Reunion Time! Park shelter reserved for June 25th

The surviving children of Pete and Dora Miller
gathered in Chadron for the 1988 Miller Reunion.

Another step has been taken in plans for the Miller Family Reunion scheduled for next summer in Nebraska.

We've reserved the Wilson Park Shelter in Chadron for all day on Saturday, June 25th.  That's the same location where the Millers gathered 22 years ago, when we had our last reunion.  Of course, we've lost many loved ones since that time, and this may well be the last time that many of us will see one another for a good long spell.  So, we hope that all "cousins" and "in-laws" will plan to join us for this informal get together from Friday, June 24th through Sunday, June 25th. 

Cousins Pete Miller in Metaline Falls, Washington, and Larry Miller in Spearfish, South Dakota, have sent postcards out to a couple of dozen folks in an effort to collect addition names/addresses/phone numbers and e-mail addresses of as many of our family members as possible.  We've found that many addresses we have are incomplete, phone numbers have changed, or e-mail addresses no longer work. We want to make sure that even the most distant cousins know about our gathering and have an opportunity to attend!  We'll do a more complete mailing with further information in February.

Marie Derrick and Bertha Bird - 1988

Please call or e-mail us with your contact information -- and tell us how we can reach others in your family branch who should know about the reunion.

Larry    (605) 722-6018  ~  dakotamillers@gmail.com

Pete    (509) 446-3915  ~  pjmiller@povn.com 

At this writing, there is no specific agenda -- but lots of ideas.  For many of us, just having a chance to visit with family we've not seen for a long time will be the primary goal.   It's also an opportunity to visit Whitney, which was home to our parents/grandparents for more than half a century.  A visit to the Whitney Cemetery would be in order, since many of our ancestors are at rest there.  Please let us know your ideas and suggestions regarding the reunion.

And bring your cameras, there's bound to be
some fun -- and tomfoolery!

There's lots to see and do around the area, too!  Two of the most beautiful state parks of Nebraska are within 30 minutes -- Chadron State Park and Fort Robinson State Park.  Both offer cabins and camping, as well as a variety of recreational activities the whole family can enjoy.  There's also hiking, biking, golf, and trail rides.  Fort Robinson has a great museum, and there are also fine historical museums in both Chadron and Crawford.

And you might want to bookmark this web site, since we'll continue to provide updated information here, including lodging options, recreational activities, and other reunion-related tips.

Mark your calendars and plan to join us for the Miller Family Reunion, June 24-26!

Help us plan for the reunion...

From the Czar's army....to America

He was buried 100 years ago in Mountain View Cemetery on the north side of Longmont, Colorado.   But there is no tombstone.  No marker.  Nothing that tells us anything about this German-Russian immigrant who escaped the hard life of Russia for new opportunities in America.

Conrad Luke Eckerdt
Undated photograph

This man, Conrad Eckerdt, was born July 12, 1858 in the German colonies along the eastern “wiesenseite”  (meadow side) of the Volga River.  We don't know exactly where he was born, but the discharge documents from his service in the Russian Army listed the village of "Splavnukha" as home.  The Germans living there called the colony “Huck.”  Conrad's parents were listed as Lewis (Luke) Eckerdt and Lizzie Liesmann, and he had at least one brother, Philip. 

The German colonists were largely a segregated group, preferring to remain unto themselves; however, the changing requirements of the Czar's rule discontinued the exemption from military service that German colonists had long enjoyed.  So it was in 1880 that Conrad Eckerdt entered the Russian military.  He was 22 years old and was described by one of his acquaintances as a "good-sized" man, and he would serve five years in the Czar's army. 

Conrad Eckerdt
Army discharge document

On March 6, 1885, Private Eckerdt, who had worked as a "Staff Helper" in the 96th Reserve Battalion, was discharged to the army reserve.  He returned to Schwed, and that's probably where he met Maria Dorotea Wilhelm.  There are no documents listing a date of marriage for the Eckerdts, but they were supposedly married by the Lutheran pastor from nearby Rosenheim parish sometime between 1885 and 1890.  Their first child, Alexander Eckerdt, was born on October 1, 1890.  

Some years later, Eckerdt was described by acquaintance Fred Gorr as a "pretty good carpenter," so he may have pursued that kind of work upon his return to Schwed.  However, Gorr also remembered that at some point, Conrad Eckerdt worked at a flour mill for an uncle named Kriegel.  

In January of 1892, Conrad and Maria had their second child -- Dora.  There are no documents to substantiate it, but family hearsay indicates that Maria Dorotea died giving birth to her daughter.

