Let me keep this simple and straightforward.
My Dad - William Byrd Miller - aka Bill Miller - died May 3, 2019. He was 91 years old.
About a year and a half ago, he gave me a hand-written transcript of his life biography.
After reading it thoroughly several times, I set down with him with his life story and asked him many questions of clarification, detail and curiosity.
What resulted was the following record of my Dad's life which I read at his funeral service.
Frankly, it explains or at least gives some context, for why he was the way he was - and I mean the Good and the Bad and the Ugly.
I'm glad that he chose to share it with me and that I was able to share time with him about his life and that I can bring the final result of our sharing to you.
The Life and Times of William Byrd Miller
These are the notes that compose the life chronology and
story of William Byrd Miller – Bill Miller – this is Bill’s autobiography.
This record is transcribed from a manuscript handwritten by
Bill Miller and delivered to his son, William B. Miller Jr, on or about
12/15/17.
Parts of this record are from handwritten notes taken by
William B Miller Jr. on the manuscript provided by Bill Miller.
Beginning of Autobiographical
Manuscript Transposition:
My Father was Virgil Allen Miller who died at 39 years of
age.
My Mother was Hattie Miller who died at 81.
I was the 7th child and the 6th and
youngest boy.
I had 1 sister younger than myself, Virgie.
I was born into a family of 8 children
in Newton County, Texas on the Old Wiley Newton Place. I was the son of a
tenant farmer. I lived in an old farm house with a dog trot through the middle
of it. All bedrooms were on the left side of the house. There was no bathroom
and no plumbing but plenty of air holes providing natural air conditioning.
My family, as I remember was my
mother, father, sister and 5 brothers.
We farmed and raised Cheshire hogs, milk cows, mules and horses. We had
no machinery – everything was horse-driven. We had fruit trees and a garden
with peas, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, corn and a few watermelons, mush
melons and onions. We smoked our own meat and killed and ate wild game.
My father worked part-time for
the lumber company driving a shay – a piston type locomotive that hauled logs
on rail cars to the mills.
But to keep our family fed, my
father made moon shine, that is, illegal whisky aka “White Lightning”. I was
told his White Lightning was the Best in the County. The Sheriff even bought
from him. The County Law didn’t bother him about this. They knew my dad was
caring for his family. The County Law would warn him of an upcoming raid by the
Revenuers – the Feds.
My father would move his still
deeper into the woods and let them destroy his old one. He would bury the
moonshine in quarts and gallons near the house and dig them up when they were
to be sold. This provided enough cash
money to buy a new Model T and to take vacations as far away as San Antonio, Tx
to the Zoo.
But this all came to an end with his drowning death in 1929 when I was only 2 years old. My brothers were 16, 14, 12, 8 and 6 and my sister was 10 years old. My younger sister had not yet been born. I only remember barrels of peas, plenty of milk, fruit and meats.
After my father’s death in 1929,
the bottom fell out of Life for me and my family. Without revenue and
management, we hit the bottom.
Everything was lost. I moved to Newton with my brother, Willie, who
worked for pennies at the box factory. We built a shack in the woods from
discards from the box factory. It had no floor and was one room with a kitchen,
kerosene lamps and an outhouse. Starvation set in.
After 2 years of this, my mother
and brother, Willie, working at the box factory, could not feed us. One
brother, Reuben, went to live in town with the man at the service station.
Another brother left with the skating rink that came through town and a 3rd
brother, Ernest, shined shoes. Another worked on cars and Clyde, along with old
Nell, the one-eyed mule, worked clearing land for room and board + 50 cents a
day. Both sisters stayed home with Mama and me.
I started to school at 6 in
Newton. At the end of the school year, May 1933, Mama left me on a street
corner by the Post Office. The Postman took me to my Aunt Maude and Uncle
Polly. I stayed with them all summer. They brought me back to Newton at the
last of August and my brother, Willie, took me home with him and I lived with
Willie and a widow woman with a girl.
Then I moved to my other brother,
Reuben’s house. He took me to Mr.
Mayer’s house on the creek that fall.
Mr. Mayer bought 40 acres on the
Railroad tracks. He had started clearing land, using the trees to split for
rail fences. I carried water from the spring to the house. The house was
constructed of logs. There was a fireplace and a barn and a zig zag rail fence
with interlocking ends around the property.
At 65 years old, Mr. Mayer man
married an 18-year old girl named Bessie. He played fiddle and grew and
harvested his own tobacco. He bought 300 chickens and I got one. I came down with malaria and got a hernia at
7 years old from carrying 3-gallon water buckets from the Spring to the house.
