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William Miller

Born: 1/15/1757, Cecil Co, Maryland

 

Parents: Oliver Miller (1720-1782) and Mary Tidball (1723-1818)

 

Siblings: Sarah (1745),  Alexander (1747),  Thomas (1749),  John (1752), Elizabeth (1755),  Jane (1759),  Oliver (1761),  James (1763),  Mary (1764)

 

Marriage: Rachael Sweet, date unknown

 

Children: unknown male (1781),  Sarah (1782),  Alexander (1783),   Elizabeth (1789),  William (1791),  Thomas (1793),  Joseph (1794),  Mary (1798),  John (1801),  twins Clark and Campbell (1803) another female, name unknown, circa 1806-1810

 

Death: 11/8/1840, Pike township, Marion Co.  Indianna. Tombstone: Miller, William, b. 01 Mar 1757, d. 08 Nov 1840, PVT 8 REGT PA & VA LINES Revolutionary War. Buried near sons John, James and Alexander. 

 

William Miller and The Whiskey Rebellion 

In 1790, the new national government of the United States was attempting to establish itself. Because the government had assumed the debts incurred by the colonies during the Revolution the government was deep in debt. During the 1791 winter session of Congress both houses approved a bill that put an excise tax on all distilled spirits. United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, proposed the bill to help prevent the national debt from growing. Loud protests from all districts of the new nation soon followed. These protests were loudest in the western counties of Pennsylvania.

Excerpt from ‘The Valley Independent (Monessen, Pennsylvania), April 1, 1993

The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was an organized rebellion among the farmers that broke out over the hated tax on whiskey. Federal laws required that all stills be registered and that seven cents tax per gallon of whiskey be pain on the still.

Whiskey was a main money crop of the frontier farmer and one out of every six operated a still. Whiskey was widely used for medicinal purposes, as a beverage, and a medium of exchange. Monongahela rye whiskey was carried in eight gallon kegs by pack horses across the mountains to the east to be sold for a dollar a gallon. Vital items such as salt, lead, iron and gun powder were then purchased and brought west.

A fierce spirit of independence and instinctive hatred for the excise taxes caused many farmers to refuse to register their stills or pay taxes.

Sons of Oliver Miller- William, John and James became directly involved July 15, 1794 when Gen. John Neville (under orders of George Washington) guided US Marshall David Lenox to the home of William near the homestead. The officers attempted to serve a writ which imposed a fine of $250 for failure to register his still, and required his appearance at Federal Court in Philadelphia.

Since William had already made plans to sell his farm and move to Kentucky, he angrily refused to accept the writ and ordered the men off his property.  Farmers harvesting in fields nearby heard the argument and fired several shots at the departing officers. These were the first shots fired at the Whiskey Rebellion.  It is said that no one was shot at directly, but into the air, and no one was injured. “I felt my blood boil, at seeing General Neville along, to pilot the sheriff to my very door,” Miller said afterward. “I felt myself mad with passion.”

Irate farmers, led by William Miller and John Holcroft, marched to the home of Gen. Neville and demanded he surrender his commission.  A bloody fight ensued and several farmers were either wounded or killed, including an Oliver Miller who may have been a son of Alexander Miller and nephew of William Miller.

On August 7, 1794, President Washington issued a proclamation, calling out the militia and ordering the disaffected westerners to return to their homes. Washington’s order mobilized an army of approximately 13,000 — as large as the one that had defeated the British — under the command of General Harry Lee, the then-Governor of Virginia and father of Robert E. Lee. Washington himself, in a show of presidential authority, set out at the head of the troops to suppress the uprising.  It was the first test of power of the new federal government, establishing its primacy in disputes with individual states. In the end, a dozen or so men were arrested, sent to Philadelphia to trial and released after pardons by Washington.  Many, like William Miller, fled to Kentucky or other nearby states.

 

The Whiskey Rebellion took place throughout the western frontier. There was not one state south of New York whose western counties did not protest the new excise with some sort of violence. Probably the biggest concern about the excise tax was the revenues from it would support a national government the western people felt was not representing them well. Their grievances involved resolving the Indian problems and opening the Mississippi River to navigation. “They were convinced that a tax upon liquors which are the common drink of a nation operates in proportion to the number and not to the wealth of the people, and of course is unjust in itself, and oppressive upon the poor.’” Without solving these problems the national government could expect no compliance to the excise law.

With grain the most abundant commodity west of the mountains, the farmers could eat it or drink it, but they couldn’t sell it in distant markets unless it was reduced in bulk and enhanced in value. Thus a Pennsylvania farmer’s “best holt” was whiskey. A pack horse could move only four bushels of grain. But it could carry twenty-four bushels if it was condensed into two large wooden kegs of whiskey slung across its back, while the price of the goods would double when they readied the eastern markets. So whiskey became the frontier remittance lor salt, sugar, nails, bar iron, pewter plates, powder and shot. Along the western rivers, where men saw few shilling pieces, a gallon of good, sound rye whiskey was a stable measure of value.

 

 Oliver Miller  Homestead

note that the stone house was built later and occupied by his children

 

Census

1830 US Census, KY, Fleming Co
Wm. Miller: 1 male 70-80, 1 female 40-50, 1 female 60-70
(sons Joseph, Alexander, Clarke, Campbell and Thomas all live next to each other)

1820 US Census, KY, Fleming Co
Wm. Miller: 2 males 16-18 (Clarke and Campbell); 4 males 16-26, 1 male 45+; 1 female 10-16, 1 female 26-45, 1 female 45+
(William Jr and Thomas live next door)

 

1810 US Census, KY, Fleming Co, Flemingsburg
Wm. Miller: 3 males <10 (Clarke, Campbell & John), 2 males 10-15;  males 16-25 (not legible- the number appears to have been changed), 1 male 45+, 1 female <10, 1 female 10-15, 3 females 16-25, 1 female 45+

 

1800 Unable to locate; the original 1790/1800 KY census lost; a “second census” (list of tax payers) was published for 1800 and the following Millers were found in Fleming Co: Isaac, James, John, Thomas. There are 14 William Miller’s distributed in counties other than Fleming

 

1790 US Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny Co: Wm. Miller: 1 male <16, 4 males > 16,  3 females

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