The Jacob Miller Home, located at 5235 Grist Mill Road, was reportedly built in 1770 and is thus one of the older homes on the Anabaptist Heritage Trail. Jacob Miller (1814–1888) was the Brethren Elder who replaced Elder John Kline after Kline was assassinated.
Elder Jacob Miller was married to Elizabeth Bowman (1818–1897). He was a highly respected leading minister at the Greenmount German Baptist Brethren Church. His wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Elder Benjamin Bowman, Sr., and Jacob was a brother to Benjamin Miller and John D. Miller, both of whom filed claims with the Southern Claims Commission. Jacob’s parents were Daniel Miller II (1784–1847) and his wife Anna Hoover (1785–1860). His grandparents were Daniel Miller I (1752–1820) and Anna Garber (1762–1837). Daniel Miller I came to Shenandoah County in 1783 and moved to Greenmount in 1807. His wife, Anna, was a daughter of Elder John Garber, founder of the Flat Rock Congregation, the oldest in the state of Virginia.
In his depositions before the Southern Claims Commission, Miller described his involvement with the unionist underground railroad. His home, described as a depot in this clandestine enterprise, was a frequent meeting place for refugees from the Confederacy. Eighteen of the seventy or so refugees who were captured near Moorefield in March of 1862 — marched to Staunton and shipped by train to Richmond, Virginia, where they were imprisoned — had started their flight from his home. His house was widely used for this purpose, for he testified: “I aided and assisted a large number of refugees and deserters to escape. . . . I have sent them to other . . . agents and guides. I have had them come to my house from distant counties in the night. My house was one of the Depots of the underground RR as it was called.”
The unionist underground railroad was not part of the much larger anti-slavery underground railroad. It was a network of hiding places and depots to aid numerous men who were fleeing the Confederacy. The participants used the same terms — depots, pilots, and so on — as were used in the anti-slavery underground railroad. It was a striking example of Mennonites and Brethren working together in active resistance to the war.
Sources
- Emmert Bitinger, Norman Wenger and David Rodes, Unionists and the Civil War Experience in the Shenandoah Valley, Volume II, pp. 141–144 (Claim Summary).