John and Martha trudged across the tundra, mile after mile, from Bath, New Hampshire, to the town of Bellmont, Franklin County, where they settled on the west side of Lower Chateaugay Lake in 1833. It's doubtful as to whether their kids killed and roasted any of the family oxen along the way, nor do I even know if they owned such a beast. However, I imagine that they brought some of their stuff in some kind of a wagon, and it was pulled along by some kind of an animal. So maybe it was an ox after all. (See Alternative Miles Family History)
From what I can gather, they brought 6 children with them: Adaline [Young] (1820-1906), Martha Jane [Kirby] (1822-??), William Bell Miles (1824-1885), Olive Susan [Cantwell] (1826-1902), Abner (1830-1851), and Josephine [Percy] (1833-??). It's interesting to note that since Josephine was born in November, I assume that Martha would have been pregnant while they made the trek from NH to NY, as it's doubtful whether they would travel at that time of the year, and also considering they didn't yet have a house to live in when they arrived in NY. It must have been quite a journey; besides being pregnant, the ages of the children were 13, 11, 9, 7, and 3, respectively. A lot of mouths to feed, and a lot of responsibility for those hardy pioneers. In those days, the journey would most likely have been made on foot with perhaps some service animals to carry their meager possessions. In addition to the six children, there were four 'unknowns', who died as infants. One lived for a day in 1819, two died at childbirth in 1828 and 1829, respectively, while a fourth infant lived only 4 days, from 23-27 December 1832. Also, Martha was 43 years of age at the birth of her last child, Josephine.
John and Martha lived to be quite old, in their '80's, as did two of their children, Adaline and Olive. Olive Miles is mentioned numerous times in Charlie Merrill's "The Old Guide Story" as being a schoolteacher. William "Bill" is also mentioned in the book, as is his father "Squire" Miles.
The property was passed down in the family to a cousin, Millard Douglas, who had a steakhouse called "The Ranch" in the mid 1970's. My dad wound up with about 25 acres, that my sister and I inherited; however it was landlocked. The deed gave a right-of-way for a "team of horses and men" to pass through. The fellow that bought the property wouldn't let me drive through with my truck, the idiot; he also wouldn't let my ex-wife Teresa pass through because she wasn't a man. We wanted to buy the property and move into the house in the early 1980's. The realtor who wound up selling it to the above-mentioned idiot had a hard time selling it and later told me that he wished he had known I wanted to buy it, as he had a hard time selling it. The property, about 100 acres or so, sold for about $40,000. What a steal.
The old story goes, that back in the olden days, John and Martha went to town (ie, Malone) to do some trading. In those days, the 13-mile journey warranted an overnite in Malone, so they left the kids alone. Upstairs was a loft, with a ladder, where the children slept. During the night, wolves somehow got inside the house downstairs, and scared the living bejeezus out of the children.
Somewhere someone in our family has a copy of old John D. Miles' will. It includes 2 buffalo robes, and some silver spoons and forks that eventually were passed down to myself. However, the buffalo robe was quite worn out and in very poor condition; when I moved off to the big city to get educated, I sold it in a garage sale. No big deal, just interesting that I get all this family heirloom stuff, like these photos I'm scanning and posting here on the web!! So I guess I'm the keeper of the family treasures or something like that...
