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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published by Biographical Review Publishing Company in 1896.  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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EDWIN CYRUS MILLER, teller of the First National Bank and a highly respected citizen of Northampton, was born May 10, 1868, at Haydenville, on the old farm which has been in the family over one hundred and sixty years. He is a direct descendant of one of the oldest families of this county.

His great-great-grandfather, John Miller, was the first settler of Williamsburg, Mass. In his early manhood he spent considerable time in hunting and trapping. On his excursions for these purposes he became acquainted with the locality, where about the year 1735 he purchased nine hundred acres of heavily timbered land, paying one dollar per acre. He erected the log house which was his first home in the wilderness, on the hill near where a grandson and namesake afterward lived. A year or two later he built a frame house, the first erected in that town, and which stood until about 1879. Mr. Miller was a man of powerful physique, capable of great endurance and toil, and one who found keen enjoyment in the primitive frontier life which he had chosen. Of game, both large and small, there was an abundance; and the rivers and streams were alive with fish of various kinds. Danger, however, sometimes menaced his isolated home, for there were roving bands of somewhat hostile Indians; and some of his experiences were most romantic and thrilling. The Connecticut Valley History of 1879 has a full and interesting account of the Millers and of Mr. Fairfield. Mr. Fairfield, who was the second to settle in the district, was a kinsman of the Millers. Coming seventeen years later, he established his home near theirs. Mr. Miller died September 7, 1792, aged eighty years. His wife, Martha Miller, died November 24, 1805, at the age of eighty-seven years. They reared four children: Stephen; John; Cyrus; and a daughter who married Asa Wright, of Northampton. Their son Cyrus succeeded them on the old farm, where he spent a useful life engaged in farming, and died June 17, 1825, sixty-eight years of age. He married Miss Sarah Phinney, a daughter of Isaac Phinney, who came originally from Cape Cod, removing first to Hardwick and thence to Williamsburg in 1772, where he traded a side saddle for sixty acres of land east of the Haydenville church. Mrs. Miller was thirteen years of age at the time of the Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. She joined the church at Williamsburg under the pastorate of the Rev. Joseph Strong; and in 1851, on the formation of the Haydenville church, she transferred her membership to the latter, although then ninety-one years of age. She and her husband were the parents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters. In 1879 there were four of the twelve whose respective ages summed up three hundred and forty-seven years, namely: Cyrus, aged eighty-two years; John, aged seventy-nine years; Mrs. Betsey Fairfield, aged ninety-four years; and Mrs. Sarah Graves, of Sunderland, aged ninety-two years. Their mother died on March 4, 1859, aged ninety-eight years and four months.

Cyrus Miller, second, the grandfather of Edwin Cyrus Miller, who was born in 1797, acquired his education in the district school of Williamsburg, two miles away. He, too, spent his life on the old farm. At the time of the Mill River flood, May 16, 1874, he and his family barely escaped a watery grave. He married for his first wife Miss Harriet Kingman Hannum, and for his second, Mrs. Philena Ford, a widow with one son. The latter union was blessed by the birth of three sons: Edward F. Miller, Arthur F. Miller, and Lewis C. Miller. Lewis C. resides at South Hadley Falls and has four sons. In politics Cyrus Miller voted the Whig ticket up to the time of the formation of the Republican party, which he afterward supported; but he was not a man to share in the excitement of political life. He was widely and favorably known as Major Miller, and led a most consistent and useful life. He was for years a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and on the formation of the Haydenville church he joined that society. He belonged to a family of great longevity. His sister, Betsey Fairfield, died one hundred and three years old; another sister, Patty Holley, at ninety-seven years of age; and a brother died in his eighty-ninth year. His own death occurred in his eighty-eventh year, and his wife also lived to an advanced age.

Edward F. Miller, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born May 3, 1838. He also chose the independent life of a farmer and resided on three hundred of the nine hundred acres owned by his grandfather, John Miller. He took an active part in public affairs; and among the offices he was called upon to fill was that of Selectman, in which he rendered acceptable service during several terms. He also acted as Trustee of the Hayden-Sanders School Fund. In 1863 he was united in marriage with Miss Ellen N. Woodburn, of Grafton, Vt., a daughter of Samuel D. and Laura (Fay) Woodburn, both of whom were natives of Vermont. Her father was a talented and successful music teacher.

Edwin Cyrus Miller, the subject of this biographical sketch, received his education in Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, from which he graduated in 1882, at the age of fourteen years. He then secured a position in the Mill River button factory, which is the largest and one of the oldest ivory button factories in the United States. He remained there a year, and then, on September 20, 1884, he entered the Conway National Bank. He resigned this position in October, 1886, to take that of book-keeper in the First National Bank of Northampton. In a short time, at the age of twenty-one, he became the teller, succeeding Lucius S. Graves (now deceased), who left on account of poor health. Mr. Miller has rendered most efficient service in this position. On June 17, 1891, he was married to Miss Edith Dunbar Childs, a daughter of Henry Childs, of Northampton.

In politics Mr. Miller is a Republican, and is at the present time chairman of the Republican County Committee, Clerk of the Common Council, and a member of the School Committee from Ward Four. He and his wife are active and consistent members of the Congregational church. They reside at No. 74 High Street, a pleasant and modest dwelling surrounded with shrubbery and flowers, where they settled soon after their marriage.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published in 1896. 

View additional Hampshire County, Massachusetts family biographies here: Hampshire County, Massachusetts Biographies

View a map of 1901 Hampshire County, Massachusetts here: Hampshire County Massachusetts Map

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