berne, Switzerland and many
were in Scotland and England. A few were of Ireland but all bore the
Miller coat-of-arms with some slight variation. The moline cross by
definition is the Miller cross and was used as early as 1516 by Johann
Miller, a German printmaster.
Records indicate that the first person bearing the name to come to
our shores was John Miller who settled Rehobath, Massachusetts, 1651.
His ancestry can be traced to John Miller of Sussex, England. Another
early settler was William Miller who came from Hertfordshire, England
in 1643. Early American historical records indicate the important part
this family had in the development of our country from its earliest
beginning. The first millers were Presbyterians who came to this country
to escape religious persecution.
The Clay County Millers trace their ancestry through Michael Miller
who was born either in Germany or Chester County, Pennsylvania on December
12, 1757. A John Vernon Miller was killed in 1776 during Tory instigated
Indian attacks near Fort Nichols, Spartenburg District, S.C. J.V. Miller
was born April 1, 1740.
During the Revolutionary War, Michael Miller was pressed into service
as a Tory in 1778 in Frederick, Maryland. During the Battle of Cedar
Springs, when taken prisoner by Captain Ralph Smith of the Colonial
Army, Millers words were: "I'm damn glad; I've been trying to get
away from those!!!! Tories for sometime." He was later paroled
and served in Roebuck's Regiment and was paid for his service and duties
in 1886. The Tories listed Michael Miller as AWOL.
After the Revolution, Michael Miller married Nancy Vernon whose parents
were Alexander Vernon and Margaret Chesnee. Alex and Margaret had married
in Scotland around 1757 after Alexander had received a grant from the
lands along the North Tyger SC River taken from the Cherokees by the
Treaty of Governor Glen.
Upon marriage of Michael Miller and Nancy Vernon, they received a parcel
of land across the Tyger River facing the present homestead of James
J. Vernon, ancestor of Alexander Vernon.
The children of Michael Miller and Nancy Vernon Miller were: John Vernon
Miller, b. 1781; Margaret (Peggy) Miller, born 1786 and married John
Montgomery; Mary (Polly) Miller, born 1788 and married James M. Anderson;
Hannah Miller, b. 1793 and married Theron Earle; Elizabeth (Betsey)
Miller, b. 1701 and married David Dantzler; Henry Miller, b. 1795; James
Vernon Miller, b. 1797 married Mariah Hannon; Alexander Miller, b. 1800
married Silvinia Whetstone and was one of the first white settlers of
Colfax (Clay) County, Mississippi; Nancy Clarinda Miller, b. 1803 and
married David Whetstone, Silvinia's cousin; and Catherine (Katy) Miller,
b. 1806 and married Willis Benson.
Chapter 2 - Miller Migration to Mississippi
The Miller family history is inseparable from the Fosters, Boyces,
Glasgow, and Gozas since these, with the Smiths, were the first six
white families to establish in Colfax (Clay) County.
The Fosters were known for numerous generations as millwright's. The
Millers were just that before coming to Mississippi and millwrights
were essentials. The Millers and Fosters were neighbors, relatives,
business partners, and friends in spite of the preceding. This alliance
went back to foda derived the word food, thus Foster and mola derived
Miller. Where there were Millers there were Fosters and vice versus
The Miller-Foster alliance was reestablished in Clay County in 1845
when Alexander Miller arrived from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Lewellen
Jones Foster, son of Robert and Tabitha Jackson Foster of Nottoway County,
Virginia had worked with his brother and millwright, John, at Tuscumbia,
Alabama. There, he met Dr. Hogue and came to Monroe County to oversee
his property. While there, Lew. J. Foster married Marry Ray Carlisle
on November 7, 1837. Mary Ray was born Feb. 11, 1820 and was raised
by Alex who was the brother of "Ole Bob" and their father
was Henry Carlisle and Jane Paige Carlisle who were large land holders
living in Aberdeen. The Carlisle's, swore to their graves that Mary
Ray was an orphan obtained at birth in Ireland and refused to speak
of it further nor claim blood kin. Talk was she was a "found"
child, after neighbors compared observations. It seems Alex and Jane
were out for a buggy ride, not a sea voyage, because one neighbor reported
they had passed alone and at the next house, they were carrying the
"Irish orphan," infant, Mary Ray. Discounting speculation,
she was reared in style as a plantation belle along with another "orphan,"
Agnes, Mary Ray's children and the Foster kin, said generation after
generation they were "blood relation" to the Carlisle's.
Per Barbara Jackson genforum.
James Carlisle and his wife, Mary Rhea/Ray Carlisle came to Charleston
S. C. from Ballymena, Ireland, about 1818. With them on the ship Jane
Gray were their children Alexander, Mary and twins Thomas McKeon and
Henry. About the same time their other three sons came to S. C. They
were William, James and John. The mysterious Mary Rhea Carlisle cam
to America in 1820, age 2. She IS NOT the child of James Sr and Mary
Rhea but probably the child of Wm., James or possibly John. She has
her grandmother's name. She lived most of her unmarried life in Aberdeen,
Monroe Co. MS. She married Llwellyn Foster and lived in Monroe and Chickasaw
Cos MS. Died in 1903. Per Barbara Jackson genforum. Buried in Soule's
Chapel Cemetery not too far from Aberdeen, Mississippi. Per Marylyn
Mcneill Lee.
