Nicholas   A.  Miller
          Prominent among the enterprising agriculturists of Van Buren township and enjoying influential prestige as a citizen in Nicholas A. MILLER, a life-long resident of Shelby county and an active participant in all that makes for the material progress and moral advancement of the community in which he lives.  His father, Jacob K. MILLER, was a son of  Jacob and Elizabeth (KERN) MILLER, and his mother before her marriage was Elizabeth BOSS, whose parents were among the well known and respected people of Shelby county.   Mr. MILLER was born December 8, 1859, in the township of Van Buren, and, like the majority of country lads, spent his early life on a farm, and while still young became familiar with the methods required to cultivate the soil and gather the crops.  During the winter months he attended the district school known as Fairview, and such was his progress that at the age of eighteen he was sufficiently advanced to obtain a license and become a teacher.  After teaching two terms and realizing the necessity of still greater efficiency ere he could advance in the profession, he entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he took the teacher’s course and from which he was graduated in 1883.
          Leaving the above institution well qualified for the work he had in view, Mr. MILLER soon attained more than local prominence as an educator, and during the sixteen years in which he devoted his attention to teaching, his services were in great demand in various parts of his own and other counties.
          At the expiration of the period indicated he withdrew from the profession to give his entire attention to the more agreeable and more remunerative vacation of agriculture, which he has since pursued with encouraging financial results. Mr. MILLER owns one hundred and sixty acres of fine land in the township of Van Buren which, under his efficient labor, has been brought to a high state of cultivation and otherwise well improved, and at this time his farm is one of the most productive in the locality, to say nothing of its beauty and attractiveness as a desirable place of residence. He is familiar with modern agricultural implements and skilled in all kinds of machinery used on the farm; he keeps in excellent repair everything on his place, and for a number of years he has operated a threshing machine, in which kind of work he leads all competition in his part of the country and every year does a large and lucrative business.
          Eunice C. LEONARD, who became the wife of  Mr. MILLER on the 28th day of October, 1885, was born in Hancock county, Indiana, December 7, 1867, the daughter of  Rufus B. LEONARD, whose father, John LEONARD, a native of North Carolina, came to Indiana in an early day and was a pioneer of that part of the state.  Mr. and Mrs. MILLER have four children, namely:  Edgar, born July 26, 1886, graduated from the common schools and married Nellie MEANS, being at this time a rising young farmer of  Van Buren township; Harry A., born January 18, 1889, completed the common school course and later was graduated from the Shelbyville high school and is an intelligent young gentleman of progressive ideas and his father’s assistant on the farm.  Hattie B., also a common school graduate and a young lady of intelligence, was born in August, 1891;  Connie M., whose birth occurred in the month of August, 1893, is well educated, a graduate of the common school course.
          Mr. MILLER and family are highly esteemed in their community and take a lively interest in everything calculated to arouse and keep alive an interest in the intellectual and moral advancement of their neighbors and friends.  Both husband and wife are members of the Court of Honor at Fountaintown, and in matters political he gives his support to the Republican party.
Chadwick's History of Shelby County, Indiana, by Edward H. Chadwick, B.A., assisted by well known local talent, B.F. Bowen & Co, Publishers: Indianapolis, IN, 1909.
Copied by:  Cindy Jones

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