Jacob
and Bell (Dicken) Miller
Around
1880, Jacob “Jake” Miller
and his wife, Isabel “Bell” Dicken-Miller left
Cumberland County,
Kentucky for Cannon, Texas for better job
opportunities. They
traveled in covered wagons for roughly three
weeks with Jacob’s
married siblings, Bell’s married siblings, and
her father, John R.
Dicken. In Cumberland, Jacob was a jailer. His
father, Clinton
William Miller, was a carpenter and a farmer.
Over
the years, Jacob’s siblings
would move away to Colorado, McKinney, Redwater,
and Sherman, Texas.
Jacob and his family were the only group to stay
in Cannon. They had
nine children in total. Four children were born
in Kentucky: John
Clinton, James William “Bill,” Jacob Almorine
“Al,” and Lula.
The other children were born in Cannon: Edward,
Esther, Dixie, Clyde,
and Beecher. All children attended the Cannon
school.
Jacob
was a blacksmith who owned
several parcels of land that he sharecropped
off. One of his former
houses still stands west of the Cannon Cemetery.
Bell was a typical
1800’s housewife, but she loved music and
singing. Her sister,
Lizzy Dicken Mann (also buried at Cannon) was a
musician in Van
Alstyne. Bell passed away on November 22, 1900,
at her house from an
illness (possibly tuberculosis). Various
write-ups in the Van Alstyne
Leader newspaper archives only say she was sick
for many months. She
is buried next to her daughter, Ester, and her
mother, Martha Tallent
Dicken at the Cannon Cemetery. Jacob died from a
sudden heart attack
on March 5, 1921, at his daughter, Lula Miller
Alexander’s house in
the Bethel-Cannon area. He has several
obituaries in the Van Alstyne
Leader archives. Family and friends came from
all over, including
Kentucky and Colorado for his funeral.
John
Clinton Miller was born on
Sept. 6, 1876, roughly ten months after his
parents married. He was a
blacksmith like his father. He first married,
Etta Haney on April 28,
1897, in Grayson County. The group photo titled
“Miller and Dicken
Family Reunion - 1879” shows John in the back
row wearing a fedora
and black jacket. Etta is standing beside him
with her face slightly
turned. Their marriage didn’t last long. On the
1900 census, it
states that John is single and living with his
parents. On Sept. 8,
1901, John married Bloomer Victory Dunn, and had
seven kids: Willie
Bell, Beulah, Elizabeth, Lorene, Maudie, Laura
Betty, and John R
“Snow.” John passed away on January 17, 1915,
from tuberculous.
His wife, Bloomer, was still pregnant with John
R. when her husband
died. John was buried the next day at the Cannon
Cemetery. Bloomer
passed away on Feb. 26, 1935, and was buried
beside him.
James
William “Bill” Miller
was born on Dec. 30, 1877. He was always excited
to tell people that
he was “Born in jail” because his father, Jacob,
was the jailor
in Cumberland County, and the Miller family
lived in a house attached
to the holding cell. He finished school at
Cannon and married Delia
Hensley on the steps of the Cannon Methodist
Church on July 26, 1904.
The two interrupted a revival meeting to ask the
preacher to marry
them. He agreed. They lived with James’s father
until they found a
place of their own. They had four children:
Frank, Irene, Hugh, and
Elinor. The family left Grayson County in
December 1924 to move to
Platter, Okla. Irene married Lowell Hansard so
she wouldn’t have to
move. Frank purchased a filling station in
Woodville, Oklahoma, and
ran it with a friend from Kentucky Town. Frank
was murdered by a
police officer named, Albert Lary on April 7,
1926. Frank’s body
was taken back to Cannon and laid out in a
casket at his aunt Lula
Miller Alexander’s house for a day. He is buried
at the Cannon
Cemetery. James passed away on Aug. 27, 1968,
and was buried beside
Frank. Delia passed away on Nov. 17, 1973, and
was also buried beside
her son at Cannon.
Jacob
“Al” Miller was born
on May 27, 1880. He married his first cousin,
Laura Ethel Miller in
Colorado. Her parents were Emmett Page Miller
and Sabrina Marlow who
came to Cannon in 1880. Jacob Warren Miller and
Emmett Page are
brothers. Jacob “Al” and Laura had one son,
Wayne. Jacob took
care of Laura’s daughter from a previous
marriage, Margaret. Jacob
“Al.,” Laura and Wayne are buried in Littleton,
Colorado.
Lula
Miller was born on March
23, 1882. When she was only fifteen years old,
she married John
Hamilton Alexander. They lived with his parents
until they purchased
their own house. They had seven children:
Chester, Oma, Johnnie,
Ethel, Virgie, Lula Raye, and Mildred. Oma
passed away as a baby and
is buried directly behind Jacob Warren Miller at
the Cannon Cemetery.
Lula and her husband are buried in Lubbock,
Texas.
Dr.
Edward Miller was born on
June 24, 1886. He married Leta Viola Parish and
had five children:
Mary Lee, Evelyn, Alvis, Virginia, and Darline.
Edward was a
chiropractor in Detroit, Michigan. He spent the
last years of his
life living in a downtown loft in Van Alstyne,
and later the Van
Alstyne Nursing home. He was buried at the
Cannon Cemetery near his
father.
Ester
Miller was born on May 12,
1888. She passed away at eight years old from
diphtheria. She is
buried at the Cannon Cemetery beside her mother,
Bell Miller. Nothing
is known about her short life.
Dixie
Miller was born on Feb.
11, 1890. She graduated from Cannon school with
an “A” average
(according to a Van Alstyne Leader write-up).
She married Guyton
Lewis Burke, and they had six children: Lee,
Arthur, Mildred, Orval,
and Infant Son. Her infant son is buried at
Cannon Cemetery directly
behind his grandfather, Jacon Warren Miller. A
distant female cousin
informed me that her infant son had a twin
sister. I can’t find
information about that. Dixie passed away on May
20, 1949, and is
buried in an unmarked grave at Highland Cemetery
in Durant, Oklahoma.
I have a letter from Jacob “Al” Miller to his
brother, James
Miller written shortly after Dixie’s funeral. He
mentions Delia’s
hospitality toward him and his wife, Laura
during the funeral.
Clyde
Miller was born on March
7, 1895. She married Walter Albert Blanton, and
they had two known
children: Gerald Albert Blanton and a stillborn
baby girl. The baby
girl is buried at Blanton Cemetery in
Whitewright, and Clyde and her
husband are buried in Oklahoma City.
Beecher
Miller was born on Dec.
17, 1896. After graduating from Cannon School,
he became a barber.
One of his clients and friends, was Van Alstyne
baseball player, Sam
Gray. Beecher also had a job working on the
Interurban in Van
Alstyne. He married Eva Bryant from Cannon. They
had no children.
They made their way to Denison, Texas, and lived
in a house on
Crawford St. The house was located where the
Albertson's parking lot
is now. Beecher remained a barber, and his wife
worked at a downtown
department store. Beecher died at his home on
Oct. 26, 1957, of a
stroke. His niece (Melba Hansard) remembers
Beecher fondly. Every
time she would visit him in the 1940s’, he would
give her a nickel.
Her daddy, Lowell Hansard, forbid Melba to talk
to Beecher’s barber
friends.
