Autobiography and Recollections
by John Peery Miller
In the late 1920s, John Peery Miller completed writing an account of his life that ran to
70 typed pages whose purpose was to “…jot down some of the events of my life which
might be of interest to my children and grandchildren...” Copies of this document were
kept by his descendants and kindly provided to me after we established contact in 2009.
The document covers Miller’s childhood, service during the Civil War in the 153rd Ohio
Volunteer Infantry Regiment, career as an educator, and personal and family life. His
narrative includes many observations on pioneer farming life and times that are of
interest both for historical study and for genealogical research. This preface accompanies
a PDF file of the scanned document. Following a brief biography of Professor Miller, I
have included a table of contents in which I retain his original section titles (with some
abbreviation) and add a few notes. The page numbers refer to the PDF file pages, which
in some cases differ from the hand-numbered original.
John Peery Miller was born 7 May 1847 in Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, one of
the 13 children of John and Joanna Smith Miller. He grew up on his parents’ farm, which
his father had inherited from his parents, Frederick and Mary Elizabeth Peery Miller, of
German ancestry. The latter had migrated to Ohio in 1818 from the Shenandoah Valley
of Virginia. After the war, Peery (as he was known throughout his long life) and his
family moved to Yellow Springs where he entered Antioch College in 1867, but dropped
out shortly thereafter to travel to Illinois and Kansas with an older brother. He lived for a
short time in southern Illinois where he met and married his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Stone,
and taught in the local schools. He returned to Antioch and completed his coursework
and was granted his AB, belatedly, in 1902, after having already accepted a professorship
in history. He raised his family of four daughters in Yellow Springs and taught at
Antioch until 1915. In 1913 he published a genealogy of his father’s family, the Millers,
and in 1922 one for his mother’s family, the Smiths. Elizabeth died in 1896 and Peery in
1935.
My Great-grandfather Abraham Smith Miller, John Peery Miller’s first cousin and
neighbor, also served in the 153rd Ohio (though in Company E).
David G Davis
Arlington, Virginia
March 2010
Table of Contents
1
Introductory
2
Early History (ancestors, early childhood)
6
Buildings and Home Surroundings at Bethel Farm Home (includes farm work,
especially fruit growing and cider making)
15
Early School Days
22
Games and Sports
26
Names of Scholars attending Bethel School…from 1850 to 1865
27
Singing Schools and Spelling Matches
30
Taffy Pullings and Sleigh Riding
34
General Farm Equipment…(includes family trips in 1850s, local towns, family
horses)
43
Plowing and Planting
45
Changes at the Old Homestead and My Soldier Experience
60
School Life at Antioch College
62
A Trip to Illinois and My First Experience as a School Teacher
65
Another Change of Occupation (including marriage and family life, return to
Ohio, joining Antioch faculty, and wife’s death)