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The Miles Family By Steven R. Butler The Miles Family A Brief Biography of
John W. Miles, the only son of William B. Miles and Mary Farrar, was born in either Coffee County or Franklin County, Tennessee. His maternal grandfather, John Farrar, was a prosperous Coffee County planter, who at the time of his death, in 1852, owned six slaves. Presently, the identity of his paternal grandparents is unknown. There is some uncertainty regarding John W. Miles's date of birth. His death certificate states that he was born on December 14, 1837, but the man who supplied that information, John's son-in-law, Rufus Kay Walker (signed as "Kay Walker")--husband of John's daughter, Novella--almost certainly made a mistake. This is understandable in view of the fact that Walker had no direct knowledge of John W.'s birthdate and was therefore either misinformed by someone else, or simply made a guess. To add to the confusion, John W. Mile's tombstone bears the birthdate December 4, 1837, not December 14, as Walker stated on the death certificate. Federal census records, which are the only other documents we have that provide at least an approximate date of birth for John W. Miles, say that he was 15 in 1860 (born about 1845), that he was 23 in 1870 (born about 1847), that he was 33 in 1880 (born about 1847), that he was 64 in 1900 (born in November 1935), that he was 65 in 1910 (born about 1845), and that he was 81 in 1920 (born about 1839). So, which of these ages is correct? To determine which birthdate is correct, we may also look to Franklin County, Tennessee court records, which in October 1856 refer to John as a "minor heir" of William B. Miles, which means that he was under the age of 21 at that time, although, unfortunately, his precise age is not given. In May 1863, his court-appointed guardian, John Duncan, asked to be relieved of his duties owing to his (Duncan's) advancing age. If John had been born in 1837, as his death certificate states, he would have turned 21 in 1858 and therefore, would no longer have been in need of a guardian, but in 1863, he still had one. This is why the date of birth on his death certificate, provided by a man who had no direct knowledge of John's birth, is almost certainly incorrect. The date I have chosen, about 1843, may or may not be correct. It is based on the supposition that John W. Miles reached his majority (age 21) sometime in 1864.
John W.'s mother died sometime before 1849, and shortly afterward, from all appearances, his father abandoned him and his younger sister, Elizabeth Miles, to cohabit with a widow named Sarah Baker, with whom he had additional children. The 1850 census found John W.'s eleven-year-old sister, Elizabeth, living in Coffee County with the family of James R. Brown, while thirteen-year-old sister Mary Jane Miles, was taken in by her grandparents, John and Jane Farrar. The whereabouts of John W. and his sister Martha at this time is unknown. It is not known if the Brown family, who took in Elizabeth, were relatives or just friends or neighbors. In 1856 or 1857, John W.'s father, William B. Miles, died. The circumstances of his death are unknown and his place of burial has likewise been lost to history. Coffee County, Tennessee court records confirm that he was the father of John W. Miles. The 1860 census found John W. and sister Elizabeth, reunited with their father (his age erroneously given in the census as 25), living with their older sister, Martha, who married Green Berry in 1855. In 1860, another sister, Mary Jane, was married to David P. Armstrong (in 1854) and was living in Coffee County. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, John W. was fifteen or sixteen-years-old. When it ended four years later, he was either nineteen or twenty, old enough to have served in either Confederate or Union forces, yet there is no evidence that he fought for either side. There was a John Miles who served in the Confederate Army for a while, was captured by Union troops at the Battle of Murfreesboro and then, while being held as a POW, went over to the Union side, but there is no way to know if this man was "our" John Miles. About 1867, at the age of about twenty-two, John W. Miles married twenty-one-year-old Ophelia Ann Mitchell. They had one child together, William Andrew Miles, on July 29, 1869. The 1870 federal census found them living with another young couple, Jackson and Joicy Tankesly, in District 7 of Franklin County, Tennessee. A woman named Elizabeth Williams is also in the household, but how, or if, she was related, is unknown. At this time, John W.'s occupation is listed as "Farm Laborer," and he owns no property, which indicates he worked on someone else's farm. Likewise, Tankesly owns no property and his occupation is "Laborer," therefore it is a fair bet that John W. did not work for Tankesly. Yet, John Miles is listed in the 1870 federal agricultural census, which shows him cultivating 25 acres of a 225-acre farm valued at $1,000, unless this listing is for a different John Miles. It appears that sometime between 1870 and 1873, John's wife, Ophelia, died, for he married sixteen-year-old Kate Piggan, on January 15, 1873, in Franklin County, Tennessee. The 1880 federal census found John W. and Kate living in Franklin County, with John's son, William A., but no other children. This time, John W.'s occupation was listed as "farmer," but with no property of his own. The 1880 agricultural census confirms that he was a tenant farmer, who in 1879 had cultivated about 45 acres of "improved" land, which had yielded 200 bushels of Indian Corn, 75 bushels of oats, and a smaller amount of beans and Irish potatoes. He owned one cow, two calves, and produced 100 pounds of butter. Curiously, the 1880 census also listed a 12-year-old boy named Louis Cholley as a member of the household, identified as John W.'s "brother-in-law." What's confusing about that is that John's wife's maiden surname was Piggan or Piggeon, not Cholley, so how could the boy be his brother-in-law? Research reveals that Cholley was the son of a Joseph Cholley, a French Immigrant that previously resided in Ohio, but the 1870 census lists no Kate or Cattie in the Cholley household. Obviously, the 1880 census-taker made a mistake by identifying Louis as John W.'s "brother-in-law," but if he wasn't related, then why was he living with them? Unfortunately, that question will probably always remain a "mystery of history." Unfortunately, it does not appear that John and Kate had a happy marriage. About 1880, John W. began consorting with a young woman named Mary Alice Hefner, who bore him a son, John Henry Miles, on September 12, 1881. On January 1, 1884, Mary Alice gave birth to a second son out-of-wedlock, Layton Monroe Miles. In the meantime, John W.'s wife, Kate, was carrying on an adulterous affair of her own, with a young man named Mark Harris, with whom she apparently ran away, prompting John W., in June 1884, to file for divorce in Franklin County Court. What became of Kate, and Mark, afterward is another "mystery of history" as there seems to be no trace of them after that date. On October 20, 1884, in Franklin County, Tennessee, John W. Miles married his third wife, twenty-one-year-old Margaret E. Hodge. A little more than a year later, on August 18, 1885, their first and only child, a boy named Charles Wesley Miles, was born. The following month, on September 24, John W.'s third child with Mary Alice Hefner, Myrtle M. Miles, was born. In December 1885, John W. suddenly and inexplicably abandoned his wife and child and reportedly went to Alabama, either taking Mary Alice Hefner with him, or sending for her soon afterward. It is believed that they initially settled in Lowndes County, where two more children, Cora Alice Miles and Eulicious Binum Miles, were born in 1888 and 1892, respectively. On November 6, 1888, John W.'s oldest son, William Andrew Miles, married Nancy McDaniel in Franklin County, Tennessee. Almost exactly nine months later, John W.'s first grandchild, John Reason Miles, was born on August 7, 1889, in Alabama (probably Morgan County). One wonders if the boy's grandfather even knew about this event. In 1892, after her husband had been gone for nearly seven years, Margaret Hodge Miles filed for divorce in Franklin County Court, which cleared the way for her to legally marry Seaborn E. Jones, by whom she already had two children, daughters Daisy Jones and Nettie Jones, born in 1891 and 1892, respectively. It is not known whether John W. Miles and Mary Alice Hefner were ever legally married, but in 1893, they and their five children left Alabama and went to Texas, where it appears that they initially settled in Johnson County. They may have also lived for a time in Ellis County, before finally settling in the far southeastern section of Collin County. There, in 1898, John W. Miles bought 100 acres of flat, open farmland about three-and-a-half miles northwest of the tiny town of Josephine, established in the late 1880s on a line of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway.
As shown on the map above, between 1885 and 1898, John W. Miles moved from 1. Franklin County, Tennessee to 2. Lowndes County, Alabama and then to 3. Collin County-Hunt County, Texas
During their early years in Texas, two more children, Claud Washington Miles and Novella Miles, were born, in 1893 and 1897, respectively. After the family had settled on their new farm near Josephine, Mary Alice gave birth to another daughter, Mary Idella Miles. In 1901, John W. sold his farm in Collin County and bought 160 acres of land in nearby Hunt County. Although it was only three miles due east of Josephine, their official post office address was Caddo Mills. Here, a ninth (and last) child, Pervy Pauline Miles, was born in 1902.
