Miller family
Miller, a North American family name of Swiss origin, is the most common family name in the Mennonite Church (MC) and in the Old Order Amish and Conservative and related Amish groups. As of 1957 the name was completely missing from the lists of ordained men in all other Mennonite groups in North America, except for three in the General Conference Mennonite Church. In 1956, among Old Order Amish ordained men, 131 bore the name Miller, 63 in Ohio and 37 in Indiana. In the other Amish groups 28 more ordained men were Millers. In the Mennonite Church (MC) there were 93 ordained men bearing this name, six of these in Indiana and eleven in Pennsylvania. Miller is generally considered a midwestern Amish name. Very few families of Millers descend from the early Mennonites in colonial Pennsylvania, although Jacob Miller, who came to North America in 1710, was one of the first Mennonite settlers to arrive in Lancaster County from Switzerland. Among prominent church leaders with this name are Moses B. Miller (1819-1902), bishop in the Johnstown (Pennsylvania, USA) district from 1848; Noah E. Miller (1880-1930), bishop in Springs, PA from 1921; D. D. Miller (1864-1955), bishop near Middlebury, Indiana from 1906; Jonas B. Miller (1870-1952) an influential Conservative minister in Grantsville, Maryland from 1897; Moses J. Miller (1811-97) an influential Old Order Amish bishop in Holmes County, Ohio, from 1847. Other well-known workers of this family in the Mennonite Church have been O. O. Miller of Akron, Pennsylvania, son of D. D. Miller and long-time executive secretary of the Mennonite Central Committee; Ernest E. Miller of Goshen, Indiana, missionary to India and president of Goshen College 1940-54 was also a son of D. D. Miller; Paul M. Miller, bishop and professor in the Goshen College Biblical Seminary; D.D. Miller, bishop in Berlin, Ohio; Ira E. Miller, minister and dean of Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia; Paul R. Miller, bishop in Walnut Creek, Ohio; Ivan J. Miller, Conservative bishop in Grantsville, Maryland.
Bibliography
See also Müller, for the European history of the family.
Eight Miller genealogies, mostly of Amish families, are listed in Mennonite Encylcopedia, "Genealogies."
| Author(s) | Harold S Bender |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. "Miller family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Miller_family&oldid=119507.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. (1957). Miller family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Miller_family&oldid=119507.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 690. All rights reserved.
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