Family:Reinhold Miller and Florence Miller (1)

Florence May Miller of North Dakota was born in 1896. She married Reinhold Edward Miller of Wisconsin. Their wedding and celebration was in Livingston, Montana, where Reinhold was educated in the dairy business. Reinhold became president of the Turtle Lake Cooperative Creamery in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, about three years after their marriage. They had three daughters: Joyce Mavis b. 1923, Lavilla Geraldine ("Jerry") b. 1925, and Lois Jean b. 1927. Florence died in 1927 or 1928 of a hemorrhage after surgery. Her parents were Andrew and Mary Miller, North Dakota farmers. She had two brothers, Clarence and Floyd. In 1914, at the age of 17, she was nearly killed by a tornado. Too far from the cellar to hide with her family there when the storm began, she ran to the barn, which collapsed around her. A beam that would have crushed her and taken her life fell instead on her horse, who died beside her as her father carefully sawed through the rubble, uncertain he'd be able to save her. She called out descriptions of the how the fallen beams were arranged, and told him which could be safely cut without bringing them all down, until she could be pulled out. She remembered stories about the sod houses her pioneer ancestors built to survive life on the prairie, and a Pennsylvania Dutch grandfather who led wagon trains between Iowa, Indiana, and the Dakota territory. Written records show her ancestors arrived in Connecticut around 1760, and oral records are said to link her to a group of English pilgrims or Puritans who sailed from England to Holland for religious freedom, but then left Holland for the Americas, hoping to strictly follow and practice Christian scripture. If anyone knows the name of that ship and that history, kindly provide a link here.