In 1913, John W. and his wife, Mary Alice, borrowed a large sum of money ($2555) from the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, at 8 percent annual interest, to be repaid by 1918, putting up their 160-acre farm as collateral. Interestingly, this wasn't entirely "new" debt. The agreement they signed notes that this loan was a renewal and extension of four older vendor's lien notes dating back to December 1900. When J.W. Miles originally bought this land, he assumed those older debts as part of his purchase price. This 1913 document bundled that old debt into a fresh, extended agreement with John Hancock. Presumably, the loan was paid back but I have found no evidence of it. It appears that John W. and Mary Alice remained on this farm even after 1915, when he purchased lot number 4 in block "A" of the new "Coffman Addition" in Josephine. Whether or not they ever erected a house on this property is unknown. There is a house there now, but it does not look like it was constructed in 1915. On September 9, 1916, at the age of fifty-seven, Mary Alice died, apparently on the Hunt County farm, of gall stones and cancer of the deuodenum. She was buried the following day at the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Cemetery a few miles west of Caddo Mills and east of Josephine. A deed on file in Hunt County shows that John W. paid the local IOOF Lodge $25 for Lot No. 32 in Block No. 4 in Section No. 2 of the cemetery. (See Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 225 p454.) It is not known if John W. was himself a member of the Odd Fellows. In all likelihood, he bought a lot there simply because it was close--only 2 1/2 miles east, straight down the road that ran past the north end of his property. It appears that following his fourth wife's death, John W. remained on his farm. In 1920, only his youngest child, nineteen-year-old Pauline, remained at home. By this time, all the others had married and started their own families. Following Mary Alice Miles' death in 1916, her nine adult children (or in the case of Pervie Pauline, nearly adult) collectively inherited Mary Alice's half-interest in the 160-acre farm that she and John W. had bought in 1901, making each of the children a one-eighteenth owner of the property. Their father owned the other half or nine-eighteenths himself.
But then, on November 1, 1920, before J. W. Miles officially recorded the deed of sale to his children in county records, John W. executed a $10,000 deed of trust against the 160-acres, a deed that contained some very strict provisions, which, if he failed to comply with any of them, he could lose the farm to the lender. On the same day, he executed a second deed of trust for $1,015.56, making the total of his debt $11,015.56. Here is a chronological list of the above-named activities:
All this activity raises the question: Why did John W. need or want such an enormous sum of money? ($10,000 in 1920 is worth approximately $166,976 today.) Answer: We don't know. It is also interesting to note that John W. did not include either his first-born son by his first wife (William Andrew Miles), or his son by his third wife (my grandfather, Charlie Miles) in any of these transactions. It is equally interesting to note that on November 8, 1920, together with his brother-in-law, H. H. Hefner, and a friend or neighbor, A.J. Lee, J. W. Miles signed an affidavit saying that he and his fourth wife were each only married once and then to each other. (See Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 261, p.514) Of course that was a bald faced lie insofar as John W. was concerned. He was married three times before and had two other children before he married Mary Alice Hefner--if indeed he did so. As of 2026, no marriage record has been located.
But that's not the end of the story: On January 2, 1923, eight of John W. Miles' adult children, in return for a house in Greenville (address not given), sold their shares of the 160-acres that they bought from their father to J. H. Myre and wife. On July 9, 1923, Myrtle Miles Payne, the lone hold-out, together with her husband, sold her share of the property to Myre. (See Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 280, pp.385-8 and Deed Book 289, pp.70-1.> I wonder: Was the house (address not given) intended for their father, who was then about eighty years old? On May 21, 1924, F. H. Myre and wife sold the entire 160-acre former farm of J. W. Miles to a man named E. L. Carpenter, complete with outstanding debts and liens, and that would probably have been the end of it if not for the fact that John W. Miles apparently defaulted on his obligation to pay back the over $10,000 he borrowed using the land as security. In addition, John W.'s children appear to have neglected to pay taxes on the property since taking ownership because on January 31, 1925, F. H. Myre sued John W.'s children for unpaid back property taxes. He also sought foreclosure. I have not yet ascertained the outcome of that suit. (See Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 291, pp.183-4 and Lis Pendens Volume 1, pp.156-7.) Then, in 1926, a lawsuit,styled Pauline Bowen (John W.'s daughter, using her married surname) et al vs. J. W. Miles et al, was filed in Dallas County district court by Pauline and her husband, against A. Y. Creager Company, J. H. Myre, H. L. Carpenter, and her own father, J.W. Miles. But instead of allowing the case to go ahead, the Dallas court, after a plea by the plantiffs, transferred the case to Hunt County. In the absence of further documenation, it is hard for me to say what the suit was about