Obit: Miller, John Charles (1847 - 1920)
 

Contact: Stan
Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: MILLER

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner 12 Aug 1920

OBITUARY OF JOHN CHARLES MILLER

For the perusal of his many friends, I am subjoining a brief synopsis of the life and an appreciation of the character of my Uncle John Charles Miller, who died July Twenty Seventh, 1920 at Seattle, Wash.

He was born near Renfrew, Canada, Jan. 2nd, 1847 and at the age of eighteen accompanied his parents to Balltown, Penn., where he assisted his father in logging and milling until about 1870 or 71, shortly afterward forming with his brothers, Edward and Thomas, the firm of Miller Brothers, whose reputation is yet a solid memory in the neighborhood of the old Falconer and Rynd Mills near Warren, Penn. In August, 1876, they removed to the vicinity of Greenwood, Clark County, Wis., where they engage in the lumber business until my Father's death in 1879, and for years after, when the firm was dissolved.

Uncle Charley I cannot think of him by any other name persevered in the face of exceptional difficulties, such as seemed ever the lot of the Wisconsin logger and during the next decade met with the success that ever should be the due of honest, energetic effort but possessing the timber love that is instinct in the born lumberman, he followed the receding forests to Western Washington, where, by judicious investments, he accumulated a fortune undreamed of in the strenuous Wisconsin days, this however, leaving him the same kindly, unassuming personality, untouched by the arrogance and self-sufficiency that so often obtains with possession.

He has left us for the Great Journey to the Distant Vales, where I know he waits smilingly for his old time friends whom it seemed a pleasure to recall, and for the loved ones whose happiness and prosperity were ever his chief cancer and I wish to pay this one tribute as heartfelt as it is inadequate to the Uncle who especially in the crucial years of my young manhood, was the best friend and counselor I ever possessed, other than the gentle Mother who preceded him into the Infinity where kindred souls at last find the Peace That Passeth All Understanding.

I have worked with him in the days of real labor, when accomplishment was the great desire, have cruised with him among the firs that he loved so well, and have gone fishing with him therefore have had opportunities of knowing him that few possessed, and there could not have been a truer friend, a kindlier parent, or a better citizen. This is my tribute to a Genuine Man. May the Great Beneficence give him his reward.

Sincerely yours,
H. J. Miller