Weldon Merchants article continued:
When Mary Ray Carlisle and Lewellan Jones Foster married, they were
given a large track of land near Una where they built a log house that
exhibited L.J.'s millwright training and heritage. Replete with servants
and all the accountrements of plantation living, the couple settled
down to have and rear ten children. This house later became (by marriage)
known as the Glasgow House.
In the fall of 1844, Alexander Miller and his wife, Silvinia Whetstone,
whose family has been traced through the Zimmermans to 15th century
Switzerland, migrated to Mississippi from Spartanburg District, South
Carolina. They settled near Palo Alto, fifteen miles northwest of where
West Point now is. The homeplace was close to the McLemore place.
Alexander and Silvinia came here with four children; William Henry,
James Michael, Mary Jane, and Thomas Wesley, who was in the oven and
arrived soon after they did on February 4, 1845. They had traveled nearly
four months in carryalls, which are light one horse four-wheel vehicles
designed to carry people. They brought their slaves, household belongings,
livestock, and a mother dog with four puppies. The puppies rode in a
basket tied under one of the vehicles but outgrew their conveyance on
the long trip.
Alexander acquired the land from Palo Alto north to Trebloc (Colbert
spelled backward) and eastward bordering L.J. and Mary Ray Foster's
and Carlisle land. There is speculation the Foster and Miller land was
the Chickasaw homeland of Mary Ray's people. The Treaty of Pontotoc
officially dissolved the Chickasaw land claims but it wasn't until as
late as 1839 that the remnants of the proud traveling traders of the
"Mother Race" either went to Oklahoma or settled as landowners.
To flux speculations, records show L.J. Foster's sister, Jane went to
the Chickasaw Agency after marrying a Long. Long derives from "long
town," the name whites gave the extensive villages of long houses
the Chickasaw lived in. Since records and deeds were burned by Yankees
in 1863, the mystery remains.
Chapter 3 - The Children of Alexander Miller
William Henry Miller was the oldest and the first to marry. On August
16, 1849, William Henry married Jane Harriet Bond, the daughter of Hindsberry
Bond and Ann Kennedy. Ann's Spartenburg, SC grandfather was William
"old squire" Kennedy, a revolutionary War hero known for the
peculiar crack of his rifle and the best shot in the District. We know
now the 'peculiar' crack of his rifle was due to the exact ratio of
powder to lead causing the bullet to break the sound barrier and thus
sound with a crack on report. No doubt this is the secret of his marksmanship
that lead others to say, "another Tory's dead" whenever Old
Squire's distinctive rifle crack was heard.
Ann's mother, Mary Ann Brandon's father was Col. Thomas Brandon, a
swashbuckling leader and hero of the Revolution. William Henry's great-grandfather
John Vernon Miller had been killed by Tory-instigated Indians in 1776
and his grandfather Michael had served both sides, so sentiments ran
deep through their Spartanburg roots.
William Henry and Jane were given land across the road from L.J. And
Mary Ray Foster's home near what was becoming Belle Town, near Una later.
In 1849, they built a dog-trot log house of oak logs with two rooms
one of which had a loft room upstairs. The had six children and another
in the hopper when the "Wah" of Northern Aggression"
began in 1861.
William and his brothers were called to arms. William Henry was a member
of the second regiment of the Mississippi Infantry, CSA, and served
as a private in Company F of this regiment.
Brother James Michael was mortally wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga
in September, 1863. He was carried to an Atlanta Hospital where he died
six weeks later. His mother Silvinia and sister Mary Jane traveled by
train and boat to reach his bedside. The boat was burned the next day
after they were on it. They remained at his side until his death and
brought his body back to be buried at the Palo Alto Cemetery.
Thomas Wesley returned alive at War's end after being captured and
carried up to a prison on Lake Michigan. When Thomas Wesley came home
from the War, his dog, who hadn't seen him during the years of his absence,
met him some distance from the house.
Alexander's daughter Nancy, H. Miller married William Lim and in 1858
they bought the land and established the Palo Alto Hotel of which she
was the proprietoress. Palo Alto had several stores, a tailor shop,
and other businesses by this time. When Nancy married William Lim, the
Trebloc property was part of the dowery.
The children of Alexander Miller and Silvinia Whetstone are listed
here in order by their ages: 1. William Henry Miller 2. James Michael
Miller 3. Andrew B. Miller 4. Nancy M. Miller 5. Mary Jane Miller 6.
John Cheves Miller 7. Thomas W. Miller.
Chapter 4 - John Cheves Miller and Children
To be continued.
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