Family History #10: The Miller Sisters

THE MILLER FAMILY
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
~ picture posted previously ~

My Great - great Grandparents
Henry Wise Miller
(May 27, 1834 ~ October 29, 1915)
&
Elizabeth Birkinbine Miller
(February 28, 1838 ~ March 28, 1925)

& their children, standing back row L to R:

Alice Elizabeth (1866 - 1946), Henry Kitzmiller (1860 - 1933),
William Birkinbine (1859 - 1893), Anna Mary (1862 - 1923),
between his parents is the youngest, Jacob George (1870 - 1936)
& not pictured is eldest sister Celestial Rebecca (1858 - 1936)

Celestial was already married and stayed behind when the rest of the family relocated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Lyon County, Kansas. Her younger sisters, Anna Mary and Alice, spent the rest of their lives living not far from their mother, but for Celestial, visits were few and far between. She sent long letters to her mother and sisters, and to her niece Rovilla -- Anna Mary's daughter / my grandmother.

For example, 108 years ago this very week, she wrote:

Lititz [Pennsylvania]
September 29th, 1918

Dear Mother,

I received your letter all right. It found us all as usual. We had a delightful autumn day. This morning we were both to church and this afternoon to Sunday School rally services. This morning's service was for the Veterans; this evening it will be Harvest Home. This afternoon, John and I walked out to the cemetery . . .

[then, a few sad paragraphs of funeral updates and family illnesses]

I must come to a close for tonight. I am getting so sleepy and John is lying on the couch. I send my love to you and all of Alice's family.

~ From Your Celestial

Just a few months before her death, seventeen years later, she wrote to Rovilla:

November 17, 1935

. . . It is now time to close and say good night. I am alone and so I can read and pray and no one interferes. Someday I will be with my loved ones who are waiting for my coming. It will soon be 6 years since John left me. I will never see you here but will meet you in heaven.

~ Your Aunt Celestial

******************

Celestial and Husband John Krall

Celestial's Family

Son, Carrie, John, Celestial, Anna, Son
[the sons are named Frank and Harry,
but I'm not sure which is which]

Anna Mary and Husband William Michael Heideman
Wedding Day ~ March 9, 1886

Anna Mary's Family in 1911

Seated are my great - grandparents:
William Michael Heideman (1855 - 1931)
& Anna Mary Miller (1862 - 1923)
with their children, standing, L to R:
my Grandmother Mary Rovilla Heideman (1891 - 1966)
and her brothers
Melville Miller (1896 - 1966) & Harry Louis (1887 - 1940)

Alice and Husband Nathaniel Reider
Wedding Day ~ April 23, 1886

Alice's Family
The Reider Cousins

Parents: Nathaniel (1861 - 1921) and Alice (1866 - 1946),
Seated on either side:
Edna (1889 - 1976) and Willie (1895 - 1982)
Standing:
Nina (1891 - 1988), Little Alice (1902 - 1978), Ruth (1892 - 1968)
Inset: Nathaniel's ornate calling card.

*********************

A Poem for the Sisters

Louisa May Alcott's tribute to her sister may seem trite at first, but reading it alongside Celestial's letters -- and this one to Anna Mary from their elderly aunt -- makes it seem somewhat less sentimental and rather more true to life.

Lebanon [Pennsylvania]
April 4, 1916

My Dear Niece,

You may never see any of us as you say but keep on the narrow path. . . . Do not forget us. Write often and let me know about your Brothers and Sisters some times as you hear from them. Bidding you Good Night and Good Bye hoping to meet you in Heaven.

Yours truly
from Your Aunt Betsy
[half - sister to Anna Mary's father, Henry Miller]

To Anna

Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
Longing for your distant home,
And the images of loved ones
Warmly to your heart shall come,
Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
Let one fond voice say to thee,
"Ever when your heart is heavy,
Anna, dear, then think of me."

