My Genealogy Hound

MILLER, ELIJAH, surveyor, P. O. Clarinda. One of the earliest settlers of the county, and has been closely identified with the interests of the county from its first settlement. He was born January 2, 1825, in East Tennessee. At the age of seventeen years he came with his parents to Platt county, Missouri, where they lived about one year, after which they moved to Buchanan county. There he grew to manhood, receiving a very liberal education at Union seminary, which was located near the line between Platt and Buchanan counties. In 1845, upon leaving school, he engaged in teaching, an occupation he followed for several years more or less of the time, studying medicine at the same time. In 1852 he came to Iowa, locating in Tarkio township, in this county. He taught the first school in the town of Clarinda. Soon after his arrival in the county he went into the practice of medicine, which he continued for about five years, doing most of the practice of the county during that time. At the time he came to the county, surveyors were in great demand, and he having all the qualifications necessary, he was at once pressed into service as such, and he has followed it more or less since. In the fall of 1843 he was appointed clerk of the court to fill out the unexpired term of Dr. A. H. Farrens, who had resigned. The next fall he was elected to the office for another term. The business of the court at that time was of such volume that he used to carry all the papers from his residence to court in his saddle bags. His salary was one hundred dollars per year. Before the close of his term he resigned, to retire to a private life, but the fates were against him, for he was soon elected county surveyor, which office he held for six years. In 1869 he was elected to the office of school superintendent for the county, and held it until January, 1880, with the exception of one term. So he has been identified with the school interests of the county, as teacher or superintendent, from the earliest settlement to the present time, and to him, as much or more than any other man, is due the flourishing condition of the public schools of the county. He laid out the town of Clarinda, and several other of the towns in the county which have sprung up since. He was married July 4, 1852, to Miss Alethea Loy, a native of Tennessee. By this union they have six children: Josephine, Webster C., Sophia (wife of John Akin, of Clarinda), Alice, Noah W. and Charlie B.