At the request of the family of the deceased, the following sketch was prepared by the Rev. J. H. Norman and the Rev. W. O. H. Perry:

The Rev. Fleming Mitchell Miller was born in Cooper county, Mo., April 4, 1824. During his boyhood he enjoyed no educational advantages beyond those afforded to all the children of his community, but he made the best possible use of these advantages. In the spring of 1843, he moved with his parents to Andrew county, Mo., and there he made his home for nearly forty seven years. He was married to Miss Nancy E. McDonald September 6, 1846. Five sons and three daughters of these parents were raised to manhood and womanhood, and all became members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. All the sons and the youngest daughter are still living.

Brother Miller professed religion and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church at a camp-meeting in Pettis county, Mo., when he was sixteen or seventeen years of age. He was received as a candidate for the ministry under the care of Platte Presbytery at Miller's school house, in Platte county, Mo., March 31, 1848, and licensed to preach the gospel March 31, 1849, at the log church house standing on the old camp-ground three miles south of Savannah, in Andrew county.

On the 10th of October, 1851, in the M. E. church, South, in St. Joseph, he preached his trial sermon from Rom. viii. 1. The Rev. J. R. Allen preached the ordination sermon from 2 Cor. v. 20, after which Brother Miller was ordained to the whole work of the gospel ministry by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, the Rev. A. W. Guthrie presiding and giving the charge. For more than thirty-eight years he spent his whole time in the work of the ministry in the bounds of the same presbytery.

By his industry and the faithful improvement of all his opportunities he had secured a good English education, and had studied such theological works as were necessary to meet the requirements of presbytery, and had extended his research beyond these requirements. Throughout his whole ministerial life he was an earnest student of theology and of the interests of the church. But he was emphatically a student of the Bible.

As a citizen he manifested great interest in the affairs of his country. This led him to obtain a thorough knowledge of the policy of our government, thus preparing him for intelligent citizenship in the highest sense. As a husband and father he was faithful and true.

As a minister he had some marked characteristics. His kindness in his social and pastoral relations secured for him a wonderful power over the hearts of all with whom he became acquainted, contributing greatly to his success in revival meetings, in which work he became very eminent. He was instrumental in organizing and building up more congregations than any other minister of Platte Presbytery. No man was more extensively known or more generally loved by all classes of people throughout North west Missouri. His relation to the ministers of his own presbytery was a very dear and precious one.

In the pulpit he appeared to the best advantage. His sermons were noted for their appropriateness and for their manifest power in honoring God and reaching the hearts of men. His favorite themes were repentance, regeneration, and the atonement. His exposition of his view of the nature of redemption was clean and forcible. He earnestly contended for time and place religion. His ability to console the hearts of Christians, and to lift them into the atmosphere of heaven. contributed to his efficiency in preaching funeral sermons, of which he had much to do.

During a protracted meeting in one of his own congregations, on the evening of Wednesday, January 15, 1890, he was preaching one of his characteristic revival sermons, and became more than ordinarily interested in his effort to lead souls to Christ. In this effort his physical energies were prostrated. His members cared for him tenderly during that night, and took him home the next day on a bed in a sleigh. He told his family that his work was done. His physician decided that he had heart disease and pneumonia, and that there was no hope of his recovery. On Monday night January 20, 1890, at 9 o'clock he passed calmly away.

His loss is deeply felt by his family, by his community, and by the churches to which he ministered, as well as by his large circle of acquaintances. The presbytery has lost its oldest member, and one of its wisest counselors. The great question now is, Who can fill his place? May we not confidently ask all the members of the church in Platte Presbytery to pray the great Head of the church to fill the place made vacant by the death of our dear brother?
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, February 13, 1890, page 1]

Report of Committee on Deceased Ministers

Name: F. M. Miller
Presbytery: Platte
Time of Death: January 20, 1890
[Source: Minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1890, page 37]

Fleming Mitchell Miller was the first born of William A. and Chelley Mitchell, and the eldest of six sons, three of whom became ministers in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was born in Lafayette County, Mo., in April, 1824, but reared to manhood in Pettis County. When 18 years of age he moved with his parents to Andrew County, Mo., where he spent the rest of his life. The days, in which his early youth were spent, were characterized by great religious fervor. It was not the wild outburst of fanaticism, but the deep flowing stream of fervent piety which had descended from the great revival of 1800, and spread over the valleys of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. Men, in these days, both in the laity and the ministry, possessed a power peculiar to their time. The very air was redolent with fervent piety. Men preached, exhorted, prayed and sung with an unction, which was a concomitant of the times. Under these circumstances favorable to great depth of piety, this young man grew up, from his very birth to his manhood. His father was a man much above the average of his time in education, intellectual accomplishments, general information and social and Christian influence; while his mother was a woman superior to most women in intellectual gifts, and of the most constant and fervent piety. In the boyhood of young Miller, he was under the immediate Christian influence and ministry of two of the founders of this church--Revs. Finis Ewing and Samuel King. He was constantly familiar with the preaching of such men as Revs. R. D. Morrow, J. B. Morrow, Robert Sloan, David Kirkpatrick and P. G. Rea in their palmiest days. He was married to Miss Nancy E. McDonald on the 6th day of September, 1846, which was one of the happiest events of his life, and contributed more to his eminence and usefulness in life than any other incident perhaps in it. Two years after this marriage, he placed himself under the care of Platte Presbytery as a probationer for the ministry, and six months afterwards was licensed to preach. In October, 1851, in the city of St. Joseph, Mo., he was solemnly set apart to the whole work of the ministry. His power in the pulpit was marked from the beginning of his ministry. His personal magnetism and influence over men were wonderful, His personal characteristics were ruggedness and strength. These he displayed everywhere, in the pulpit, in the management of meetings, in the church judicatories, and in social life. He was endowed with a heavy, strong, but well-modulated voice, which instantly attracted the attention of the audience, and held it well in hand until the close of his efforts.

For forty years he labored in the bounds of Platte Presbytery, and no man in any denomination, or in any circle of life, perhaps, did more to mould public opinion or shape the destinies of men than he. So extensively was he known, and so universally respected, that everywhere he was addressed as "Uncle Mitch." His popularity was among all denominations, nor was he narrow or sectarian in his sympathy and fellowship. His life was full of labors and full of sacrifices for the church and for the public good. He died with his armor on, going out of a meeting for want of strength, to lie down and die five days afterward.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, September 10, 1896, page 7]

Rev. F. Mitchell Miller came to Andrew county in the spring of 1843, when his father, Wm. A. Miller moved there. He was converted at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and put himself under the care of Platte Presbytery at its organization, April, 1845. He was licensed April, 1849, at the Savannah camping ground, and for two years labored as a home missionary in Southwestern Iowa and Northwestern Missouri. September 6, 1848, he married Nancy E. McDonald, and his father died soon after, leaving him the care of his mother and three younger brothers. In earlier years he hired a hand for the farm and missionated nearly six months, teaching a school in the fall and winter for sixteen consecutive winters. He served the church at San Antonio for many years, but was very active all his life as an evangelist and organizer of churches.
[Source: History of Platte Presbytery or Presbyterianism in Northwest Missouri, compiled by Rev. Walter H. Clark, Kansas City: Tiernan-Dart Printing Company, 1910, page 163]