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Below is a family biography included in The History of Osage County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Charles W. Miles, a farmer and stock-raiser of Jefferson Township, Osage County, residing sixteen miles southeast of Linn, and ex-probate judge of Osage County, is a native of Crawford County, Pa., and was born March 18, 1838. He is the second child in the family of eleven children born to John M. and Lydia (Anderson) Miles, natives respectively of Erie County and Crawford County, Pa. John M. Miles was a farmer by occupation, and was born in 1810, immigrating to Osage County, Mo., about 1843, at a time when the settlers were few and the hardships of the new country many; his wife was born March 7, 1817. Charles W. Miles received a common-school education, and remained with his parents until twenty-three years of age. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Third Missouri Regiment State Militia, where he served until March 18, 1864, when he enlisted in Company A, First Missouri Engineers, and served until the close of the war, receiving an honorable discharge at Louisville, Ky., July 22, 1865. He participated in the battle of Jonesborough and Sherman’s march to the sea, as well as many small skirmishes. At the close of the war Mr. Miles was appointed by the governor of Missouri registering officer of Jefferson Township, Osage Co., Mo., of which township he was elected justice of the peace in 1870, serving in the latter capacity eight years. In 1882 he was elected probate judge of Osage County, and served four years with much credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the people. He located on the farm where he now resides in 1870, which contains 290 acres, with about ninety acres under cultivation, to which he devotes his entire attention, having retired from public life. Mr. Miles married Miss M. J. Lone October 12, 1867. She was born in St. Louis County, Mo., March 14, 1851, and is a daughter of Stephen and Sarah A. Lone, natives of Tennessee, the former of whom died February 17, 1879, and the latter January 8, 1889. To Mr. and Mrs. Miles have been born nine children, of whom six are living, viz.: Lydia, Ida, Clement, Berkley, Orpha and Minnie. Mr. Miles is a stanch Prohibitionist in politics, and is an earnest worker for that party. His first presidential vote was for Lincoln in 1860, and he has voted for each Republican candidate for President until 1888, when he supported Fisk and Brooks. Himself, wife and the three oldest children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 52 biographies included in The History of Osage County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Osage County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Osage County, Missouri family biographies here: Osage County, Missouri Biographies

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