Submitted to the ORMULTNO-L maillist by Peter Wasser on
3/30/00
The Dalles Daily Chronicle
The Dalles, Oregon
March 2, 1932
Last Rites Held For Mrs. Sarah E. Miller
Burial Will Be In Wasco Cemetery; Was Wagon Train Pioneer.
Services for the late Mrs. Sarah E. Miller who died here Monday were
held today at 1 o’clock from Zell’s chapel, Rev. G. K. Hartman
officiating. Interment was in the Wasco (OR.) cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. F.
M. Sexton supplied the music.
Pallbearers were J. C. Stiles, H. A. White, Victor and Arvid Anderson,
C. A. Tom and George Wilkerson. One sister, Mrs. C. Lovelock of Portland
was here for the services.
Mrs Miller (Sarah E. Ford) was born in Iowa, November 15, 1849, and
crossed the plains with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ford in 1855,
the party making the trip by ox team over the Old Oregon trail via the
mouth of the Deschutes river and Barlow pass to Oregon City (OR.)
At the age of 17 she met and married Thomas Miller, then a steamboat
captain operating boats between Oregon City and The Dalles. A short time
later Mr. Miller took charge of a ferry which was operated about a
half-mile above the present highway bridge at the mouth of the
Deschutes. In company with Silas Smith, Miller build the old toll bridge
known as Miller’s bridge which for many years was the only bridge across
the Deschutes river, reports indicate. The Millers were in charge of
this crossing for five years.
They later moved to a stock farm in the lower Grass Valley (OR.) region
where another five years was spent and from there they moved to
Chamberlin flat (Klickitat county) in Washington, opposite what is now
Rufus (OR.) Here they put in operation the first licensed ferry on the
Columbia river and maintained it for 12 years.
This ferry was then sold and Millers returned to the bridge site on the
Deschutes river to stay for another 12 years. They then went to
Wenatchee, Wash. And in company with their son, Joe, operated a fleet of
11 boats between that place and Bridgeport, hauling ore and freight.
After three years Mr. Miller’s health began to fail and they returned to
Miller’s bridge, where the original holdings had been sold to the sons.
Mr. Miller died in 1906. Since that time Mrs. Miller has lived in The
Dalles.
Mr. Miller, who crossed the plains by ox team in 1818 over the same
route which Mrs. Miller came a few years later, was a volunteer fighter
in the Cayuse war of 1856. During his period of service he was chosen to
carry a message from Canyon City to The Dalles, asking for medical
supplies which were badly needed after a serious encounter with the
Indians.
A few years previous he went to California in the gold rush of 1849.
After the Cayuse war he and his brother Captain J. D. Miller ran the
Willamette and Columbia river boat line.
