Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-02-21

A Virginia millionaire.
An old man has lately died in Virginia, leav-
ing an estate valued at more than two millions
of dollars, the settlement of which, as is apt 10
be the case with such large properties, has al
ready led to litigation, promising t0abe the
most important in the amount involved and
the eminence of the counsel employed that has
occupied the courts Of that state for many
years. The deceased had history more
strange than most romances His name was
Samuel Miller. He was the Legitimate son OF
an eccentric Scotch lawyer, who settled in
Charlottesville nearly a century ago, and
woman named Miller, one of the rude and half
civilized people who then inhabited range of
high rocky bills near that place, known as the
Ragged mountains. Deserted by his father even
before his birth, and by his mother soon after,
Miler's Childhood and youth were passed in ex-
treme penuTy and suffering, and he grew up as
ignorant, uncouth and savage as the wild
beasts in the mountains around him. But his
Scotch blood, or some other influence, made the
unthrlt and ideness of his natural associates
distasteful to INN, and he contrivcd, while still
a boy, to find employment in a store in Lynch
burg. Awkward and unpromising as he was,
he made himself useful to his employer, aud
proved to be patient, shrewd, Industrious, Wig
liant and persevering. He saved every cent not
required for his most abstemious mole of life,
and before many years had enough to under
take business on his own account. Here his in
dustry and shrewd appreciation of business
chances brought him rapid success, In a few
yeas be was known as "Rch Sam Miller" He
dealt largely in -four, tobacco, sugar and other
great staples, and NATIONAL state and other
securities He used to say that he deserved no
great credit Tor his skin in money making; his
success was rather due to the fact that his
agents rarely or never deceived him.
Having accumulated fortune of two millions
or more, while he was still comparatively a
young man. he again changed his mode of life,
retiring to his farm, about four miles from
Lynchburg, where he lived in seclusion till bis
death, seeing very few people, and only those
who came TO him on business. Hundreds OF
persons in that region who had heard his name
every day of their lives, never saw his face He
did not care for agriculture, but left his farm to
the management of his servants, and spent his
time in studying the market reports in the news
papers, and conducting his correspondence with
his agents in the financial centres of this coun-
try and the old world. 1t is a curious spectacle,
this rude, unlettered, ill-tnanncrcd and penuri-
GUS old man, in diIapidated house on Lonely
farm in Virginia, controlling vast pecuniary in
terests and directing the movements of bankers
in London, Frankfort and Havre He loved
money, bur did not shrink from parting with it
tuiFl ls- A
spoke calmly OF death, as an event to be neither
desired nor Stunned, and on the last day of his
life, when he was assured that his end was near,
he called for the papers TO see the price of gold
His age at his death was seventy-eight years.
HIS property was estimated at about two mil
lions. He had been worth much more than
that, but when Hunter made his raid in the
neighhorhood Of Richmond, million dollars in
bondsiwhich Miller1hen had in his house were
taken, and in the hasty retreat were scattered
about the eountry and most of them lost
Mllle.ii left will, making bcquests to indiyidu-
ais, the city of Lynehburg, the university OF
Virginia, &C., but the bulk Of his property was
given 10 endow 4 manual labor school to be
called by his name, for the education OF orphans
and other poor while children Of the county of
Albemarle, whose parents were unable to edu-
cate them. The management of the institution
in certain respects was entrusted to the "board
of the literary fund.- Of the state of Virginia
the county court Of Albemarle, the school CEN.
missioners and the overseers of the poor of the
county, and it was provided that if the legisla-
= ture of the commonwealth should pass any law
which would defeat or prevent the carrying out
the objects and purposes OF the trust, then the
whole Of the trust fund was given TO five ilegit-
innate children Of the tcstator, who, by the way,
was never married. Here comes the opportuni-
ty for the great legal controversy. Since the
execution of the win all the official bodies
named as administrators of the trust have been
abolished. there is no longer a board of the
literary fund, there is no county court of Abe.
marie, no school commissioners and no county
oyerseeis OF the poor The executor brings suit
to obtain direction from a competent authority
as 10 his duties in the disposition of the proper
ny, and all the interests involved are represented
BY long array of eminent counsel. The opin-
ion prevails that the DaYidsons, the natural
children Of the tcstator will obtain the property.
They are as ignorant, rude and untitled for the
intelligent use Of wealth as their father was in
his boyhood, and probably with very much
less capacity for keeping it in their possession.