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SIGNAL -
EAR 50
THURSDAY, DECEMBER'15, 1977
SECOND SECTION
nkeeper, builder, land buyer
en Miller lived here
W.E. ELLIOTT
incent Gildemeester
on van Serooskerken
d many choice lots in
era, Colborne Township
Bayfield in the 1830s and
s, He mortgaged or
miso borrowed on much
s real estate, reportedly
the brothers came to Huron
soon after Michael Fisher,
but no evidence has been
Tound to show that they were
in Colborne until much later.
History has failed to
preserve for us the life story
of th'e brothers. There are no
known descendants of Ben-
jamin, hereabouts, though he
ding much time in New kt had two sons, Archibald
society. and inevitably Benjamin and Daniel
ulted on Some property.
such case, the sheriff of
on DistriCt, Henry
dinan, came along with a
, and the investor who
med the debt and
ired title was apt to be
ibald Benjamin Miller,
oderich.
e barim hega n with 2,050
5, granted hy the Canada
pany to his father, Carel
ewijk Baron van Tuyll.
salvaging \ an Tuyll lots
by other shrewd wir-
es, Miller's holdings
eventually have rivalled
of the Hollander, but
eis no invebtory attached
is will. drawn at Ben-
er February • 11. 1858,
ein. he modestly cites
‘vorldly estate as it
pleased God to entrust
hibald Benjamin and
brothers. Daniel and
were of English
but they were horn in
r
Canada in 1801, 1802
1112, respectively, and
must have been in some
settled in Ile h earlier
the Huron Tract. In the
en Atlas it i stated that
Stewart, to whom he
bequeathed his real estate,
effective when Daniel
became of age., •
Two years after the father
died, Archibald Benjamin
and wife Emmeline mor-
tgaged thjir share to Thomas
Gledhill for $400 at 121/2
percent, and in 1864 Dan
mortgaged his to William
Young.
GAVE CHURCH
SITE
It was Archibald Miller the
younger who on February 2,
1864,,.sold "two roods" of Lot
I, Con II, to the Methodist
Episcopal Church,
represented by William
Bisset, Samuel. Fisher and
David Fisher. The con-
sideration was five shillings.
Ben didn't
name Benmiller
Archibald Benjamin Miller purchased Lot 1, Con-
cession), Colborne east division, in 1848, but in the deed
there is mention of "Colborne..Mihl Village," so 'Miller
may have been established there earlier -- it took some
time to get documents from Canada Company
headquarters in Toronto.
When he made his will in 1858, the term was “Colborne
Mills." As late as 1866, a Joseph Miller deed cited
"Colborne Mills," though his farm was -on the hill, in
Falls Reserve, ahd not in "The Hollow," as the village
site was commonly called,
In February, 1876, eighteen years after Ben Miller's
death, Colborne council let by auction the contract for
"rebuilding Ben Miller's bridge.- It is easy to see how
the transition to Ben Miller village would come about.
Lewis John Brace of Wingham got that bridge con-
tract, at $3019, but evidehtly not in time. On March 1 of
tho same year, the Huron Signal reported, -The first pier
of Ben Miller's bridge was 'swept aWay by a freshet. A
COW on it at the time managed to scramble up the bank,"
•
Benmiller United Church is
on that site today.
Daniel's son, Jonathan,
who kept hotel at Benmiller,
Goderich, Seaforth and
Carlow, achieved fame by
reason of his weight. His
published obituary, in 1910,
dealt at length •with that
feature, ignoring the family
history which now is so dif-
ficult to come by.
An example of newspaper
inertia in the 189Cis is the
following two-line notice in
the Signal of December 13:
"The mother of Jonathan
Miller, one of the oldest
residents of this county, died
at the residence of her -son,
Huron road, Goderich
township, Nov. 6."
That was Mary Hamblin
Miller, married to Daniel at
St. George's on July 7th, 1839,.
and for years his partner in
operation of Benmiller Hotel.
No proper obituary, and the
two-line mention a month
late!
Indeed, newspaper files
afford,. no help in an attempt
to trace the history of the
Miller brothers. Benjamin
died in 1858, for which year no
newspapers survive. .As
directed in his will, he was
buried in "the free cemetery
at Goderich." •
'Joseph died April 24, 1882,
but the Huron Signal
recorded only that he died at
Benmiller and was 75 years of
age -- which was inaccurate.
The newspaper's Benmiller
correspondent reported that
the funeral service for Mr.
Miller was to be preached on
Sunday, May 1, by Rev, W.N.
Volling. Something of the
family history may then have
been related, but posterity is
not privy to the minister's
discourse.
The date of Daniel's death
has .not been determined. He
was buried in the old
Goderich cemetery, and it is
known that his remains were
later removed to the
Maitland, but there is no
record as regards Ben.
Under the head of
miscellany: Joseph 'Miller
voted for Thomas Mercer
Jones, Tory, in the election of
1857.
LENT ON CORNER
LOT
Archibald Benjamin Miller
is first documented in
Goderich as a lender- on
mortgage. John McKay
mortgaged Lot 20, at the
southwest'corner of West and
Waterloo streets, on June 12,
1835, for 70 pounds, to be
repaid "with lawful interest!'
Lot 20, as then numbered,
was the site in recent years of
the BP gasoline station, The
mortgage covered "house
and premises thereon."
In this document, Miller is
described as a builder.
Another, in 1841, called him a
carpenter. In 1844 he is an
innkeeper. In Colborne Mill
Village he described •himOef
Turn to page OA •
Jonathan Miller (1848-1910), a native of Colborne township, conducted hotels at Benmiller,
Goderich (the Bedford), Seafoith and Carlow. For a time he ran a livery stable on East
street. In the corner of this picture is part of Carlow Masonic lodge's announcement of
Miller's funeral. He was noted for his great weight --"latterly about 486 Pounds" the
Signal stated at the time of his death.
Archibald and Jonathon
pioneers in Middlesex
Early assessment rolls of Ekfrid
township, Middlesex,- came into
sion reCently of Western
University library, and Bronson,
who writes Looking Over Western
Ontario for London Free Press, found
some interesting material therein.
He noted haw much land the settler
had cleared, 1829 to 1832. Jonathan
Miller had cleared 25 acres, There Was
also an Archibald Miller, and , the
similarity of these given names to those
in Colborne was too much of a coin-
cidence to pass by,
Mr. Bronson made a copy of the Ekfrid
history in the,MiddleseX history .volume
of 1890. It dislcosed that Archibald Miller
\Nati tax collector in 1833, township
councillor in 1846 and treasurer from
1850 to 1858. A meeting to give out road
jobs was held -at the house of Jonathan
Miller." Among the members of the
church as Appin in 1884 was Mary
Miller.
The assessment rolls showed that
Jonathan Miller occupied the north half
of Lot 1 in the first concession south of
,the LongWoodSroad. He lived in a frame
house and at one time was assessed for
two extra fireplaces. Archibald Miller
was on the north half of Lot 1), Con. 1. In
population returns., his household in-
cluded two males over 16, one under 16.
Turn to page 10A •
89
ug Harbor was not so snug this week
• oderich's picture postcard was shrouded with snow
The town's tree -lined streets were empty of traffic