Thomas Miller Homestead

     The Thomas Miller Homestead was located just north of the Old Miller Cemetery on US 50 in Lawrenceburg Township, and just below the Indiana and Ohio state line. The land on which the home was located is said to have been the first purchase of land from the United States in Indiana. On April 1, 1801, Thomas Miller and his brother-in-law, Joseph Hayes, Jr. purchased 973 acres here in the bottoms of the Great Miami River. This bottomland area had been settled by the Miller, Hayes and Guard families in 1796.

     Completed in September 1816 by John Hayes for his uncle,  Thomas Miller, the house survived until the mid 1970s when it was torn down. It was one of two houses constructed by Hayes in the Big Bottoms, the other one having been built in 1808 for another uncle, Abiah Hayes. These photographs were taken in 1973. A carved stone with the construction date was still visible at that time under the peak of the roof.

     The extended Miller and Hayes family initially settled in the Redstone/Brownsville, Pennsylvania area after leaving Chester County. The story in the Hayes family is that Captain Joseph Hayes, the scion of this family, mortgaged his farm to equip a cavalry during the Revolutionary War. At the War’s conclusion, he was paid in worthless Continental currency and eventually lost his farm. The clan lived in western Pennsylvania until about 1791 when they moved to North Bend below Cincinnati along the Ohio River. At about the same time, they established Hayes Station along the east side of the Great Miami River. Shortly after the Treaty of Greenville, the family determined that it was safe enough to move to the opposite shore of the River.

     Remnants of this early settlement are now scarce. The foundation of the Miller Homestead is still visible, as is the Old Miller Cemetery where many of Dearborn County’s earliest settlers are buried. Here are the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers Captain Joseph Hayes (1732-1812),  son Solomon (1755-1816), and friend Alexander Guard (1761-1811). Also included among the 150 known burials are Joseph Hayes’ wife Joannah Passmore (1732-1811), their daughter Priscilla (1760-1845) and son-in-law Thomas Miller (1762-1842). Dearborn County’s Miller Township was named after Thomas Miller. (Sources: The Hayes Family by Royal S. Hayes; The History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana, 1885; “150-Year-Old Miller-Guard Home To Be Restored for Second Time,” possibly from the Dearborn County Register in the 1960s)