William L. Miller
William L. Miller was born January 19, 1857, at North Liberty, son of John W. and Mary (Foster) Miller. John Miller, his grandfather, was a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and emigrated to this county in 1846, and settled near West Union. He married Mary Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, of Scotch descent, a sister of the Rev. James Hamilton, a noted Presbyterian minister. John W. Miller, the father of our subject, was the second son. He was born April 23, 1829, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he was a playmate of the Hon. James G. Blaine, in his boyhood. He married Mary A. Foster, daughter of Col. Samuel Foster. Col. Foster's wife was Elizabeth McNeill, born July, 1829. He was Colonel of the Militia and Sheriff of Adams County from 1837 to 1841.
Our subject spent his boyhood on the farm, received a common school education, and pursued his studies further at the Normal school at West Union. He engaged in teaching for several years, and for four years he traveled as an agent for a publishing house in Cincinnati. He was appointed School Examiner of Adams County in September, 1895, and served three years during the same period ho was a teacher.
In 1898, he removed to a farm in Wayne Township, and now gives his entire attention to the same, being the Gen. William McIntire farm, a noted "Station" in the days of the Underground Railroad.
He was married on September 19, 1887, to Kate R. Ellis, daughter of Hon. Jesse Ellis, of Aberdeen. Ohio. They have two children, Ulric Allen, aged eight, bright beyond his years. He could read the news papers and write legibly at the age of four years, and is at present foremost in his classes in the first year of the High school. Their second child, Jesse Loretus, is aged four years.
Mr. Miller's public career has been along lines perfectly satisfactory to his many friends throughout the county, although political demagogues tried without avail for a time to rob him of well-earned honors. He is one of the progressive men of the community in which he resides.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900