Return to the Land

Dunkard’s Bottom on the New River. This was fertile land and offered economic opportunities. Israel Christian and his son William acquired land as well. There is some question whether John Miller purchased land or was granted land in this region. Vaden Miller has remembered that he was granted 1600 acres but we could never document this from the records of Augusta, Botetourt, Montgomery, or Pulaski Counties. A grant of this magnitude surely would have been recorded so its more lik ely that John bought the land. Dunkard’s Bottom now lies beneath Claytor Lake State Park near Dublin, Virginia.

Dunkard’s Bottom on New River before the dam created Claytor Lake

About 1966, a family gathering consisting of John Harvey Miller ’s children was held at Claytor Lake State Park. Present at the reunion were the brothers David S. Miller (my father), Edgar Miller, Harvey Vaden Miller, Sr. (Vaden’s father), and Carl A. Miller . These brothers told Vaden Jr. , who then was a young businessman, that Dunkard’s Bottom at Claytor Lake was inhabited by their great-great-grandfather – John Miller. Their father John Harvey Miller had told this to them earlier. By then the lake had covered the old home place. However, protruding out of the water, near the northern shore, was the remains of a huge chimney that these brothers stated was what was l eft of John Miller’s home. At this point it became important to establish, by documentation, John Miller ’s presence in Dunkard’s Bottom around 1750. The Dunkers, or Dunkards, were German Seventh Day Baptists from the Ephrata Society of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Society had been formed in Germany. They suffered religious persecution, fled to Holland, and then immigrated to America where Peter Becker organized a congregation. Conrad Beissel was a member of this congregation but had strong religious beliefs that differed from the main faction. He established

21