Some of our potential Germanna Revolutionary War heroes are difficult to identify positively. Henry Miller, to be discussed this time, is one. There was a Henry Miller among the Germanna people. There was a Henry Miller who enlisted from Culpeper Co., on 10 Jul 1780. (See Register 21, Vol. 1 of " Papers Concerning the Army of the Revolution ", which exists in manuscript form at the Virginia State Library.)
Are these the same two Henry Millers? Probably they are. Before we examine a bit of circumstantial evidence to support this, we might note that Henry was 53 years old, with a physical description of 5 feet, 5 inches in height, black hair, dark complexion, hazel eyes. According to the enlistment record, Henry was born at "Keipoltz". (Thus, he was probably a German German, not an English German.)
Henry lived in Pennsylvania prior to Virginia. He had married (in Pennsylvania) Susanna Sibler, daughter of Michael Sibler, citizen and master carpenter, and of Barbara, who were husband and wife in legal and honest wedlock. Susanna was born at Auerbach and the birth was recorded in the Lutheran Church at nearby Langensteinbach, in Baden. Susanna brought a certificate describing herself when she came to America (apparently she traveled alone), which said she was born 21 Feb 1731. Thus, in 1780, she would have been 49 years old. This supports the idea that "Henry of the army", at age 53, was the Henry who lived in the Germanna community.
Of course, the origin of Henry in Keipoltz also supports the idea that he was in the Germanna community. Family tradition suggests he was an immigrant to Philadelphia about 1748. Shortly before the Revolution, he moved to Virginia with an established family. Several of his children are recorded in the Lutheran church register, though it seems clear that not all of them were born in Virginia. More likely, when the register was being rewritten in 1775, they attempted to show his family completely, even though not all of the original records were in Virginia. In the process, they obviously got some of the dates wrong, as they are mutually impossible. One of the daughters, Sophia, is clearly indicated as baptized in Lancaster, which probably means Pennsylvania; however, some of the children older than Sophia were clearly baptized in Culpeper Co., as they have known Germanna sponsors.
At about the time of the Revolution Henry purchased some land near the Hebron Church, but his big land purchase was 1536 acres at the foot of Peaked Mountain, in what became Rappahannock Co. He is said to have operated tanneries in both Pennsylvania and Virginia. He died at his home in Madison Co., in June of 1801. His will had been witnessed in 1796, and it was settled in November of 1807. Of his twelve children, nine were still living, as was Susanna.
There were other Henry Millers in the county, but none of them fit as well as the Henry described above.
(13 Mar 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.