Justus J. Miller was born on November 19, 1830, in York, Ohio, to James and Roxana Miller. His father was a farmer who owned $1,700 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in York, and he attended Otterbein University.

 

He married Nancy Jane Cahill on April 30, 1854, and they had at least eight children: Jessie, born around 1857; Emma, born around 1859; Leonard, born around 1861; Fred, born around 1864; John, born around 1868; Wilber, born around 1869; Roxea, born around 1872; and Uriah, born around 1876. They moved to Jackson, Missouri, in the 1850s, and he worked as a farmer. By 1860, he owned $400 of personal property. In the fall of 1860, an early biographer wrote, “the pro-slavery element [in Missouri] informed him that his presence was not acceptable to them and Mr. Miller hastened with his family to Ohio.”  

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 1, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company F of the 31^st Ohio Infantry. The regiment took part in the siege of Corinth, the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He was promoted to 2^nd lieutenant in February 1863 and to 1^st lieutenant in April 1865. He mustered out on July 20, 1865.

 

He settled in Jackson, Ohio, after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $3,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property. He supported the Republican Party. He was elected county sheriff in 1876, and he won reelection two years later. The family moved to Arkansas around 1886, and he died in Judsonia, Arkansas, on November 9, 1893.

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