This is a picture of David John Miller and Mary Hamilton. They were the parents of David Miller. According to Grandpa Harrison, there are no existing pictures of his grandfather because it was lost in a house fire.For many years, our family knew only fragments about the father of Mary Miller Harrison, the mother of Grandpa Albert Harrison. We knew his name was David Miller. We knew he was born in Scotland. We knew that Mary’s mother died when Mary was a little girl, and that Mary was then raised partly by relatives and partly by other families. We also knew that later in life Mary warned her son (Grandpa Harrison) about alcohol because of the example of her father.
Beyond that, David Miller was mostly a mystery.
Recently, through census records, death records, and old newspapers, a fuller and more human story has begun to emerge.
A Young Family from Scotland
David Miller was born in Scotland, likely in Beith, Ayrshire, though later records list other places such as Glasgow or Aberdeen. Like many in our family lines, the Millers joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and emigrated to Utah.
David and his wife Jennie (Jeanette/Janet, sometimes recorded as Jane) Bailey Miller settled in Salt Lake City. Their daughter Mary Miller was born in 1873, and a son, Moroni David Miller, was born in November 1878.
At that time, David worked as a baker, reportedly at the Deseret Bakery.
The Tragedy That Changed Everything
Just weeks after Moroni was born, disaster struck.
Newspaper accounts from late December 1878 reported a “mysterious poisoning” in the Miller household in Salt Lake City’s 15th Ward. David had been working overnight at the bakery. When he returned home, he found his wife, a young hired girl, and the children overcome and unconscious.
Later reports concluded that Jennie Miller died from arsenical poisoning caused by gases from burning impure coal.
Mary, then a small child, survived. Baby Moroni survived. But the family was shattered.
Mary’s Childhood
After her mother’s death, Mary went first to live with her grandmother in Willard, Utah. Later she lived with another family in Salt Lake City, and then spent nine years with Joseph and Helen Argyle in Bountiful, Utah.
There she eventually met William Harrison, whom she married.
This helps explain the family stories that Mary had been “raised by strangers.” Like many children of that era who lost a parent, she was cared for in several homes.
What Happened to David?
For a long time, David Miller seemed to disappear.
We now know that he lived on, but under difficult circumstances. By the 1890s he was in Montana. Newspaper accounts from Butte, Montana, in February 1898 tell the story of his final days.
David had been working as a cook for a construction company at the Big Hole dam. He became seriously ill and tried to return to Butte for treatment. He was so weak that he could not continue traveling from Silver Bow Junction. A deputy sheriff named Gavin helped him, even taking him into his own home temporarily before bringing him into town.
Officials attempted to send David to the county hospital (sometimes called the poor farm), but he died before help could arrive.
Reports describe him as poorly dressed, carrying only $5.90 and some horehound cough candy. The official cause of death was given as bronchitis or pneumonia.
He Was Not Forgotten
At first, authorities did not know where his family was. Newspapers printed notices asking for help locating relatives in Utah.
Soon afterward, an undertaker in Butte received a telegram from David’s brother in Salt Lake City, who said he would come and arrange the funeral. Reports also noted that David’s mother was living in Willard, Utah.
Though David’s life seems to have become difficult and unsettled, he was not entirely forgotten. In the end, family came for him.
A More Complete Story
It would be easy to reduce David Miller to only his failures or hardships. But records now show a more complicated life:
- A Scottish immigrant who came west with hope
- A baker supporting a young family in Salt Lake City
- A husband who lost his wife suddenly in a terrible accident
- A father whose children were scattered after tragedy
- A man who continued working for years afterward
- A sick laborer who died far from home, but whose family still answered the call
His daughter Mary went on to build a family of her own and became the ancestor through whom we descend.
Why This Matters
Family history is rarely simple. Sometimes people who seemed to vanish were carrying burdens we never knew about. Sometimes a person remembered only as a cautionary tale had also known grief, hard work, endurance, and loss.
David Miller’s story reminds us that our ancestors were not legends or labels. They were real people, with broken places and redeeming ones too.
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