J. D. MILLER was born July 31, 1827, in Blount County. He is the seventh of nine children born to ANDREW and SARAH (SCOTT) MILLER. MRS. MILLER was born and raised on the farm where J. D. MILLER now resides. ANDREW MILLER was born in Virginia, and when about six years old was brought to Tennessee; settled first in Washington County, afterward in Greene County, and then in Blount County. MR. And MRS. ANDREW MILLER were of Irish descent. The former was a saddler by trade, and also managed the affairs of his farm in connection with his trade. ANDREW MILLER, SR., grandfather of J. D. MILLER, was a native of Ireland, and immigrated to America before the Revolutionary war, settling first in Virginia.
When of age, J. D. MILLER began business for himself with some property he inherited from his father, and by his industry and good management has added considerable to what he at first received. He now owns a good farm of 260 acres of splendid land under a high state of cultivation, and located on the Big Springs and Montvale Springs Road, eight miles west of Maryville. MR. MILLER is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He has been a ruling elder in the church ten years. He is a Republican in politics, and cast his first presidential ballot for Martin Van Buren. JAMES SCOTT, maternal grandfather of J. D. MILLER, was a native of Ireland, and immigrated to Virginia, where he married, and soon immigrated to Blount County, being among the first there. He was a soldier in the Indian excursion of about 1790 or 1796, and commanded a regiment during that war, and was wounded at the battle fought on the Little Tennessee River.
Source: Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.