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Note: The following was extracted from the " North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Fall l975 vol. 7 No. l" FREDERICK MILLER, THE FIRST WHITE MAN BURIED IN CLAIBORNE PARISH, AND HIS DESCENDANTS By John Ardis Cawthon
Twelve miles northeast of Minden, Louisiana, near the Claiborne-Webster Parish line is the old Murrell settlement, location of the grave of the first white man buried in the old Claiborne Parish, (1) Frederick Miller. In l820, the more prosperous colonizers of this settlement took into their homes a group of impoverished German immigrants--Miller, his son Frederick, Jr., and his daughter, Maria, among them.(2) Miller, whose benefactor was John Murrell, died in l822, and was buried at Murrell's graveyard. D. S. Harris and B. M. Hulse, whose history of Claiborne Parish is a compilation of information reported to them by old men and women of the parish in l886, have this to say about the Germany settlers: In l820 news came that some German emigrants had been left near Loggy Bayou in a destitute and helpless condition. Mr. A. J. Alden, Thomas Gray and John Murrell went to see if they could be any assistance to them. Finding them in a truly bad conditiion, each contracted with a family to live with him two years in consideration of a support and being taught the use of our implements in making a living in the new country. Mr Alden brought home with him, Jacob, a peddlar; Mr. Gray (brought) Adam Miller, (father of Jake and Cody) and Murrell (brought) Frederick Miller and his father (father and grandfather of Long John Miller). The old man Miller died the second year after he was brought among us, and for his body was dug the first grave in Murrell's graveyard and we believe he was the first man to die in Claiborne Parish. That grave used to look lonely out there in the woods, but it is a little city of the dead now--shaded by cedar and forest growth. These people worked out their contracts, then settled near by on homes of their own and raised large and respectable families. (3) The fact that the older Miller was named Frederick has been fairly well established. Members of the family have been told that his name was Frederick, or Fred, or "Fed".(4) Harris and Hulse, as noted above, call the younger man Frederick, but refer to the father as "the old man Miller." There are two references to the older Miller's death in "Biographical and Historical Memiors of Northwest Louisiana". First, in the section devoted to Claiborne Parish, the editors report that "Murrell's Cemetery was established in 1822 by the burial of one of the poor Dutch immigrants.(5) In tracing the history of Webster Parish, which, until February 27, l87l was a part of Claiborne Parish, the same editors report: "In the fall of l8l8 John Murrell buried one of his boys near his home while in l822 one Fred Villiar (sic) Sr., was buried at the old Murrell plantation.(6) Obviously, the word Villire is a mistake. G. W. Dance, son-in-law of Maria Miller Kilgore, refers to the older Miller as "the first white man buried in the Murrell graveyard (which, is the oldest burying ground in the district--old Claiborne Parish.) (7) John Frederick Miller's birthplace and birthdate are unknown. There is no marker at his grave. That he was a widower when he arrived in Claiborne Parish is a fact which has been accepted by members of his family throughout the years. His wife's name, birthplace, and burial place were never recorded in any of her descendants' family Bible. The European point from which the Millers debarked for America has not been ascertained. Frederick Miller's granddaughter, Annis Kilgore Dance, believed that her family came from Holland, and referred to their nationality as Dutch. It is likely that Mrs. Dance reached this conclusion from hearing the word "Deutsch", or "German". Both Harris and Hulse and a later writer, Luther Longion, refer to these immigrants as Germans.(9) Whether Miller had completed the terms of his two-year contract with Murrell at the time of his death is not known. Longine reports: "They (the Germans) lived with their benefactors for two years, and finally made settlements of their own in that community."(10) Even if Miller did become free for a short time, there was not enough time between the end of his contract with Murrell and his death for him to settle a home of his own, since both events occurred in the year 1822. Many people, including Miss Ruby Krouse, Germantown community news reporter, (who is quoted frequently in stories about the German colony in North Louisiana established by the Countess Leon and his followers,) believe that the only graveyard of the Murrells is in Minden, out in the new addition called "West Acres," near the Minden Community House.