Miller School of Albemarle - Blue Ridge Blast Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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Samuel Miller The f0'1llldC1' of the lllfilcr illmzzzal Labor School of Albemarle. BORN JUNE I, 1792. DIED NTARCI-I 27, 1869. I O one has ever done financially for the cause of education in Virginia as much as Samuel Miller. A No alumnus of the University of Virginia has ever done financially as much for his Alma Mater as Samuel Miller, who never enjoyed her benefits. I No one has ever done financially for female education in Virginia as much as Samuel Miller. No one has ever done for the cause of industrial education in Virginia as much as Samuel Miller. Now who is this great benefactor? Wfhere was he born? By what refining influences Was he surrounded in his early days that made him do so much? In what school was he educated that he received such an impulse for the cause of education? He was born in a log cabin with one room and a dirt floor and one glassless Window, on the summit of the Ragged Mountains in Albemarle, eight years after the coming of the Hessians from the Charlottesville jails. There was nofhiiig to commend his surroundings but the pure air and Water and the magnificent views. There is nothing to commend his mother except himself. His father was, While known, legally unknown. His grandfather and grandmother were the poorest of the poor and died about the time of his birth, and are buried near that cabin door. His mother's name was Ianeg she had tvvosisters, named Mary and Ann. Mary had a son named Jesse, who was a half brother to Samuel. jane had another son named John, older than Samuel, and his full brother. He and Johnand Jesse got all their education at the common school at Batesville. As they were poor boys their tuition was paid for by the State. This gives us some idea of the value of the schools in Virginia before the War. His mother and his aunt Mary are buried in the Miller School burying- ground, near the home of his mother, which her son prepared for her on the tract of land upon which he planned to build his famous school. She died in 1841. M 5

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A, A .H MMN BUILDING , ,1'!S '

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' His older brother, John, went to Lynchburg, Va., about 1814 and entered into business and became quite a successful merchant. He secured his education at a school near Batesville under the free school laws of that time in Virginia, which shows the efficiency of the system then in vogue. John Miller laid the foundation of the great fortune of Samuel Miller. At the time of his death in 1841 he was estimated to be worth about SIO0,000. All of this he gave to his younger brother, Samuel, whom he had some years previous to his death called from his home in Albemarle, near which he was teaching school, to be his partner in business at Lynchburg, Va. Therefore the fact must not be overlooked that to John Miller belongs the beginning of the great fortune ultimately accumulated by Samuel Miller. It was a cherished idea of these two brothers in their youth to amass a large sum of money for the purpose of establishing in itheir county a charitable institu- tion for the education of poor children. After john Milleris death Samuel Miller, with their united fortunes, moved on with a steady, unwavering purpose to the accomplishment of this cherished dream of their youth, until he became one of Virginia's greatest benefactors. It is a rather remarkable fact that what was left to Samuel Miller in 1841 by his brother would have amounted, at 6 per cent., compound interest, to- the sum that he wished in 1869 to leave to the Albemarle school. - ' On the first day of April, 1859, Mr. Miller made his will, and by it established and richly endowed the Miller Manual Labor School of Albemarle. He also added greatly Q31 51,5005 to the munificent gifts with which he had already endowed the Lynchburg Female Grphan Asylum. He subsequently gave S1oo,ooo to the University of Virginia. In addition to all these gifts to the cause of education, he provided liberally for his relatives and those who had cared for him and proved true to him through long years of friendship. During the war Mr. Miller managed his finances with rare sagacity and con- stantly added to his wealth. At the time ,of Hunter's raid into Virginia in 1864, large amounts of his bonds were stolen. Most of these, being considered worth- less to the holders, were left, near Salem, Va., where Mr. Miller found them. However, they held on to'1S1o9,ooo of Indiana bonds, which were confiscated by order of the United States. Circuit Court of Indiana, and were equally divided between the government and those who took them. The finders, being unable to agree as to the division of their ill-gotten gains, left their half untouched until after the war closed, when Mr. Miller recovered them, while the United States Government, by a special act, refunded to him the other half. Mr. Miller died on the 27th of March, 1869, at his residence in Campbell COUIHY, Virginia, aged seventy-six years, eight months and three davs, and was buried in the grounds of the Lynchburg Female Crphan Asylum, where a magni- 6 . X X 1 +- B - V 4 . i, I i Y ' N