HENRY MILLER. One is almost led to wonder at times if the agricultural district of Germany is not nearly depopulated for so many of its representatives have emigrated to this land and here made striking successes in their chosen calling. Henry Miller is one of many who has found Central Illinois a profitable place in which to case his lines and has here made a home upon section 3, of Mt. Olive Township, at which place he has lived for a great many years.
Mr. Miller has a fine farm which comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land a good part of which is under cultivation. Besides this he has two hundred and seventy-eight acres of land in Montgomery County. His efforts in an agricultural direction have been crowned with success, and he has succeeded in amassing more than a competency. He is a native of Hanover, Germany, being there born January 16, 1813. He is proud of the fact that he is of good parentage, his father and mother being worthy representatives of the best middle class of German people; they lived and died in Hanover.
Our subject's early training was in the direction of farm labor, as his father was a farmer and naturally he assumed the duties in boyhood at his home. Later he became a laborer on a farm and when about twenty eight years old determined to start out in life for himself. He set out for America on a sailing vessel that left Bremen and landed in Baltimore after a voyage of several weeks. From his first landing place he went to Louisville, Ky., where he remained for three years after which he spent one winter in New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn. Thence he went to St. Louis, and after a few days stay at this last mentioned place he came to Macoupin County, and has since made this his home.
Mr. Miller was married in Mt. Olive Township, to Miss Henrietta Stabel, who, like himself, was of German birth and parentage, having came to this country at the early age of seventeen years with a neighbor of her parents. Her parents with all their children, excepting herself, lived and died in Germany. She was a true and noble wife helping her husband both materially and spiritually to make a good home. She is now fifty-four years of age being born April 11, 1837. Both Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the Lutheran Church. They are the parents of thirteen children, ten sons and three daughters, who in order of birth are as follows: Mary, Henry, Anna, Charles, William, Fred, August, John, Herman, Louis, Edward, Frank and Henrietta. Of these the eldest daughter is the wife of Fred Mounke, a farmer in Montgomery County. Henry was united in marriage to Miss Lena Abeleng, they are farmers in Montgomery County; Anna is the wife of Thomas Ewich and resides in Mt. Olive; Charles took to wife Miss Dora Schwertfeger and lives on a farm in this township. The remaining children all reside at home.