(11) The first white child born in North Louisiana, Isaac Murrell, son of John Murrell, is buried there with his family. The place was marked by the Louisiana Historical Society in l95l. But Issaac Murrell was not buried beside his parents, not in the same cemetery with John Frederick Miller. Near the old John Murrell place, but nearer the Will Murrell place, in western Claiborne Parish, is another Murrell graveyard.(12) Surrounded by the graves of Negroes are three Murrell tombstones, now crumbling. Legible is the inscription of John Murrell, which reads: "John Murrell, Sr., died January 25, 1847, aged 63 years and five days." Beside him is his wife, "B. S. Murrell." Her dates are not decipherable. At the foot of the graves of the parents is a grave marked "Lee Murrell, died March 25, l847, aged 25 years, 9 months." There are no markers to indicate the graves of the boy whom "John Murrell buried near his home in l8l8," nor of Fred Miller, the "first white man buried in the district." The daughter who came from the old country with Frederick Miller,Sr., Maria A. Miller (Polly), married Judge Robert Lee Kilgore, who operated a store at Murrell's settlement, at John Murrell's house about l830. Judge and Mrs. Kilgore were buried at Salem Cemetary, Athens, Louisiana. Descendants of Mrs. Kilgore, through her daughters, were named Moseley, Bickley, Bickham, Bridges, and Dance. None of the Kilgore sons married. There is no record of the name of the wife of Frederick Miller, Jr., but it it known that they had at least eight children: "Long" John Miller ( b. May 3l, l822 d. August 27, l905), who married Elizabeth Gamble (b. April ll, l830, d. June 26, l92l); Fred ("Fed"), who married Betsy Ann Grounds; Margaret, who never married; Barbara, who married a McIntyre; Mary Ann, who married a Gamble; Sarah, who married a Nugent; Rosa, who married a Botzong; and Elizabeth ( b. July 6, l838, d. December 8, l9l9), who married Jacob Gruner ( b. May l3, 1834, d. September l0, l909). Frederick Miller, Jr., and his wife were buried near their home in the Bethlehem neighborhood, in the western part of Claiborne Parish, on land now belonging to a great-grandson, Roy Miller, who indicated that the graves are beneath a clump of cedar trees in the pasture abour 500 yards from his house. The graves are not marked (13) "Long" John and Elizabeth Gamble Miller are buried in a family cemetary, in the orchard of his old home in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. (l4) Fred ("Fed") and his wife, Betsy Ann Grounds Miller, are buried in a family cemetery, near the home of Mrs. Lelia Gruner Harris, in the western part of Claiborne Parish.(15) Jacob and Elizabeth Miller Gruner are buried at Mt. Zion Cemetery near the intersection of the Athens highway with the Homer-Minden highway. Longino wrote in l930: Frank, Jim and Willie Miller, Ben Langheld, of Claiborne Parish, Mrs. Maggie Greer of Minden and the Miller families living near Evergreen, and possibly others, are the direct descendants of those stranded and impoverished immigrants located on Loggy Bayou near Red River in 18l8."(16) However, not all the Millers in Webster Parish and Claiborne Parish were descendants of Fred, the first man buried in Murrell's Graveyard. His cousin, Adam, whom Thomas Gray brought up from Loggy Bayou, became the head of a large family;(17) and another John Miller (b. April l4, l800, d. April 2l, l858), native of Pickens District, South Carolina, and his wife, Sarah Wilson ( b. October 22, l807, d. December 28, l88l)--who settled on the old Minden-Homer road just before the Civil War, but who were not at all related to the German settlers--also left descendants.(18) As late as the middle of the twentieth century, several fourth- generation descendants of Frederick Miller were still living within a twenty-five mile radius of the old Murrell settlement sites, some in Claiborne,(19) some in Webster Parish.(20) Hundreds of fifth and sixth generation descendants reside in various sections of the nation.
NOTES
l. Old Claiborne Parish was carved out of Natchitoches Parish in l828 (Louisiana Acts #42, March l3, l828), and was comprised of territory not included in the parishes of Bossier, Webster, Claiborne and Bienville, as well as a small segment of the northern borders of Jackson and Lincoln Parish and the northern part of Red River Parish. The present boundaries of Claiborne Parish were formed in l874.
2. Recollections of Annis Kilgore Dance, daughter of Maria Miller Kilgore, who died in l9l8, aged 82, and who has passed the information on to the write. Hereinafter cited as Annis Kilgore Dance.
3. D. S. Harris and B. M. Hulsa, Comp., "History of Claiborne Parish" (New Orleans, l886), 48; hereinafter cited as Harris and Hulse.
4. Recollections of Maggie Dance Cawthorn, August 3l, l9l5.
5. "Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana"
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