This genial and affable gentleman, who with his faithful and pleasant wife have traveled on the journey of life for many years, and now as the golden years of their days are beginning to run apace, they have made themselves a home in the reservation country, which for natural advantages is equal to any which has been developed and improved in a becoming manner.
Alfred E. Miller was born in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, on June 13, 1833, being the son of Jonas and Lydia (Ettinger) Miller, natives of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and born in 1801 and 1799 and died in 1876 and 1874, respectively. The father was a tailor but farmed some the latter part of his life. Alfred was educated and raised in his native place and when seventeen started for himself. He worked on the farm and one year later took up blacksmithing, which he followed for three years. Subsequent to that, we find him for eight years in a dry goods store and then he went to Colorado and mined three years.
His next move was to Baker City, Oregon, and there he freighted and mined for fifteen years and came thence in 1877 to Dayton, Washington. That was the place of his toils on the farm until 1891, when he came to Genesee and bought land. Like the majority of the farmers in the gloomy year of 1893, he went to the wall financially and when the reservation opened he came hither and selected his place, three miles west from Gifford. He had but a few cents in cash, and the opening of a new place was very slow, but he has labored on and now has a good home, plenty of stock, does a general farming business and is prospering. Mr. Miller has one brother, Charles, a tailor in Pennsylvania, and four sisters, Catharine, deceased wife of Michael Keys: Aim, widow of Evan Evens, in Pennsylvania: Polly, widow of Lyons M. Hanna; Margaret, single, living in Pennsylvania. Mr. Miller is a member of the Lutheran Church and his wife of the Baptist. He is a Republican and is active in the improvement of the country and the development of its resources.
On April 19, 1867, at La Grande, Oregon, Mr. Miller married Julia Holbfield widow of David Holbfield, and daughter of Theopholus and Elizabeth H. (Lechman) Shaw, natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Miller was born in Putnam County. Missouri, on June 26, 1838, and came to Oregon with her parents in 1865. She had nine brothers and sisters and all are dead but two, Sampson, in Okanogan County, Washington; Daniel, in Baker City, Oregon. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller: Charles, at home; Annie, wife of George M. White, near Culdesac; Jane, wife of Charles Bateman, on the reservation; Mary, wife of F. A. Schreffler, a farmer near Girford. Mrs. Miller had one son by her former marriage, David, living near Clarkston, Washington.
Mr. and Mrs. Miller are well respected people and are worthy of the esteem in which they are held. They have labored well to develop the western country and are deserving of the portion they have wrought out by their toils.
Source: An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho; Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903