William Miller
August 3, 1820 - August 8, 1909

 (Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory Image No. 28524.)

William Miller was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 3, 1820, the oldest child and only son of Joseph Remington Miller (1797-1854) and his wife, Martha Julia Roe (1799-1881). The family moved to Louisiana when William was an infant.

Miller served with General Zachary Taylor in the United States Army during the Mexican War, and he operated a sawmill in Santa Rosa County, Florida, afterward.

In 1851, Miller married his cousin, Maria Maxwell Roe, and they adopted a daughter, Isabel McLeod Miller. Little is known of either woman.

Miller changed his allegiance from the United States Army to the Confederacy early in the Civil War and was commissioned Brigadier General in August 1864. He is best remembered militarily for his leadership in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in 1862 and at the Battle of Natural Bridge outside Tallahassee in 1865.

Miller settled in Point Washington after the war and, by 1870, operated a sawmill there in partnership with William Louis Criglar (1916-1893), who was married to Miller’s sister Louisiana (1835-1903). He also operated a steam sawmill in Vernon, Florida, beginning in 1891. Through the years, he was generous to the Point Washington community and served it as a teacher, justice of the peace, delegate to the Florida House of Representatives, and State Senator.

William Miller died at his home in Point Washington on August 8, 1909. He was originally buried in Point Washington, but in 1922 he and his wife were moved to St. John's Cemetery in Pensacola. Neither had a gravestone, but commemorative markers have since been placed at Miller's grave.