for sure, but in all likelihood, it was about who actually owned the farm, although the reason why Pauline would be involved is unclear. (See Dallas County, Texas 14th District Court Minutes Vol. 50, p.624 and p.642, case 62041a.) In the meantime, probably between 1923 and 1928, John W. Miles went to live with his daughter, Novella, and her husband, Rufus Kay Walker, in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. There, at 3904 Simonds Street (a small house that is still standing), John W. died on May 17, 1928, at the age of about eighty-five. The cause, according to his death certificate, was "acute laryngitis." He was buried two days later, beside Mary Alice at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery near Caddo Mills. There is no John W. Miles listed in the Probate Packet index of Hunt County, Texas for 1928-1930. In all likelihood, he died intestate (without a will) nor any property that would have required probate. I checked both online and in person at the Hunt County Clerk's Office in the courthouse at Greenville, Texas. Although John W. Miles was almost certainly born sometime between 1845 and 1847, on the death certificate, his son-in-law, Kay Walker, erroneously gave December 14, 1837 as John's date of birth. Inexplicably, both the date of birth and the date of death that were carved into the granite tombstone that marks the site of his grave to this day are wrong. The tombstone says he was born on December 4, 1837 and died on May 27, 1928. It is not known who was responsible for these mistakes. Sometime between 1900 and 1908, John W's son, Charlie Miles, left Tennessee and also came to Texas, where he settled in Dallas County. It is not known whether either father or son knew that the other lived in an adjoining county, and if they did, if they were ever reconciled. When he sold his property to his children in 1920, the names of his sons William Andrew Miles and Charles Wesley Miles were conspicuously absent from the deed. One wonders if John W.'s children by his fourth wife knew that they had two older half-brothers. Almost all of John W. Miles' children by his fourth wife were nearly as prolific as their father. Consequently, there are numerous descendants of John W. living in Texas, and other states today. There are also numerous descendants living in Alabama, where John W.'s oldest son, William A. Miles, settled after he reached adulthood. His descendants, by his son Charles Wesley Miles, are less numerous.
So, what eventually became of of John W. Miles' 160-acre farm? After Pauline Miles Bowen's lawsuit was transferred from Dallas County to Hunt County, the case was eventually heard on July 24, 1926 and everyone, apparently, showed up for trial except J. W. Miles. In the end the court found "that the law is for the defendants" and that the plantiff, Pauline Bowen and husband...take nothing by this suit." Furthermore, it was decreed that any claim that Pauline had upon the land "be cancelled and removed as a cloud upon and to the title" of the 160 acres. (See Hunt County, Texas District Court Minutes Volume ?, p. ?, Case No. 15304. Without going into too much detail, in 1931, after both J. W. Miles and Carpenter had defaulted on the loan, the 160-acres was sold by the A. Y. Creager Company at auction in Hunt County, for $2,000, to the National Life Insurance Company of Chicago, Illinois, to which the loan had been transferred back in 1920 (see Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 389, p.376). In turn, the National Life Insurance Company sold the land in 1934 to the Hercules Insurance Company (see Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 356, p.403), which in 1937, sold nearly ten acres to Hunt County (see Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 389, p.376) and in 1938, sold the remaining slightly more than 150 acres to an individual named Norman Lessa (see Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 390, p.317). Today (2026), the land appears to be party wooded, partly cultivated, and partly developed into a small housing estate, with Brushy Creek still running through the wooded part just like it did when John W. Miles owned the land. What John W. Miles needed or wanted $10,000 for in 1920 remains a mystery. This website copyright © 1996-2026 by Steven R. Butler, Ph.D. All rights reserved. |
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On October 6, 1920, all nine children signed a quit claim to their share of the property, making their father the sole legal owner. (See Hunt County TX Deed Bk 261 pp432-3.) But less than a week later--on October 14--he sold them all 160 acres for $5,000 in a promissory note, retaining a vendors lien until it was paid off. (See Hunt County TX Deed Bk 261 pp565-6.) Shortly afterward, on October 18, nineteen-year-old daughter Pervie Pauline Miles petitioned a court to recognize her as a legal adult, even though she was not yet twenty-one. Why? Because as Pauline's petition stated: "That it is advisable, and advantageous to said minor's estate that she have the disabilities of minority removed in this: that she owns an undivided one 18th interest in and to about 160 acres of land in Hunt County, between the towns of Caddo Mills and Josephine and has no guardian of her estate, that the other owners of said property are all of lawful age and are desirous of a partition of said land and unless this minor's disabilities are removed, they will bring suit against her therefor, and entail costs and expenses; that by having her disabilities removed it will avoid such expense." (See Hunt County, Texas Deed Book 261, pp.430-1.)
