Return to the Land

Switzerland and moved to Germany with his second wife, Anna Loysa Regina. They had six children: Johann Nicholas Mueller, Johann Abraham Mueller, Samuel Mueller, Catherine Barbara Mueller, Eva Catherine Mueller and Johann Michael Mueller, Jr. All of the siblings died in Germany except for Johann M. Mueller, Jr. who died in Maryland in 1771 or 1783. Available documentation shows that our line does not connect directly to this family but we can say at least one colonial Miller family came from Germany. The reason that I chose this particular family as an example is that the given names appear again in our lineage from John Harvey Miller ’s family: Abraham, Samuel, Catherine, and Barbara. There is little doubt that Millers played a significant role in the early founding of colonial America. In the Boston, Massachusetts area the Miller name was as prominent as it was in the Virginia colony. Families began to emigrate from Europe on an increasingly large scale and were dispersed throughout the American territory. There was little or no official record keeping at this time. Thus it is difficult to be precise in tracing a lineage. The early settlers of the Shenandoah Valley were German, Scotch-Irish and English. There is available information concerning families coming down “the Valley” from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1732, Jose Hite, along with other Germans, settled what is now Winchester. In the same year, the Scotch-Irish John Lewis settled in the Staunton area. In addition to these settlers an Adam Miller family appears in the records. Adam Miller was born in 1700, possibly in Schneisheim, Germany. While still young he came to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with his wife. Later he lived in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1727, on learning of the beautiful Valley, he moved and settled in what is now Rockingham County on the south fork of the Shenandoah River. In 1741, Governor William Gooch bestowed on Miller a Certificate of Naturalization. It stated that at that time Miller had been a resident of the Shenandoah Valley for 15 years. 4 In an attempt to find out if our line is connected to that of Adam Miller an extensive search was done at the Virginia State Library in Richmond, Virginia. Five or six generations of Adam Miller’s family were traced over the span of approximately 100 years. No definite connection could be established between our family and this particular line. In a recent conversation, Sheila Miller Brewer, daughter of Samuel David Miller, recalled that her grandfather, Earl Jordan Miller, told her that our line was German. However, other family members dispute this. My father, David Stafford Miller, Sr., explicitly stated that our family was Scotch-Irish. My father related to me as a youngster that our Miller ancestors migrated down the Shenandoah Valley. Many of the settlers not only came to the colonies to escape religious persecution but also to seek better economic opportunity by plying their trade in the New World. The wonderfully rich land of the Shenandoah Valley was able to provide many with a new and prosperous life. An Irish connection can be established from Minnie Catherine Wright Miller ’s relatives (See chapter David O. Wright ). It is likely our Miller lineage is a

4 John C. Wayland, Ph.D., History of Rockingham County, Virginia (Harrisonburg, Virginia: C.J. Carrier Company, 1972), pp. 34-35.

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