By Carol Powell
Nearly nine years ago, Dec. 14, 2003, my first entry in Sharlot Hall Museum's Days Past was published. I had posted information on the Internet seeking help with my husband's genealogy and, to my surprise, I had two replies. Both thought my husband's ancestors were interesting enough to publish stories about them. One was the Genealogical Society's Copper State Journal. In its July 2003 issue, they ran my article, "Just a Railroadin' Family."
The other person to contact me was a Prescott-based historian named Parker Anderson. He was not interested in William S. Miller, my husband's grandfather, but in William's brother, Louis Clair Miller.
In the ensuing years, Anderson and I worked together to uncover a truly fascinating story. I travel all over the United States with my husband because of his work, while Parker Anderson has spent most of his life in Prescott. In 2003, I was in Arizona because my husband was doing a construction project in Phoenix. We took a day trip to Prescott and spent the day with historian Anderson. We met at the gazebo at the courthouse plaza and visited the gravesite of outlaw Fleming Parker in Citizen's Cemetery.
After that, Anderson and I exchanged information on the Millers through email and snail mail. The information I had on Louis included the date and place of his birth and death and the story of his being involved in a mine explosion in Park City, Utah, in November of 1913. He wasn't expected to live and he was left blind and had lost his right hand. His nurse fell in love with him in the hospital and they were married after his release.
On the other hand, Parker Anderson had been doing some in-depth research on a famous 1897 jailbreak in Prescott in which outlaw Fleming Parker and two other men, including a Louis C. Miller, escaped from jail. During the escape, Fleming Parker gunned down the deputy district attorney for Yavapai County.
Upon comparing notes in depth, Parker Anderson and I established, without a doubt, that Louis C. Miller the outlaw and Louis C. Miller the blind miner was the same person. He had received a life sentence in the Territorial Jail at Yuma for being an accessory to the murder committed by Fleming Parker during their jail break, but was paroled a number of years later (Fleming Parker was hanged for the crime). Upon his parole, Louis left Arizona to work in the Utah mines, where the explosion accident happened.
After I left Arizona and returned to my home state of Utah, historian Anderson asked me to try and locate court documents in Coleville, Utah, to see if Miller received any money from a lawsuit he had filed against the mine. A family reunion took me to Coleville and I found the case file in the basement of the courthouse there and, yes, he did receive a settlement. Louis' brothers were train engineers and two of them lived and worked in the Washington-Oregon area. Louis and his wife moved there also and had a son named Granite. At that point, Anderson and I gave up hope of learning more, but we wondered about the final years of Louis C. Miller. Then, in 2009, a great-granddaughter of his, Dora Silberman, contacted me after finding one of my Days Past articles online.
The brushes with death were many in the life of Louis C. Miller. After the jailbreak and with a posse on his trail, his sister and brother-in-law (a deputy) saved him by first hiding him and then taking him to a different county jail for safety. Then later, his survival of the mine accident was a miracle, leading him to meet his wife.
I continued to travel with my husband, giving me time to research and write more articles for Days Past, always assuming that Louis C. Miller spent his last days as an invalid in the care of his wife, Emma, living off his settlement.
Just as historian Parker Anderson was persistent that I go to the Coleville Courthouse, he also didn't give up trying to find the end of Louis' story after I told him a descendant had contacted me. Last year, Anderson traveled to Portland, Ore., and met with the family and learned the rest of the story.
Next week we'll learn how Louis C. Miller spent his final years.
See sharlothallmuseum.org/archives/history/dayspast for detailed accounts of the stories referenced above. Type Louis C. Miller in the search box for the complete list of Days Past articles about him.
Yuma Territorial Prison State Park/Courtesy photo
Louis C. Miller, Yuma Territorial Prison Inmate #3020, 1909.