The following family may not exactly meet the requirements of East Tennessee but at least they lived in Tennessee. The important point is that it is a Germanna family. The immigrant in the family is John Frederick Miller, who came from Freudenberg in 1738. There is no doubt in my mind but that they came on the ship Oliver, which didn’t quite make it to a landing in Virginia. Instead, it floundered off the shore with a great loss of life. Only about one in three of the people who departed with the ship made it to Virginia.
The Millers (at least the father) was lucky and survived. One of the children born in Virginia was Harman, the subject of the note.
Harman and Haman, his brother, received one shilling in the will of their father (1787). It was not that the father had anything against Harmon but he had already given Harmon two hundred acres of land. This land lay in Halifax County, Virginia, where John Frederick was living. Halifax County is down in the southern tier of counties of Virginia. Harman married Mary Hutcherson. In 1806, Harmon moved to Williamson County, Tennessee, which is centrally located in the state (he appears on the tax list there). The state was very rapidly filling up through these years.
Within a few years Harmon bought 220 acres in Maury Co., TN. A son of Harmon, John, appears to have been there before his father. The 1811 tax list shows Harman, John, Joseph, B. Daniel, and Stephen Miller. Except for Stephen, these individuals were of the Harman Miller family. By 1816, Harman’s brother Frederick has arrived in the county also.
In 1819, Harman wrote his will, but he seems to have lived several more years, for Harman, Jr., was not appointed the administrator of his estate until 1825. This has been the cause for a puzzle, since the wife, and son William, were named in the will as executors. The children are:
- Ann, who married William Hall,
John, who was born about 1777 and married Catherine Hall. He was a farmer and businessman who owned a cotton gin, and a part of a saw and grist mill, and thirty-two slaves, which he left to his wife and children. John was married a second time to Esther Mangrum,
- Nancy, who was born about 1778, and never married,
- Mary who married Unknown Smith,
- Jamima,
- Harman, Jr., who was born about 1781,
- Joseph H., who was born in the early 1780's, married Maria Campbell and Mary Roundtree,
- Kerren S., born about 1788, and never married,
- Daniel B. born about 1790, and
- William R.
The name in Germany was not Miller, of course. The pastor at Freudenberg wrote it as Müller. Don’t forget there are photos of
freudenberg.html">
Freudenberg
on the Germanna History Web page.
(01 Aug 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.