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

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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

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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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ticent shaft marks the last resting-place of the friend of the poor children of his native c0unty. A The view from his cabin door is perhaps the finest in Virginia. It is in the midst of that magnificent sweep which all the passengers of the Chesapeake and Ghio Railway delight to enjoy at the eastern opening of the Rockfish Tunnel. It includes the mountains and pointed peaks of the Blue Ridge that overlook the valley from Lexington to Wfinchester. It holds in its wide range Humpback, the signal station of the nation, Rockfish Gap, through which the loaded wagons of the valley came east, Br0wn's Gap, that was made in after years immortal by the tread of Stonewall Iacksonls legions, and Swift Run Gap, where the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe first went through. A few steps further, on the summit of a high peak in these Ragged Mountains, the view includes the mountains of Am- herst and Nelson, of the Peaks of Utter, and the mountains of Greene, and far off Wfillis Mountain in the fading east, the University of Virginia, and Charlottes- ville, and the homes of jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and if sight were strong enough, America's Capitol and A1nerica's Mecca. Perhaps this grand view inspired him to high and noble purposes. None knew his day-dreams as he saw this grandeur. He may have seen the steam cars winding their way over the summit of the Blue Ridge and afterwards gliding through the famous Rockiish Tunnel, or Iefferson's conception of a great Ameri- can university being realized, or in far-off years the triumphant march of the Confederate hosts. But it is a recorded fact that he saw in the center of this broad out stretch of country a school, the most magnificent in all the Southland, with beautiful lawns and farms, with water power and electric lig,hts, and nia- chinery and teachers and food and raiment and a splendid home for children, that his poor life knew nothing of, but which he in his dreams longed for. Above all, in this vision of youth, that he gave his life to make real, he saw coming to the home-school, that in his dreams he built, a long line of children, needy, longing for better things, coming from the mountains, plains, hills and valleys of old Albemarle, that he loved so well, and this line grew longer and longer as the years went by, and he saw also these same children clothed, educated, made strong in mind and body, with firm characters, and noble purposes to do good, t0 strengthen the manhood and womanhood of our land, coming from this home-school to build happy homes and to help in the uplift of the world, and these streams he saw coming in and going out through unending years. From all this beautiful vision the poor, uneducated boy turned to make the dream a reality, and he did it. . - ' T ' ' VVe present below the inventory of Mr. Miller's possessions when he died, and a synopsislof his will. It is to be noted that his entire estate was valued at 31,250,- I50.92g that by his will he gave out 3327600.00 over and above what he gave t0 7