Person:Isabelle Downing (1)

Her sister’s obit was also in the Guthrian:  “The neighborhood was grieved last Thursday morning October 25, 1907, when word was received over the telephone lines that one of its oldest and most highly esteemed citizens had passed to the great beyond.  For several days the angel of death hovered over the household of William Miller, then spread his black wings and took from their midst, the aged mother, Mrs. Isabelle Miller, the cause of her death being old age.  Mary Ann and Isabelle were born in KY and then moved to IN when Isabelle was two and Mary Ann was four.  Isabelle Downing was born in IN, February 15, 1827.  On June 20, 1850 she was united in marriage to John L. Miller.  To this union were born seven children, two sons and five daughters, all of whom survive her with the exception of one who died in childhood. All were present at the funeral except two daughters, one living in Oklahoma and one in California.  She was converted and united with the Church of God in IN in 1852.  In 1853, she removed with her husband to IA, where she was one of the eleven charter members of the Church of God on Beaver, she being the last of the eleven.  After eleven happy years of married life, the husband and father was called Home, leaving the poor wife and mother with six small children.  She suffered all the privations of a pioneer life.  She was called “Aunt Isabelle” for a number of years and often spoke of those times of living in a one room log cabin, the same room in which she died, and of the happy hours spent there with her husband and children.  Her long residence in this county and her honorable life have won for her a large circle of acquaintances and friends who feel the loss keenly.  Her friends extend their heart felt sympathy to her loved ones left behind.  These mourn but not as those without hope.  She has gone before, but her good deeds will always be a refreshing help to us all.  May we all live such a life as hers, so that like her, when we reach our late station on earth, we may be transferred to the Eternal City.  The fifth Chapter of 2nd Corinthians was read at the funeral at her request.

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, 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 cookstove. 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 here 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 IA 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 the could catch fish for themselves. There was 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 nuts to eat during the winter.

    These families and their children and grandchildren farmed this part of the county,  fought in our nations wars, raised their families according to the good book, lived and died.  In the 1860 census, each family was required to list their properties.  John L. owned 50 acres of improved land, 115 of unimproved land worth $1000, 5 horses, 4 milk cows, 18 swine, worth $500, 111 bushels of wheat, 300 bushels of corn, 3 bushels of potatoes, during the year he had made about 200 pounds of butter, cut 18 ton of hay, made 15 gallons of molasses, and slaughtered $100 worth of animals.  There are still some of the Miller kin living in Jackson twp, Guthrie County and many other parts of the state and nation.