Peters Genealogy

Benedict Miller Biography

This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an Illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 443-444

BENEDICT MILLER, of Grovena township, is one of the well-known and successful farmers of Moody county. He is a native of Switzerland, born October 21, 1842, a son of Benedict and Magdalena (Schenk) Miller.
Benedict Miller, Sr., came to America in 1856, and located in Fayette county, Iowa, on a farm. In Switzerland he was a contractor and builder by occupation, and was also an officer in the Swiss army and participated in the war of 1847. He died in Moody county, South Dakota, in 1894, at the age of eighty-one years, nine months. His faithful wife died in 1880 at the age of sixty-six years. They were the parents of six children, five of whom are now living, viz.: John F., Clermont, Iowa; Benedict; Christian, Clermont, Iowa; Magdalena Frautschy, Elgin, Iowa; and Esther Callender, Clarion, Iowa.

Our subject was educated and grew to thirteen years of age in Switzerland. He then moved to America with his parents and aided his father in clearing and subduing a timber farm in Iowa, and worked at hauling wood in winter, and at the age of twenty-one began life for himself. During the Civil war he followed the army for a time, but not as a soldier, and subsequently worked on a steamboat on the Mississippi river.

In 1863 Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Isely, a native of Switzerland, and daughter of Jacob and Ann (Marty) Isely, who came to America in 1846 and located in New Philadelphia, Ohio, where they lived seven years. The mother died in 1852, and the family then moved to Fayette county, Iowa, where the father died in 1885. Mrs. Miller was born March 30, 1845.

From Iowa, Mr. and Mrs. Miller moved in January, 1867, to Green county, Wisconsin, where he followed farming and cheese-making until the spring of 1882, when he came to Dakota and settled on the farm on which he still resides. A small house had been erected on the farm he bought and sixty acres had been broken, and Mr. Miller at once began farming, at which he has since been very successful. At one time he owned one thousand six hundred acres of farm land which he has apportioned among his children. In addition to farming Mr. Miller has given special attention to stock raising, and has a fine line of high grade stock.
His farm is well-improved, furnished with a comfortable and commodious residence and fine barn and outbuildings, and ranks among the best grain and stock farms in Grovena township. Politically Mr. Miller is a reformer, and has always taken a leading part in all matters that in his judgment were for the good of the public and his adopted country.
He has been an officer in the school district ever since coming to the state until last fall, when his son, C. B., took his place. His children are all well educated, some of them graduates from the commercial college at LeMars, Iowa. While in Wisconsin he was a leader in the Grange movement, and also in the movement of the Reform party in that state against railroad domination. He also took a leading part in the organization of the American or Greenback party, and was also one of the organizers of the Independent party in South Dakota and later the Populist party. He has invariably been a delegate to the county conventions and has held many of the township offices, was one of its organizers and helped to name it. He is a member of the judicial committee and has been manager of the Farmers' Elevator Company, of Egan, South Dakota. He is vice-president of the Moody County Bank at Flandreau, treasurer of the Moody County Pioneer Society and treasurer of the Farmers' Insurance Company, of Moody county. He is a gentleman of the highest character, possessed of an excellent education and a wide knowledge of men and the world. No man in the county has taken a more prominent place in general matters than has the subject of this sketch.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the happy parents of a bright and interesting family of eight children, as follows: Rosina E. Waxdahl, Matilda Kohler, Christian B., John W., Charles F., Edmond J., Emma M. and Otto P. The parents are members of the German Reformed church, but attend the Methodist church.