Josiah Miller was born in Chester District, South Carolina, November 12, 1828. He was a farmer’s son, working on the farm, until he was about eighteen years old, when he went to the State University of Indiana. He graduated in 1851 and arrived in Kansas in August 1854. On January 3, 1855, he and his partner published the first number of the “Kansas Free State” paper at Lawrence. The firm was Miller and Elliot. They owned and edited the paper. It was the first free stat paper actually issued from a press in the territory, but on May 21, 1856, it was destroyed by order of the territorial government. The office was ransacked, the presses broken and type scattered along the streets and thrown into the river by Sheriff Jones and his posse.

In 1857, he was elected to the office of Probate Judge of Douglas County and served several years. He was also elected a member of the first State Senate in 1861. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1866.

Judge Miller was a personal friend of Gen. Lane. In 1867, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he suggested the motto “Ad Astra per Aspera” for the Kansas State Seal. On Feb. 24, 1863, Governor Carney appointed him to one of the Commissioners to locate the State University. He died in Lawrence on July 7, 1870.

This picture was given to the library by Mrs. William Miller, a sister-in-law, in March, 1930.