Today, my husband and I went to Castalia Cemetery where we put a rose on Wells Waite Miller’s grave and decided to investigate the Soldiers Monument.
The Soldiers Monument was created by Hughes Granite and Marble Company of Clyde, Ohio. This was, at the time, apparently a well known granite company with its records now stored at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum.
The cost of Castalia Cemetery’s monument? $2,500. This didn’t account for the $500 needed to prepare the site and create the monument’s foundation, though, so the true cost was $3,000. The dedication took place in 1904 in honor of the 264 men who had fought for the Union and were from the Margaretta Township area.
They also created Ohio’s Civil War monument that’s dedicated to people who died at Andersonville Prison. This is the tallest of the monuments in the Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia. It’s also the second oldest in the park, reading “Death Before Dishonor.” This granite company also fashioned the McKinley Monument at Antietam (which we’ve also seen) and the Ohio monuments at Shiloh (where Wells’s brother Lodowick from the 72nd Ohio is buried) and Vicksburg.
There was also a tablet that had, at its top, the words “Capt. Wells W. Miller.” He certainly was honored in his hometown. Because he lived until 1906 in good health until the final few days of his life, it seems very likely that he was at the statue’s and, presumably, the tablet’s dedications.
Wells Waite Miller: Exploration of His Life and Times
I’d like to share my research about Wells Waite Miller from Castalia, Ohio with you. Although I’ve written the material in the order in which I’ve found research material, I now roughly have the posts in the order in which the events occurred.
Blog posts I’ve written on the subject so far include:
- Wells Waite Miller’s America
- Thomas Miller: Ancestors in England
- Great Puritan Migration
- Scandal in the Colonies
- Calm in the Eye of the Storm
- Aaron Miller: Born Under the Drumbeats of War
- Grandparents, Parents, and Siblings
- Enfield, New York
- Ohio Bound
- Oberlin Years: Fierce Debates About Abolitionism
- Enlisting in the Civil War
- A Look at Lodowick G. Miller (current post)
- Captured: Camp Parole
- Marching Towards Gettysburg
- Picketts Charge and 43 Bonus Years
- Glory Days to Invalid Corps
- Castalia Massacre
- Calvin Caswell
- Calvin Caswell, Continued
- Obed Caswell And Walter Caswell: Story of Brothers
- Miller Family Mystery Solved?
- Miller Family Mystery Solved, Part Two
- Amos and Corinne Miller
- Oscar Schultz Kriebel, Part One
- Oscar Schultz Kriebel, Part Two
- Oscar Schultz Kriebel, Part Three
- Oscar Schultz Kriebel, Part Four
- Erie County, Ohio for Congress
- Wells Waite Miller: Republic Candidate for Ohio Governor
- Ohio Antietam Battlefield Commission
- “Speaking the Names: A Tale of Two Brothers” at Ashland University’s Black Fork Review
I invite you to become part of this journey, sharing my posts with people who enjoy reading historical biographies.
If you read this material and have additional information that’s directly tied to Miller or sets context about his life—or you’ve spotted errors—please email me at kbsagert@aol.com.