Return to the Land

Sarah Anne Miller, the second child of Lorenzo John and Martha Lois, was born about 1855. She married Lorenzo Dow Helvey of Kimberling on February 12, 1874. They had five children: Watson, Dora Belle, Lorenzo Lafayette, Bessie, and Rosie Delilah. William Rice Miller, the third child of Lorenzo John and Martha Lois, was born on April 15, 1857 and died on August 31, 1926. He married Emily J. Morehead on February 22, 1877. They had two children (names unknown). The fourth child, Mary Isobel Miller, was born around 1857. She married Gordon B. Morehead (last named spelled “Muirhead” on marriage license) on November 6, 1879. They had a daughter Woodie Belle Morehead . Legend has it that Mary’s husband, ”Gordy”, was not the most attentive and caring person. Mary Isobel and Gordy were crossing a stream with wagon and horses when the wagon became stuck. In the dead of winter he ordered her to get into the water and help push the wagon. Shortly thereafter she contracted pneumonia and died. She was buried next to her father Lorenzo John Miller on the hill above the Miller home on Kimberling Martha Josephine Miller was the fifth child of Lorenzo John and Martha Lois. She was born on September 5, 1858 and died on October 31, 1933. This daughter married Dr. Jacob Adam Wagner who was Abraham Woodson Miller’s stepson. Therefore, Martha Josephine married her first cousin (by marriage but not by direct blood line). Jacob Adam and Martha Josephine Wagner had two daughters: Naomi and Effie. Victoria D. Miller, the sixth child, was born about 1861. This year marked the beginning of the Civil War and the year Bland County was founded from parts of Giles, Wythe, and Tazewell Counties. She married Jefferson Davis Wilson of Pulaski County, Virginia on November 5, 1894. They had three sons: Jason, Danny, and Drayton. Nichatie Kinser Miller was the eighth child of Lorenzo and Martha. She was born on June 6, 1864. Nichatie married Samuel Houston Helvey also of Kimberling. We knew her as Aunt Nic. She and her husband owned a large farm in the northern part of Kimberling Valley. They lived in a beautiful white frame house. Their farm had come into the Helvey family by way of the original land grants. As a youngster I remember going to see Aunt Nic on Sunday afternoons with my parents. She was a jovial and interesting elderly lady. Nichatie and Samuel Houston Helvey had three children: Archie, Minnie Sue, and James. Archie and James farmed together and both were close to my parents. They were my father’s first cousins. James prided himself in being the lead singer in the church choir. Archie was reserved and complacent. In the 1940’s, during World War I I, he would drive an old model coupe from his home near my grandfather ’s farm, to help his brother James farm. Those were difficult times to get parts and supplies for cars and machinery. Archie’s tires bec ame so worn that when holes would appear he would patch them with leather and string. John C. Miller, the seventh child, was born in October of 1862. This infant son died one month later on November 20, 1862. The reason for his early death is unknown.

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