Elder Miller
Waverly Township, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Pioneer preacher and teacher in Abington region, lived near this village. Born in Connecticut in 1775. Settled in Waverly about 1800; died here in 1857. The first church in the township, and the first school, were on his farm.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born in Connecticut in 1775, Elder Miller joined the stream of New England settlers who pushed into northeastern Pennsylvania's Abington region around 1800. On his own farm he hosted the township's first church and its first school, serving his neighbors as both preacher and teacher until his death in 1857. His homestead became the seedbed of community life on a raw frontier.
Why it matters
Pioneers like Elder Miller carried the twin institutions of church and school into the wilderness, laying the civic foundations of countless American towns.
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Related people
- · Elder Miller
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Galusha Grow
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Rev. Jacob M. Koehler (1860-1932)
Scranton, PA · est. 1999
In the late nineteenth century, deaf children in Pennsylvania often went without formal schooling, and Rev. Jacob M. Koehler—an ordained minister who was himself deaf—set out to change that. In 1882 he founded the Scranton institute that grew into the Scranton State School for the Deaf, and he became a national voice for the education of deaf children, serving as president of the National Association of the Deaf and representing the United States at the 1889 World Congress of the Deaf in Paris.
Rev. William Bishop
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Born in England in 1749, William Bishop became the first ordained minister to serve the future city of Scranton. Around 1795 he raised a combined log church and dwelling near this spot, where he preached to the scattered settlers of the region until moving on; he died in nearby Scott Township in 1816. His humble log meetinghouse was among the first institutions of faith in the Lackawanna Valley.