Family:John Miller and Isabelle Downing (1)

  There is an “Indian Story” that was passed down through the families and it is:  “Isabelle’s father William and a sister were the lone survivors of their family after an Indian raid on their farm home.  It probably happened in KY.  The mother of William Downing saw the Indians coming and shoved two of the children into a vegetable pit under the floor and pushed a trunk against the door.  Another child ran to an upper floor and hid under a feather bed.  The mother was killed and the Indians found the boy who had hid in the bed.  He tried to get away from them, but he was scalped and killed.  The two children in the vegetable pit were not discovered.  Soon all was quiet and they felt warm blood dripping down on them.  They knew all were dead.  After a day or so they heard someone whistling and knowing that Indians didn’t whistle, they called for help and were rescued from the pit.  The two children were then raised by friends or relatives.

1.   Census, in 1880 Jackson twp., Guthrie Co. IA
   Ed. 77, sh 16, l 31.

   81 82 Miller, Isabelle, white, female, age 53 or 8 Widow, keeping house, Indiana, Ky. Unknown
   James B., white, male 28, son, married, farming, Iowa, Ohio, Unknown
   Anna E., white, female, age 22, daughter, married, keeping house, Ohio, Ohio, Ohio
   Margarette, white, female, age 21, daughter, unmarried, helps keep house, Iowa, Ohio, Ohio
   Isabell, white, female, age 18, daughter, unmarried, at home, Iowa, Ohio, Ohio
   not named, white, female, 2/12 March, grandchild, Iowa, Iowa, Ohio

2.   Jacob J. Miller Family by Ruby Anderson Mertes, in Guthrie County : an illustrious past, a great future. (Guthrie, Iowa: Guthrie County Historical Society, 1976?)
   148 & 149, complied 1976.

   Isabelle Downing Miller, wife of John L. lived her remaining years in the log cabin which John built for them in 1853. She died October 25, 1907. Her granddaughter Eva Miller Jensen, lived in that log cabin for a few years. She wrote about it and other things as she remembered them. "John and Isabelle built a log house about a mile east of what became Glendon. It had a board floor and had a fireplace in the west side of the building, one window in the north. It had small window panes, but they were glass. It was sealed with wide boards and there was a stove pipe in just about the center of the room, as long as I can remember, but I think they cooked in the fireplace at first. The logs were hued smooth on two sides and were chinked with mortar. Later they built a shed kitchen on the south side of the house. The fireplace had been boarded up for a long time and all of the cooking was done on the cook stove. In 1896, my father, James B. Miller built a room on the west side of the house and we moved into it on March 1, 1896, and lived there four years. In 1900 we moved to a farm east and south about two miles and a half. Each spring and fall they would drive to Des Moines to buy things they couldn't get at the grist mill. They took their corn and wheat and had it ground in the late fall. They lived on wild game in the winter, deer and pheasants were plentiful when they came to Iowa in 1853. There were lots of fish in the rivers and creeks, beavers were plentiful along Beaver Creek and they built dams along the creek so they could catch fish for themselves. There were lots of wild fruit in the timber, grapes, crabapples, gooseberries, also wild cherries and lots of walnuts, hickory nuts and hazelnuts and some butternuts. There were wild blackberries in some places, red haw trees and a few black haw trees. Wild plums were plentiful and so were elderberries. In the summer and fall they made jellies, dried grapes, and gathered the nuts to eat during the winter months. I have helped do part of these things when I was a very little girl."