My Genealogy Hound

MILLER, DANIEL F., attorney at law; was born near Cumberland, Md., Oct. 4, 1814; his parents emigrated to Wayne Co., O., when he was about 2 years old; he was sent to school from his 6th until his 12th year, then, until his 15th year, worked on a farm and in a printing office; in his 16th year he went to Pittsburgh, Penn.; there commenced the study of law, and was admitted to practice at the Pittsburgh bar in the spring of 1839; in April, 1839, he came to Ft. Madison, engaged in the practice of his profession, and has been in active practice since, except on one occasion when he was called to the excitements of political life; in 1840, he was elected a member of the Iowa House of Representatives; in 1848, he was elected on the Whig ticket Representative in Congress from Iowa, but did not get the certificate of election on account of a fraud perpetrated on one of the ballot-boxes in a western county; he went before Congress and exposed the fraud, and his opponent was unseated, a new election ordered, and at the new election he was elected by a majority of about 800, in a district opposed to him politically by almost a thousand majority. His hatred of slavery united him with the Antislavery movement which grew out of the Kansas-Nebraska territorial organization, and in 1856 he was chosen Presidential Elector at Large for Iowa on the Republican ticket; in the spring election of 1873, he was elected Mayor of the city of Keokuk by the citizens, irrespective of party. These facts give but a faint outline of the public life of Mr. Miller; they indicate his popularity with the people and his positions of responsibility and trust, but they afford little clue to his active and valuable services in the Legislature and in the Courts; he was one of the foremost in council and one of the most eloquent in debate; he was the tall Iowa chief, on whose face rested the light of intelligence, and in whose heart glowed the fire of friendship. Mr. Miller married in 1841, Miss Rebecca S. Phillips; ten children have been the result of the union.