By Diana Rahe Taylor

The year is 1859. The place, Peoria County, Illinois. The family – the Millers – John Jacob, Celia ‘Docia’ and their children. They made their home on a farm near Princeville, Illinois – that is, ‘Docia’ made her home in Princeville. John Jacob, a frontiersman at heart, suffered from wanderlust and traveled throughout the West, being away from home years at a time. In spite of that, they managed to raise a large family. Two of the boys, Jacob and Samuel, are the subjects of this article.

Like his father, Sam yearned for adventure. The West beckoned. His mother considered nineteen-year-old Sam too young to go off alone, so together they coerced Jacob (Jake) into going with his brother. Jake, at age 29, had no desire to wander. He had a wife, three children and a farm. Traipsing around the uncivilized west wasn’t in his best interest, but his mother and brother persisted and he finally agreed to go. Having paid his brother-in-law two years’ wages to work the farm for him and deeding 100 acres to his son, Leroy Daniel ‘Roll’ and 80 acres to each of his two daughters, Serilda Alsilda and Cynthia Maria, Jake and Sam hit the road. They packed two years worth of groceries and headed for Pike’s Peak in Colorado.

After passing a number of wagons heading east to wherever ‘back home’ might be, the Miller boys changed their destination. Those wagons once read, "Pikes Peak or Bust" and now read "Busted." Green pastures no longer beckoned, but gold did, so Sam and Jake pressed on to California.

After an extensive search in California for their father, the three of them joined the Walker Party prospectors and headed for New Mexico Territory in 1861, and two years later to Arizona Territory, ending up in the vicinity where Prescott would soon be located. Any thoughts Jacob might have had about returning in two years to his family in Illinois had come and gone. By then, four years had passed.

Two years’ worth of groceries had long since disappeared and water and meat were always in demand in the newly discovered gold region. On one hunting trip, near a creek, Sam spotted a doe with her fawn followed closely by a lynx. He chose to shoot the lynx, letting the deer get away. Sam, assuming that the lynx was dead, stooped to turn him over and the lynx caught him by the wrist. Sam shot the lynx three times in the head before the critter loosened his grip. Sam returned to camp with a mangled arm, no venison, and one very dead dreadful cat.

While Jake took his turn at hunting, Sam panned for gold. By the time Jake returned, Sam had taken out $17 worth of nuggets. They staked their claim and named the place Lynx Creek commemorating the occasion. They went on to take out $6000 over their yearly expenses.

That same year, 1863, Jake and Sam established their ranch by squatter’s rights in a place called Spring Valley, later to be known as Miller Valley, one mile northwest from current downtown Prescott. With the exception of the Walker party, no other white men had ventured into the area. By 1864, Prescott was the Arizona Territorial Capital and the town was growing rapidly. The Miller house was built in the late 1860s and was a local landmark for many years. It was located just southwest of where the intersection of Miller Valley Road and Fair Street is today (about a block from Fry’s grocery). The two-storied, fourteen-room log house, painted white and trimmed in green, was clearly the largest house in the vicinity. Sam owned the land on the west side of the road and Jake owned the land on the east side.

The Miller brothers never quite lost their wanderlust, but they channeled it into more lucrative endeavors. Even though they farmed the valley, they ran freight teams from Los Angeles to Wickenburg and Prescott. At one time they had twenty-two teams with twelve mules and two wagons to each team. They collected anywhere from 15 to 25 cents per pound for a distance of 640 miles. Later, they also ran a freight line to bring supplies from Ehrenberg on the Colorado River to Prescott on the Hardyville Road. Their businesses turned a tidy profit. Besides freighting, they owned and operated Iron Springs Road as a toll road until it became the property of Yavapai County in 1877. The brothers were doing well.

Next week, in Part 2, Jake makes a visit back to Illinois and things change. Jake and Sam leave their mark in Miller Valley and Prescott.

This and other Days Past articles are available on sharlothallmuseum.org and via RSS e-mail subscription. The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact Scott Anderson at Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives at 445-3122 for information.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(citn211pa) Reuse only by permission.
Miller Valley, 1884, looking toward the little village of Prescott.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb036a1p35) Reuse only by permission.
One of the Miller brothers’ freight wagons in Prescott, c1880s.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bure4110pb) Reuse only by permission.
The Sam Miller residence was built in the late 1860s and is shown here in the 1890s. It was located just to the southwest of the current intersection of Fair Street and Miller Valley Road. The large house, now gone, was a landmark for many years and served as home to a large extended family.