So Conrad was left to raise his two young children alone.  But at some point between 1892 and 1900, he remarried.  His new bride was the widow Helena (Lena) Neuwirth, who also had a son, Henry.  Conrad and Lena remained in Schwed for the next few years before packing up and leaving Russia in early 1905, headed for America.  They made their way to Bremen, Germany – probably by train – and then sailed from Bremen on March 29, 1905, destined for the United States.

There are lingering family stories that some of the colonists from Schwed -- like so many immigrants at the turn of the 20th century -- were not allowed to enter the United States because of “pink eye,” but that was not the case for the Eckerdts. 

They arrived in Galveston, Texas, on April 20th aboard a ship of the “Missler” line.  Arrival documents indicated that their destination was Denver and that  “Dorothea Schneider, 18,” accompanied the family.  She was listed as a niece to Conrad Eckerdt.

Peter & Dora Miller
Wedding photograph
March 21, 1909

Marie (Miller) Derrick, a granddaughter to Conrad Eckerdt, remembered being told that the family was met in Galveston by an unnamed uncle, who escorted them to Longmont, Colorado.  It was there that Conrad would would find work in the sugar beet fields of Boulder County.   And it was also where young Dora Eckerdt would meet another “Volga Deutsch” immigrant, Peter Miller.  They married on March 21, 1909.  He was 23 years old.  She was 21. 

According to the Longmont Call newspaper, Pete and Dora were married at the Longmont City Hall, which served as the temporary worship site for the Evangelical Peace Lutheran congregation organized in 1907 under the leadership of Rev. Wm. I. Busch.  It was Pastor Busch who married the couple.  Pete and Dora's first child, Marie, was born in December of 1909, and they soon moved to Chicago, Illinois.

Alex & Marian Eckerdt
2006 - Au Gres, Michigan

Conrad and Lena Eckerdt remained in Longmont, however.  Just two years after his daughter had married, Conrad Eckerdt, who suffered from diabetes, succumbed to heart disease and died.  It was December 26, 1911.

His obituary in the Longmont Ledger of December 29,1911, said “Mr. Eckerdt was a Russian by birth.  He was not feeling well and was going to the depot to take a train for Denver to see if he could get relief, when he was taken down.  Friends took him in a carriage to go to his home, but he died on the way.”

Conrad Eckerdt was just 52 years old when he died.

His widow, Lena, would eventually move east, settling in Michigan., where numerous Eckerdt and Neuwirth descendants continue to live.  At right are Alex Eckerdt, Jr. and his wife Marian, whom we had the great pleasure of meeting during a visit to Michigan in the fall of 2006.  Alex is a grandson of Conrad Eckerdt.

Reaching across the sea -- finding a cousin?

In recent weeks, we've had the good fortune to make contact with a lady in Reutlingen, Germany, who may very well be a "cousin" to our Miller clan from western Nebraska.

Lydia Leis, who works as a translator, writes us that her family emigrated from Kazakhstan to Germany in 1991.  Her great-grandparents were Johan Friedrich and Elizabeth (Steinbrecher) Miller.  Both were born in our ancestral village of Unterdorf on the "bergseite" of the Volga in 1869.

While there is no picture of Elizabeth, we were delighted that Lydia forwarded us this undated photograph of her great-grandfather, Johann Friedrich Miller.  Johan's father was Philip Miller, but there is no additional information about him.

Lydia's charts show that Johan and Elizabeth Miller had six children: Eva, born in Unterdorf in 1895; Peter, born in Unterdorf in 1897; Alexander, born in 1902; David, born in 1904; Heinrich, born in Unterdorf in 1906; and Friedrich, also born in Unterdorf, but with no listed date of death.  David was Lydia's grandfather.  He married Rosalia Stenger, who was born in Baku, Aberbajan, located on the west side of the Caspian Sea.   Both David and Rosalia Miller died in 1980 -- her place of death is listed as Zelinograd, Kazakhstan.

David and Rosalia had two children:  Leo, born in Unterdorf, and a daughter whom they named Rosalia.  She was born in Kazakhstan, so the family may well have been displaced there during or prior to World War Two, but we can't be certain.  Perhaps Lydia will share this information with us if and when it is available.

Lydia Leis was also kind enough to send us a photograph of her grandfather, David Miller.  His older sister, Eva (Miller) Bornhoef, is with him in the photo, and we've posted it in our Miller Gallery.  Eva died in Germany in 1977.