Think how we two have together
Journeyed onward day by day,
Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
While the swift years roll away.
Then may all the sunny hours
Of our youth rise up to thee,
And when your heart is light and happy,
Anna, dear, then think of me.

~ Louisa May Alcott ~
[FN ~ QK ~ KL]

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #11
Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #9: The Reider Cousins

A LIST OF COUSINS & FRIENDS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

My Grandmother Rovilla's early girlish handwriting,
on a tissue - thin paper napkin or placemat.
I wish I knew what this list represents --
maybe school chums or a Sunday school class?

I recognize the first three names:
Rovilla's first cousins:
Edna ~ b 1889; Nina ~ b 1891; Ruth ~ b 1892

[Their mother -- Alice --
and Rovilla's mother -- Anna -- were sisters.]
This family of cousins featured prominently in the memories that Rovilla (1891 - 1966) passed on to my mother and me. I was only nine years old when my grandmother died, yet I had already absorbed numerous stories of these cousins who were close in age to her and lived nearby in Emporia, Kansas

[Pronunciation tip: both "Nina" & "Reider" have a long "i"]

Ruth ~ Rovilla ~ Nina
as noted by Rovilla, in her later,
more sophisticated cursive

Further annotation from another cousin --
different handwriting

Here is the eldest, Edna, on her wedding day
October 3, 1907
Notice the fishbowl!

Nina

Ruth

Little Sister Alice

Brother Willie

In the recent novel The Correspondent, author Virginia Evans takes a curiously bleak view of the staying power of family photos, placing them a distant second to written correspondence:

"Perhaps if you have children . . . grandchildren, they . . . may keep some old photos in a book on a shelf, and perhaps two or three times in a lifetime may turn the page and find your face and think, Ah, yes, doesn’t Jimmy resemble this great-great-grandfather Mick, and continue to turn the page, and so that will be what is left of you, nearly erased, in fewer than three generations, and your life, the life you see from the inside, right now, as monumental, will be reduced to the blood in their veins and perhaps, if you are lucky, a distant namesake . . ." (46)

Only "two or three times in a lifetime"? Given my own experience, I'm not so sure about that. My son Ben agrees with me:

"Sounds like Evans needs to watch Coco again!
Just in time for Halloween!"
In this Pixar classic (2017), young Miguel goes to great lengths, even descending to the underworld on Día de los Muertos, to honor the memory -- and the photographs! -- of his ancestors.

As for my grandmother's cousins, I have been looking at these dear faces for decades and continue to pour over them, like returning again and again to a beloved novel, bringing all the characters to life in my mind's eye, piecing together whatever I can of Grandmother Rovilla's life before the brief time that I knew her -- and those before her whom I never knew. The thing about Rovilla -- she was a born archivist! Looking through all the letters and photos that she saved for posterity, I can see now -- 60 years after her death -- that it is going to take me the rest of my life to keep up with her.

I was recently re-reading Rovilla's obituary (June 14, 1966) and among those listed in attendance at the funeral, were "Edna and Will Morgan." I was nine years old that summer, but I was completely oblivious. I wish I could go back in time to that day and be more aware and retain a conscious realization of meeting Cousin Edna. I don't have that, but I do have her high school music books:

So, as you can see, these folks are not unknown to me. I knew that my grandmother's favorite childhood doll was named after Nina, and I knew that my Great-grandmother Anna Mary (known to the cousins as Aunt Annie) had hand sewn Nina's fabulous wedding dress:

September 12, 1911

Here is the dress today, lovingly preserved
by Nina's granddaughters -- my third cousins!
How grateful I am to have met several of them,
thanks to the miracle of blogspot & facebook!

To be featured again soon,
The Reider Family

Front: Alice (1866 - 1946), Little Alice (1902 - 1978),
Nathaniel (1861 - 1921 )

Back: Nina (1891 - 1988), Edna (1889 - 1976)
Ruth (1892 - 1968), Willie (1895 - 1982)
*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #10
Monday, September 28, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com