412 MILLER. MILLETT. acquired in the common schools of his native town, which, however, his feeble health never permitted him to attend steadily. His studious habits at home compensated in a measure for the lack of instruction at school. He was instructed in the higher branches and in languages by private tutors. He also attended during short periods the academies in Adams and Williamstown. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk in a mercantile establishment in the city of New York, but two years later, on the breaking out of the cholera in that city, his friends prevailed on him to remove to West Troy, where he was a salesman dur- ing a year, subsequently purchasing the business of his employer Within a year his stock of goods was burned. After an illness of nine months, he com- menced the study of medicine. He pur- sued his studies during a year at West Troy, then for two years as a resident stu- dent in the Berkshire Medical College, during which he attended a course of lec- tures at Woodstock, Vt. He graduated at the Berkshire institution 1837. He then went to New Orleans, and was soon engaged as surgeon of a surveying party at the mouth of the Mississippi River, under Captain Talcott of the United States topographical engineers. Thence he went to Pensacola, Fla., and soon afterwards sailed for New York, where he arrived early in November, 1838, after having been ship- wrecked on the rocky island of Gun Key in the Caribbean Sea. He then engaged during five years in the practice of his pro- fession in Providence, R. I. During this time he was appointed surgeon of General Stedman's brigade of state troops that were called out to suppress the " Dorr rebel- lion." Returning to Pittsfield, he renewed his studies, and in 1844 he became pro- fessor of anatomy and physiology in the medical department of Illinois College. In 1847 he resigned his professorship to accept a position in the army. He was appointed assistant-surgeon of volunteers May 27, 1S47, and major and surgeon of volunteers July 13, in the same year. He joined the army at Vera Cruz, Mexico, and was in active service till the close of the Mexican war. In 1855 he returned to Pittsfield, and removed to Sheffield in 1866 and having retired from practice, purchased the Mount Barnard farm, on which he resided until the day of his death, April 17, 1889. He was many times called by his fellow- citizens of Sheffield to occupy positions of trust in the town. Dr. Miller has been president of the Berkshire Medical Soci- ety, president of the alumni association of the Berkshire Medical College ; a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Berkshire Historical Society. He was a model farmer, and in 1S76 was made president of the Housatonic Agricultural Society, and by his judicious management succeeded in restoring it to a condition of prosperity. He was a great friend of Williams College, and in 1888 gave it forty thousand dollars to establish a pro- fessorship of national history. On March 4, 1862, he was married to Julia, daughter of John and Anne (Alden) Atkins, of Fairbury, 111. She is a direct descendant of John Alden, who came to America in the" Mayflower." MILLETT, Joshua Howard, son of Rev. Joshua and Sophronia (Howard) Mil- lett, was born on the 17th of March, 1842, in Cherryfield, Washington county, Maine. His father was a clergyman of the Baptist denomination and author of the " History JOSHUA H. MILLETF. of the Baptists of Maine." His early edu- cation he obtained in the public schools of Wayne, Maine, where he resided for some years after he was two years of age. He fitted for college at Hebron Academy, He- bron, Maine, and entered Colby University
