| The Life of Dr. J.R. Miller |
Chapter 1 |
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During the first years after the close of the war the young Scotch-Irishman lived in Virginia. In 1789, with his wife and three children, he took the hard journey across the mountains to Washington County, Pennsylvania. Two of the children were carried in the ends of a pack thrown across the back of a horse; the third was held by his mother as she sat on her horse. In 1811 Mr. McCarrell bought the farm “Pleasant Hill,” near Eldersville, which is still in the possession of the family. He was a Ruling Elder in the “Seceder” Church now known as the Cross Creek United Presbyterian Church. The members of this godly household frequently made the trip of sixteen miles to Canonsburg to attend service. He died March 29, 1836, at the age of ninety five. His wife, Eleanor Rusk McCarrell, died at the same age, on September 19, 1846. Surviving them were five children – three daughters and two sons. Four of these married and founded Christian homes, in which the family altar was always maintained. From two of these homes and the homes that succeeded them came seven ministers of the gospel, whose combined service has been more than two hundred and fifty years.
Mary McCarrell, who was born November 21, 1782, married Robert Creswell. Their daughter Eleanor married James Alexander Miller, whose great grandfather, Samuel Miller, – also of Scotch-Irish descent – was born in 1717. Samuel Miller’s home was near Hickory, in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Here he spent most of his life. In 1794 the headquarters of General Lee in the campaign to suppress the Whisky Insurrection were at his house. His son James – the third of his eleven children – moved in 1798 to a farm near Tomlinson Run Church in Beaver County. In 1812 – when ninety five years of age – Samuel Miller rode on horseback from the Washington County home to the Beaver County farm. The distance – thirty miles – was made in a single day, with a rest at noon for dinner. He lived seven years after this memorable trip, dying in 1819 at the age of one hundred and two. In his last will and testament this godly man provided funds for the purchase of a Bible to be given to each of his grandsons. He felt that he could make them no better bequest.
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