Married Sarah Searcy 4 September 1831
James-Mary Jane-Elizabeth-William Alonzo-Dixie
Died 12 March 1841 in Nauvoo
James is thought to have died while working on the Nauvoo Temple. He certainly died while the family lived in Nauvoo and Isaac Hill, who would later marry two of James' daughters, wrote about the death of a James Miller in his diary. You can read more about James here in Sarah's biography.
This is from the autobiography of William Searcy, James' brother-in-law.
The same spring after I [William] was married, myself and wife, in company with two brother-in-laws, John and James Miller and their families, started for Iowa, and being the first emigrants with teams that came west farther than Lockridge, we followed the township line from there by the marks on the trees in the timber, and the stakes and mounds on the prairies, until we reached what is now known as Pleasant Plain, in Jefferson County. The land at that time had not been surveyed out in smaller subdivisions than townships, and was not yet in market. I purchased a claim of 160 acres and adjoining my claim I laid of that town, consisting of 300 lots.
The town of Brighton, in Washington County, was located the same fall. I broke about twelve acres of prairies that spring, during which time we lived in a tent. The greater part of the summer we spent in breaking prairie on the north side of Skunk River. A great many emigrants came in without families, and would take claims and hired us to break a few acres - just sufficient to hold their claims until they should return in the fall, agreeing to pay us for the work when they returned; but they did not come back, and we found that we had done our work for nothing – lost it all.
While on the north side of the river we lived in an Indian ‘wigwam’ made of bark. Here is where Wapello and his tribe lived at that time. They had quite a town, and some of them had small patches of ground that they cultivated, raising some corn and a few vegetables. It was a great sight to the Indians to see the prairie plow turning the sod over. The little fellows would follow us day after day, watching the plowing process. The Indians, as a general thing, treated us kindly enough, but seemed to look upon us with a kind of jealousy. They were great fellows for whisky at all times, but on special occasions they made whisky a special resort. On the occasion of the death of one of Wapello’s sons, the old chief himself swam across the river, procured a barrel of whisky, floated it across the river, and such a time as they had I never witnessed before or since. Men, women and children beastly drunk for several days, some shouting the war whoop, some crying and wailing, and some sleeping – one continuous uproar as long as the whisky lasted.
After laying out the town of Pleasant Plain, I made a sale of lots and sold about five hundred dollars worth, some desirable ones going as high as forth dollars. The land not yet being in market, I could make no deeds, but gave bonds for deeds to be made as soon as I should get deeds from the government, taking their notes, to be paid when they received the deeds.
The only ferries we had to cross the river was our wagons; we had no other means of crossing except by swimming the teams, wagons and all. In the fall we went back to Sangamon County, Ill, expecting to return in the spring, as our provisions were all gone, and no means of securing a supply for the winter, as we had no money and could not have bought supplies if we had money. Owing to sickness in my family, I did not return to Iowa until the spring of 1839. When I came to Pleasant Plain I found the Quakers had taken advantage of my absence and ‘jumped’ my claim, town and all, and as I could not legally hold it, they would not give it up nor pay me anything for what I had done. So I came on west and settled in Richland Township.
James and Sarah were living in Richland Township when Mormon missionaries came through and they were baptized along with some members of James's family. Sarah's family tried to prevent her from being baptized. James and Sarah moved to Nauvoo where James died in 1841 not long after they moved there.
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