We are hopeful that further examination of family records and photographs might allow us to learn more about the Miller families of Unterdorf.  There were several, and we suspect that most of them were related.  Only time -- with avid research, and a bit of luck -- will tell.

Remembering "Uncle Hank"

Henry Miller was born August 31, 1913, while the Miller family lived in Chicago. Before he was old enough to enter school, the family moved to Watertown, South Dakota, where Hank probably began school. However, it’s likely that his most formative years were growing up in the Scottsbluff area.

Pete and Dora lived at several location in “the valley,” and that’s where they lived as son Hank became a teenager. Although we don’t know, he may well have endured the kind of anxiety that many youngsters have when they’re uprooted from family and friends. Although the distance from the Scottsbluff to Whitney is not that far – in the late 1920s it was a formidable distance. Too, there were numerous aunts, uncles and cousins in Scottsbluff. Most likely, this was not a move that pleased Hank

By the time Pete and Dora settled north of Whitney, Hank was about 14 years old. By all accounts, he was a gregarious and fun-loving youngster. His brother Fred – who was about 10 years younger than Hank – remembers a time when a group of Whitney fellows were having a card party at Claude Stewart’s house, next to where the old Post Office was at the main intersection in Whitney. Among the group were Ralph Grant, Claude Stewart, Al Schmechel and his father-in-law, as well as Hank. It seems the group ran out of beer and “…they elected Hank to run to Crawford to get a case of beer.” On the trip back, so the story goes, Hank swerved to miss a mule by the road, and his car tipped over onto its side. Not injured, Hank sent word on to Whitney with a passing motorist. When the fellows arrived to help, Hank was sitting on top of the car drinking the beer.

Hank didn’t date girls much, according to his brother Fred. However, at some poinet in the early 1930s, he and Clarence Connell became acquainted with the three Field sisters, whose father was a railroad section foreman at Horn, north of Crawford. Clarence ended up marrying Mary Field, and – much to the surprise of many – Hank began dating Leora Field. Brother Fred recalls that Hank and Leora were planning to get married, when a horrible accident changed everything.

It was one day in about 1936 when Leonard “Red” Schmell approached Hank and asked him if he’d tighten the rods in Schmell's old Chevrolet. Hank agreed, and they headed to the grain elevator, where there was a hoist.

This was an air hoist that was used to help off-load wheat from trucks. The vehicles would drive in and the front wheels would set up on a platform, and a little air compressor would raise the truck and dump the wheat.. They put Schmell’s car on the hoist so Hank could get under the car and complete the work.

“He was just about done with it, and he crawled down under there, and that hoist came down on him – broke his back,” remembers Fred Miller.

Hank Miller would never walk again. He was 22 years old. He called off the wedding.

For some years, Hank was able to get around a bit on crutches, but he essentially spent the rest of his life in bed or in a wheel chair. For 20 years after the accident, Hank lived with his parents. With their passing, he lived for some time with his brother John and family in Chadron, before moving to the nursing home in Chadron. That is where he lived for the final years of his life.

Surely there were moments of anguish and despair, but Hank didn’t wear those emotions on his sleeve. He would often get out and about to family picnics and other gatherings and displayed a quiet but wry sense of humor.

Hank also found a place as a “fix-it” handyman at the nursing home. Since his days as a teenager, he had been interested in radios. His friendship with Bob Galloway, another Whitney resident who was an amateur radio operator, would lead to a life-long interest in shortwave radio listening.

Hank Miller died in Chadron, Nebraska on March 12, 1984. Like both his mother and father, he was 71 years old when he died.

Here's the scoop: Miller family reunion planned

From California and Texas to Washington and the Dakotas, Miller Family members will be congregating next year for the first family reunion we've had since the 1980s......and you're invited!  Of course, we're also hoping to see cousins from Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, and elsewhere.

Mark your calendars for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 24-25-26 of 2011.  Tentatively, we've planned for the reunion to focus on Wilson Park in Chadron, although we can easily shift the site to either Fort Robinson State Park or Chadron State Park.  Both are within 30 minutes of Wilson Park.  And it's just a stone's throw away from the village of Whitney, Nebraska, long-time home to Pete and Dora Miller, our German-Russian ancestors who were directly responsible for most of us being here!

It was mostly our moms and dads and a few cousins that gathered in Chadron, Nebraska for the last reunion at Wilson Park in Chadron more than two decades ago -- so we're due!

