The Dalles Daily Chronicle The Dalles, Oregon March 2, 1932 LAST RITES HELD FOR Mrs. Sarah E. Miller Burial Will Be In Wasco Cemetery; Was Wagon Train Pioneer. Services for the late Mrs. Sarah E. Miller who died here Monday were held today at 1 o’clock from Zell’s chapel, Rev. G. K. Hartman officiating. Interment was in the Wasco (OR.) cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Sexton supplied the music. Pallbearers were J. C. Stiles, H. A. White, Victor and Arvid Anderson, C. A. Tom and George Wilkerson. One sister, Mrs. C. Lovelock of Portland was here for the services. Mrs Miller (Sarah E. Ford) was born in Iowa, November 15, 1849, and crossed the plains with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ford in 1855, the party making the trip by ox team over the Old Oregon trail via the mouth of the Deschutes river and Barlow pass to Oregon City (OR.) At the age of 17 she met and married Thomas Miller, then a steamboat captain operating boats between Oregon City and The Dalles. A short time later Mr. Miller took charge of a ferry which was operated about a half-mile above the present highway bridge at the mouth of the Deschutes. In company with Silas Smith, Miller build the old toll bridge known as Miller’s bridge which for many years was the only bridge across the Deschutes river, reports indicate. The Millers were in charge of this crossing for five years. They later moved to a stock farm in the lower Grass Valley (OR.) region where another five years was spent and from there they moved to Chamberlin flat (Klickitat county) in Washington, opposite what is now Rufus (OR.) Here they put in operation the first licensed ferry on the Columbia river and maintained it for 12 years. This ferry was then sold and Millers returned to the bridge site on the Deschutes river to stay for another 12 years. They then went to Wenatchee, Wash. And in company with their son, Joe, operated a fleet of 11 boats between that place and Bridgeport, hauling ore and freight. After three years Mr. Miller’s health began to fail and they returned to Miller’s bridge, where the original holdings had been sold to the sons. Mr. Miller died in 1906. Since that time Mrs. Miller has lived in The Dalles. Mr. Miller, who crossed the plains by ox team in 1818 over the same route which Mrs. Miller came a few years later, was a volunteer fighter in the Cayuse war of 1856. During his period of service he was chosen to carry a message from Canyon City to The Dalles, asking for medical supplies which were badly needed after a serious encounter with the Indians. A few years previous he went to California in the gold rush of 1849. After the Cayuse war he and his brother Captain J. D. Miller ran the Willamette and Columbia river boat line. Earline, Columbia Gorge Genealogical Society http://community.oregonlive.com/cc/genealogy 78th Annual Wasco County Pioneer Association Reunion May 5 & 6, 2000 The Dalles, Oregon http://w3.gorge.net/dzopf/wcpa.htm