Person:John Miller (389)

Oral Traditions

Excerpts from Gary Miller's letters to Vera Bastin (1978)

Mother told me some things about the family - little things maybe. Like how Grandpa Miller used to make beer in the basement, against grandma's protests. And how one of his brothers or friends helped him. At least once the beer bottles would explode. I asked Barbara on the phone about this, but Barbara said that that was probably before she was born. I don't remember anything about grandpa at all, but sometimes it seems that I almost remember sitting in his lap, having him read the Bible to me. Oh, I do remember one thing. One time I asked grandpa something (maybe for sugar and bread) , and he said something like "After while". After he said that, I spent some time wondering how long a while was.

Memories of Vera Bastin; 10/28/97

Poor Dad, his first wife, Phoebe died in childbirth, and he also lost his little son by her. Two sons from his second marriage to my mother dead, and now this son! They also had to give up to death their little girl, Juanita, sometime before this happened.

There are some horror pictures in my mind, things I shouldn't have witnessed. I wish I hadn't seen how Dad killed the chickens for us to eat! I wish I hadn't seen the poor, starving dog that stood quietly while Dad took aim and shot him! He was afraid the dog might go mad and harm us kids. I feel quite sure that we all probably have horror pictures in our minds of things that happened when we were young. My Dad was head of the house, and we all knew that. He could display a violent temper. I remember seeing the glass glitter on his arm after he had rammed it through a window during a rage. That was the only time I can remember him speak to my mother in a bad way. Dad affectionately called Mom "Old Lady". I don't ever remember him being mean to my mother. I don't think I was ever spanked by either of them. My brother, Harold, could relate a severe physical punishment from Dad. Dad had very strict moral rules. One time when Walter was going with Thelma there was a girl hanging around them who dressed in an un-feminine way. Looking back now, I think Dad must have thought she was what we now call "gay". Anyway, he fired Walt away from the place because he had let this woman (it seems like her name was June) be in the company of Thelma. He thought this registered disrespect for Thelma. Yes. Walt "got", but he and Thelma eventually ended up getting married. One night I woke up and saw Dad with a chair poised over a man who had entered our home and had gone to the girls' bedroom. He was an acquaintance of Thelma. Yes, Doug got out of our house! Oh, and I remember one day when Dad thought he heard a neighbor man call his kid ('s?) a bastard. My Dad went out ready to fight, I believe, for our honor. There was a quick denial.

This picture is how the house and place looked after Dad made changes in it. The roof was ruined on the old place the night of Harold's graduation from high school. Also, this place then had electricity and a pump inside. We grew up by lamplight, and going outside to pump our water from the well. This place nor the other one ever had a bath room. We went to the backhouse for those purposes.

Obituary

JOHN MILLER SERVICES May 7, 1952

Funeral services for John Miller, resident of Thomas County for the last 36 years, were held from the Pilgrim Holiness Church in Brewster, May 7th. Rev. Ralph Armstrong, pastor of the church, conducted the services, with interment in the Brewster cemetery.

John Miller, youngest son of John Erwin and Jane Brown Miller, was born October 17, 1881, in Harrison County, Lorraine, M., and passed away at the St. Thomas Hospital, Colby, Kansas, May 5, 1952, at the age of 70 years, 6 months and 12 days.

At the age of five years he moved with his parents to Nebraska. When 16 years of age he united with the United Brethern Church in Missouri.

February 10, 1907 he was united in marriage to Mary Alice Willis of Champion, Nebraska. In 1916, they moved to Thomas County. To this union 10 children were born, four preceding him in death; also three brothers and one sister.

He leaves to mourn his passing his beloved wife of the home, four daughters, Alma Miller of Brewster, Thelma Kowalke of Wallace Freda Ribodry of Brewster, Vera Bastin of San Antonio, Texas, two sons, Harold and Darold, both of Brewster; one brother, Charles, of Grant City, Missouri, and twenty grandchildren, a host of nieces and nephews and other relatives and friends.

Burial

John is buried in Brewster Cemetery in Brewster, Kansas.

External Links

John Millers burial at www.findagrave.com.

Footnotes

1.   John Miller, in Find A Grave.

   Brewster Cemetery, Sherman, Kansas, United States