In addition, every day, I walked 2 miles to school.
One day, Mr. Mayer whipped me
badly because I was late getting home from school because I stopped to watch a
man breaking wild horses. I never went home again.
The next day I went home with Mrs.
Lindsay, the school teacher and Lawyer’s wife. Mr. Lindsay, the lawyer, looked
like Abe Lincoln – 6’6” with a small waist. It was a totally new environment.
Mrs. Lindsay became the School Principal and Mr. Lindsay became a
governor-appointed District Judge. Mr. Lindsay wrote a letter to the Miller
family relatives in Luling asking permission to adopt me because he and his
wife couldn’t have kids. I was guaranteed a full college education in the
letter.
Instead of this dream life to be,
I was taken away to Luling, Texas the next June by my Uncles David and Vincent
Miller, sister Pearl and Grandma. Grandma Miller denied the lawyer’s request to
adopt me because she didn’t want my name to be changed but she didn’t have room
for me to live with her, so I went to live with my Uncle Ed and Aunt Jamie with
their 3 children.
Things got better again and then
bad because Uncle Ed lost his job. I went back to Grandma’s, but she couldn’t
take care of me, so then I went to Jack Weeks in Pettis, Tx. Then I went to Aunt Lee for a while in Freer,
Tx at a Humble Oil Camp. At that point, I was in 4th grade. Then I
went back to Grandma’s.
Next, I went to live with Mr. and
Mrs. Wadsworth. He worked for Magnolia Oil. I stayed with them for a year and
completed 5th grade. They had 2 daughters but no son and wanted to
adopt me also. They were great people, Assembly of God Christians. I joined the
church and was baptized in the San Marcos River in Luling, Texas. The 2nd
adoption request was also refused.
Following the refusal of the 2nd
adoption request, I went back to Grandma’s. I was taken to Sister Pearl’s who
was married to a man named Harold Ammons. Then, I was moved to brother Clyde’s.
Then I moved to brother Willie’s house in Fannett, Tx.
At that point, I was 13 years old
and graduated 7th grade. I moved to Beaumont in 1940 and went to
Amelia School for 8th grade and lived with oldest brother, Clyde
again. After that, I went to Catholic School with the neighbors.
My brothers, Reuben and Clyde
moved to South Texas and I went to Fairfield, Illinois with my sister Pearl and
her husband, Harold to help with Pearl’s babies – 6 months, 2 years and 3 years
old. I stayed with them 2 years and completed 10th and 11th
grade.
Then I moved back to Beaumont and
lived with brother Willie to finish high school at Beaumont High at 17 years
old. Following graduation, I went back to Illinois to live with sister Pearl
and went to work in the oil field at 18. I stayed there for 2 years and was
called to the service and failed the test because of a broken arm that was still
in a sling from an oil field accident.
The war ended shortly after that.
I came back to Luling in 1947 and
stayed about a year and a half. I worked in the oil patch at 21 years old and
got oil poisoning which resulted in 125 boils and a carbuncle on my body.
I met a woman named Geraldine and
rejoined the Assembly of God Church. I heard wedding bells, but it fell
through. I left never to return. I wanted to go to college but could not pass the
Army tests for the 2nd time.
I went back to Beaumont and remained
there. I did a variety of jobs including carpenter work, working on oil trucks,
working at a service station and for the propane company as a service man in
1949.
I met my first wife, Viola, in
1951 and we were married within 2 weeks. I was 23 years old.
The first 5 years of marriage, we
followed the Oil Rigs all over Texas. I had another accident on a Rig and quit
the job and went to work for National Linen Service as a Route Salesman for 2
years. I quit that job and went to work for Lance Crackers for 18 months. I
went back to National Linen Service and worked there until 1977 when I was 50
years old.
I then worked for Texas Commerce
Bank until 1992 and retired.
I was divorced from Viola in 1994
and married to Mary that same year.
Mary died in 2008 and I married
Diane in 2011.
As I mentioned earlier, my mother
left me in 1933, but the family found her in 1964 along with my younger sister,
Virgie.
I spent my retirement years
continuing to work doing mowing and general maintenance work and doing the things
I love most – gardening, hunting and fishing.
I worked hard and played hard
everyday of my life and left a legacy of hard work and independence that is an
example for my kids and the rest of the world of a life lived well.
I appreciate all of you being
here to celebrate my Life and my Death.
My name is Bill Miller and this
was my Life.
+of+IMG_1735.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment