Miller, William Mathias

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. William Mathias Miller. Born in Maryland.

Now, right there you've got a man whose life was already set up to be complicated, and sure enough, it delivered. When the Civil War came calling, Miller fought as a Virginian, in the Confederate Army. And here's the part that'll sit with you a while: he had brothers serving on the other side, in the U.S.

Army. Same blood, different uniforms, different causes. Whatever those family gatherings looked like after the war, the marker doesn't say, and maybe some things are better left to the imagination.

What we do know is that Miller came to Texas soon after the war was over. A lot of men did, carrying a lot of different things with them. On August 23, 1870, in Fredericksburg, he married Henrietta Norrid.

And the road eventually brought them, or brought him at least in his later years, to Ozona, out in Crockett County, where the land is big and the sky is bigger and a man from Maryland who fought as a Virginian could maybe finally just be a Texan. That's where the marker finds him, in his old age, in Ozona. Born in Maryland.

Fought in Virginia's cause. Buried in Texas history. William Mathias Miller.

What the marker says

Born in Maryland. Fought in Civil War as a Virginian in the Confederate Army, although he had brothers in the U.S. Army. He came to Texas soon after the war. Married Henrietta Norrid in Fredericksburg, August 23, 1870. Lived in Ozona in old age. Recorded - 1970