This will be a wonderful chance for "cousins" to get together to meet and get reacquainted with relatives not seen for many years. Sharing photos, memories and stories will be punctuated with lots of fun things to do for the entire family in the beautiful "Pine Ridge" region of northwest Nebraska.

While details are not yet in place, we ask that you mark JUNE 24-25-26, 2011 on your calendars, and start making plans now to join in this celebration of family.

Importantly, if you can offer ideas and suggestions for this reunion, please let us hear from you. Just e-mail us with comments, questions, etc.  We're in the process of gathering names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of all our Miller relatives.  Please send your information (and that of any others who might be interested in the reunion) to cousin Pete Miller  in Metaline Falls, Washington or cousin Larry Miller in Spearfish, South Dakota.



We'll soon be posting information about camping and lodging facilities in the Chadron/Whitney/Fort Robinson area, along with phone numbers and web sites where you can get further details.

We'll post more reunion information on this site in the weeks and months to come, so please check back from time to time!

"Cousins" reunited in 1979

While we’re tempted to say this was a gathering of German-Russian “cousins” – and a couple of them are – there’s really a mixture of relationships reflected in this August 1979 photograph.

It was taken at the home of Katie (Steinbrecher) Behm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Shown left-to-right are: Pauline (Behm) Greenhalgh, Marie (Behm) Hergenrader, Marie (Miller) Derrick, and Katie (Steinbrecher) Behm. Click on the photo to see a slightly larger image, or visit our Miller Gallery.

Pauline and Marie – both born in Unterdorf, Russia – were the daughters of Pete and Eva (Miller) Behm. Marie (Miller) Derrick was a cousin to Pauline and Marie. She was born in Longmont, Colorado to Pete and Dora (Eckerdt) Miller. Pete Miller and Eva (Miller) Behm were siblings. At right is Katherine “Katie” (Steinbrecher) Behm, who was married to Alex Behm, an older brother to Pauline and Marie – shown on the left here. So…..Katie was a sister-in-law to Pauline and Marie (Behm), and a wife of the first cousin to Marie (Miller) Behm.

Confused? So were we for a while, but it’s finally beginning to make sense after all these years!

Sisters Pauline and Marie Behm were both born in Unterdorf, Russia. Marie was born in October 1901, some five years before the family chose to emigrate to the United States. By late 1906, the family was settled in Longmont, Colorado, where sister Eva (Behm) Lei was born in March of 1908. But within two years, Pete and Eva Behm pulled up stakes and returned to Unterdorf, and that’s where their daughter Pauline was born. By late 1911, they chose to return once more to the United States.

Such migration was surely a formidable task, even in the best of times. But we believe that Behm’s were not a well-to-do family, which makes their adventures all the more remarkable.

Remembering...

Pete Miller visiting the gravesite of his dad, Fred Miller, in late June of 2009 in a cemetery near Metaline, Washington. Born in Bayard, Nebraska in 1923, Fred died four years ago this month (12/05) at his home in Metaline Falls. Eighteen months later, his only surviving sibling -- Pauline -- passed away in Texas. They were the last two of the 11 children born to Peter and Dora Miller. Our on-line Miller family charts list other members of this German-Russian family and some of their ancestors.

Meeting Molly - born in Unterdorf!

One of the exciting prospects for learning more about our Miller family migration from Germany to Russia – then to North America – came last summer, when we had a chance to meet Molly Miller Both. It was during a trip to Washington state to visit family in the Metaline Falls and Seattle areas.

One of the few remaining “Miller” family descendants to be born in the Volga-Russian village of Unterdorf, Molly now lives in Marysville, just north of Seattle. While Molly and I had corresponded a few times over the past decade, we were unable to establish a firm link between our families.

However, with fewer than 100 families living in Unterdorf at the beginning of the 1900s, and with both families named Miller, it seems likely that there is a connection. While there’s still no documentation that confirms such a linkage, some aggressive sleuthing in the weeks and months ahead may well uncover something. At least, that’s our belief, and we’re proceeding optimistically.

Molly Miller was born in January of 1926 in Unterdorf, Russia, her family having survived the political upheavals and famine that cursed the Volga region in the early 20th century. That's Molly on the right, when she was about four years old. Our patriarch of the Miller line in western Nebraska, Peter Miller, was born in Unterdorf in 1886 – some 40 years earlier. By the time Molly was born in 1926, Peter and Dora (Eckerdt) Miller were in the North Platte River valley region of the Nebraska panhandle. Chances are, they were making plans or were already on their way to a new home in Whitney. Molly’s family would migrate to Canada, where she grew up, later meeting and marrying Nick Both.

