Biography of Lafayette J. Miller, pages 475/476/477/478.  
History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, 
Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



The true measure of individual success is determined by 
what one has accomplished. An enumeration of those men of a 
past generation who succeeded in their special vocations in 
DeKalb county, Indiana, and at the same time left the 
lasting imprint of their strong personalities upon the 
community, men who won honor and public recognition for 
themselves, and at the same time conferred honor on the 
locality in which they resided, would be incomplete were 
there failure to make a prominent reference to the 
gentleman whose  name initiates this paragraph, for 
although Lafayette J. Miller has long been sleeping the 
sleep of the just, his influence still pervades the lives 
of many who knew him and his memory will long be cherished 
here, for his name is deeply engraved on the pages of 
DeKalb county’s history, for through many years he was an 
important factor in the material and civic history of the 
same.  The splendid success, which came to him was the 
direct result of the salient points in his character. With 
a mind capable of laying judicious plans and a will strong 
enough to bring them into execution at the proper moment, 
his great energy, keen foresight and indomitable 
perseverance resulted in the accumulation of a comfortable 
competency. He carried forward to successful completion 
whatever he undertook, and his business methods were ever 
in strict conformity with the standard ethics of commercial 
life. His is the record of a well balanced mental and moral 
constitution, strongly influenced by those traits of 
character which are ever of especial value in a progressive 
state of society.  Lafayette J. Miller was bone in Seneca 
county, Ohio, on August 25, 1835, and his death occurred at 
his home in Auburn, Indiana, on August 17, 1902, at the age 
of sixty-six years and eleven months. He was a son of John 
Wesley and Hulda (Jones) Miller, the former probably of 
German descent and the latter it is thought of Welsh 
ancestry.  John W. Miller was a Lutheran minister, although 
he had been reared in the Methodist faith. When the subject 
of this sketch was about ten years of age his parents 
located first in Allen county, where the subject was reared 
to manhood. About the time he was reaching the age of 
maturity the family moved to DeKalb county, their residence 
being for a number of years unsettled owing to the father’s 
work in the ministry. Lafayette J. Miller received his 
education in the schools of the various places where the 
family lived, and at the age of about nineteen years, he 
began teaching school, which vocation he followed in 
different places a number of years with splendid success. 
He finally gave up teaching and bought a small farm near 
Corunna, becoming agent of Lake Shore railroad at that 
place.  He maintained his residence on the farm a greater 
part of the time, but devoted his entire attention to his 
railroad work, having been the representative of the 
railroad company at Corunna when it was an important grain 
shipping point, sometimes having a number of men under his 
direction. He served as agent of the Lake Shore railroad 
eighteen or more years, and in 1882 was elected treasurer 
of DeKalb county, serving two years with credit to himself 
and to the entire satisfaction of his fellow citizens. Upon 
the expiration of his term of office Mr. Miller engaged in 
the grain business at Auburn near the Lake Shore depot and 
followed this business with considerable success up to the 
time of his death. Of sound business ability and strict 
integrity, he not only was able to accumulate a fair amount 
of this world’s goods, but he gained what is of far greater 
value, the confidence and good will of all with whom he had 
dealings. He possessed an optimistic spirit, carrying the 
gospel of good cheer wherever he went, and possessed to a 
marked degree those characteristics which win and retain 
friendship. He performed many acts of kindness known only 
to himself and the recipient. He was a faithful husband, a 
kind and loving father and a public-spirited citizen.  In 
November, 1858, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to 
Elizabeth Ellen

McNabb, the daughter of Robert and Prudence (Pearson) 
McNabb, her father having been born in Ireland an coming to 
the United States with his parents when but ten years old, 
while his wife was of Yankee parentage, having been born in 
the state of New Jersey. Mrs. Miller, who was born in 
Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1841, was a 
child of but eight years when her parents moved to 
Illinois, where she lived until young womanhood, when the 
family moved to Haysville, Ohio, and when she was fifteen 
or sixteen years old, the family located in Allen county, 
this state,  where she was residing at the time of her 
marriage, her parents remaining in Allen county to an 
advanced age. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller were born two 
children, Orlan, who died on October 16, 1898, and Ida, who 
became the wife of Frank A. Borst, now a resident of 
Auburn, Indiana. Mr. Borst was born at Wadsworth, Ohio, in 
1854, a son of Joseph A. and Mary Etta (Beach) Borst.  
Joseph Borst was a native of Schoharies county, New York, 
and became the owner of the Western View fruit farm near 
Wadsworth, Ohio, one of the best know fruit farms in the 
world under one management,  and in the business life of 
his section he was a prominent and influential figure, 
having assisted in the promotion of a railroad in that 
locality.  Frank A. Borst came to Corunna, Indiana, in the 
early seventies, being in the employ of the Lake Shore 
railroad there,  and was afterwards elected auditor of 
DeKalb county, performing his duties in an efficient 
manner, and upon the death of Mr. Miller, he succeeded to 
the latter’s grain business at Auburn, in which he is still 
engaged, and in which he has continued the splendid success 
so auspiciously inaugurated by Mr. Miller. He has also been 
very successful in the manufacture of concrete-making 
machinery. To Mr. and Mrs. Borst were born four children, 
namely:  Charles O., born September 10, 1880, is a graduate 
of Oberlin College and the law department of the University 
of Michigan, and is engaged in the practice of law and the 
abstracting of titles in Auburn, where he enjoys a splendid 
business and is numbered among the city’s successful 
business men. He married Georgia E. Zimmerman, the daughter 
of Franklin T. Zimmerman,  deceased and is the father of 
four children Marion, Josephine, Richard and Mary 
Elizabeth; Ruth Borst became the wife of Earl Cline, and 
they have a daughter, Genevieve; George remains at home 
with his father, and Lafayette J. died in infancy. Mrs. Ida 
Miller Borst died at South Bend, Indiana, on January 13, 
1908, and is buried at Auburn. She was a lady of many 
splendid qualities of head and heart, who had endeared 
herself to all who know her and in her death the community 
sustained a distinct loss. Mrs. Miller, the widow of the 
immediate subject of this sketch, now makes her home with 
her son-in-law, Mr. Borst, in Auburn, and though quiet and 
unassuming in her disposition she has by her kindly manner 
and worthy life endeared herself to all who are acquainted 
with her.  Lafayette J. Miller was a man who, in every 
respect, merited the high esteem in which he was 
universally held, for he was a man of public spirit, 
intellectual attainment and exemplary character. In dealing 
with mankind, his word was his bond; deceit never entered 
into any transaction he had with his fellow men. One glance 
of his frank eye, one word spoken with sincerity, carried 
conviction. His plain, rugged honesty, his open-hearted 
manner, undisguised and unaffected, impressed itself upon 
those with whom he had dealings, and the example of his 
life was an inspiration to others.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com