Molly is convinced that our Miller families are related, and I agree. But we’re still searching for the proof.

Until we discover that elusive document, we delight in discovering a new “cousin.” Our visit with Molly and Nick Both at their home in Marysville was a joy, and it was a bonus to meet a few other other members of their family. Much to our delight, Molly also agreed to a short video interview, which we did on the spot!

One of the rewards of genealogy is bringing together long lost relatives. Even if those elusive documents confirming such a kinship are never uncovered, we’re so pleased to meet one of the few remaining “Unterdorfers” -- a lady we’d be proud to call “family.”

Surviving the Titanic

More than 10 years before the White Star Steamship Line launched the SS Titanic in 1912 for its destiny with an iceberg in the North Pacific, White Star built another vessel that was the biggest steamship at the time.

Like the Titanic, the SS Celtic was built in the Harland & Wolf shipyards in Belfast. With twin screws, it was twice as long as a football field and her displacement was more than 20,900 tons – more than any other steamship. Celtic was launched in 1901 and would provide long and significant service to her owners.

Our interest in knowing more about the SS Celtic emerged some years ago when I learned that my grandfather, Peter Miller, voyaged to the new world aboard the Celtic – likely in steerage, but aboard her, nonethess.

The year was 1906, and Pete Miller was traveling with his older sister, Eva Behm, and her family from Liverpool to New York City. They’d likely already endured a long train ride from Saratov, Russia to a port on the Baltic – then probably gaining passage on a ship to England. They all had made the collective decision to leave their homes in Unterdorf, Russia, not far from the Volga River, to find new lives in America.

They arrived at Ellis Island on September 30, 1906 and would make their way to Longmont, Colorado. Eventually, the Behms would settle in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Pete Miller met Dora Eckerdt in Longmont, where they were wed in 1909, later moving to Chicago, then Watertown, South Dakota, before settling in the Nebraska panhandle, where they raised their family and spent the rest of their lives.

As for the SS Celtic: she survived well beyond the Titanic disaster. The Celtic was particularly noted for her steadiness in rough weather. In 1928 she was converted to a cabin class liner; shortly thereafter, she ran aground in the fog near the entrance to Queensland Harbor in Australia, ending her seagoing days. She was converted to scrap in 1933.

A "mini" reunion of Millers

It was a few years back -- in June of 2006 -- that three Miller cousins got together in the City Park at Spearfish, South Dakota, for something of a "mini-reunion."

Left-to-right are: Pete Miller of Metaline Falls, Washington, son of Fred and Charlotte Miller; Jeanette Miller Gleed of Rapid City, South Dakota, oldest daughter of Alex and Mildred Miller; Connie Miller Merchen of Rapid City, South Dakota, middle daughter of Alex and Mildred Miller; and Larry Miller of Spearfish, South Dakota, younger son of John and Lettie Miller.

The last large gathering of this Miller family was in Chadron, Nebraska in 1985. Or was it 1988?    Or....?   Perhaps we're due for another one, eh?

Millers find a home in the Pend Oreille

Pete and Dora (Eckerdt) Miller came to the United States from Russia and were married in Longmont, Colorado in 1909. They ultimately chose Whitney, Nebraska, as their home, but their children would make their homes in other locales -- ranging from Wyoming and Arizona to Washington and Texas.

We've visited most of these places and must confess that we've become especially smitten with one of them.

The beautiful Pend Oreille River Valley north of Spokane, Washington, is home to many of Pete and Dora's descendants.

In the photograph above is their grandson, "Pete" Miller and his wife, Judy, who guided us up to this overlook above Metaline Falls, Washington, which they've called home most of their lives -- and the place they chose to raise their family. Pete's brothers, Wayne and Charlie, aren't far away, and their sister Jean and family live just to the south in Spokane. Their mother, Charlotte Miller, still lives in the family home nestled on a hill above the river. Pete's cousin Albert "Mike" Miller and his wife, Cheryl, live in nearby Ione.

It's easy to see why two of Pete and Dora's sons -- Fred and Albert -- chose to settle in this region after they left military service following World War II. There's nowhere in the country any more beautiful, and it's hard to imagine a better place to raise kids.

I suspect that if Pete and Dora Miller were to peek down from above today, they'd find great joy in seeing the wonderful lives many of their descendants have found in this part of the country. It's a far cry from the wind-swept plains along the Volga River where they grew up. I think they'd be very pleased.