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MILLER Family History, Part VIII

Raymond Leland FORBES (1892-1964)

11HBG4211. Raymond Leland Forbes was born on July 25, 1892, in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. He married Cora Etta Taber about May 5, 1913, in San Francisco, San Francisco County, and had five children, but two twin daughters died young:

Raymond and Cora received their marriage license on May 5, 1913, in San Francisco. At the time they were both living in Los Angeles.^{[Mar 1913]} Seven months later son Robert was born in Los Angeles.

The Forbes family remained in Los Angeles through at least 1917 when they lived at 616 Loomis and Raymond worked as a mechanic on Winston Street. Raymond's draft registration recorded that he was short with a slender build, brown eyes, brown hair.^{[Draft 1917]}

The family resettled in Fresno, Fresno County, and bought a home at 60 Hawes Avenue valued at $4,750 by 1930. There Raymond worked as a truck driver in the building trade. Nephew Eddie McCormack (relationship uncertain), age 11, lived with the family in 1930.^{[Cen 1930]}

By 1940 the family bought a $6,000 home at 5134 Nevada Avenue in the western outskirts of town. Raymond continued to work as a truck driver and son Robert worked as a welder for the U.S. Navy. Two high school aged wards, Violet Brenner and Jewel Lewis, lived with the family, as did lodger John Hood, also a high school student.^{[Cen 1940]}

Raymond Leeland Forbes died on April 23, 1964, in San Luis Obispo County. He was 71 years old.

Cora Etta (Taber) Forbes died a year after Raymond on April 29, 1965, in Sanger, Fresno County. She was 72 years old.

Herbert Dennis SHAW (~1905-1942)

11HBG4213. Herbert Dennis Shaw was born in 1904 or 1905, probably in Fresno, Fresno County, California. Herbert grew up in Fresno^{[Cen 1910, 1920]} and enlisted in the U.S. Navy by 1930, when he was stationed at the U.S. Navy Destroyer Base in San Diego.^{[Cen 1930]} Herbert appears to have married twice, first to a woman named Esther, and afterward to Dorothy Keener, a native of Waitsburg, Walla Walla County, Washington.

Herbert and Esther lived at 926 South 31st Street in San Diego where Herbert worked as a carpenter ^{[City 1932]} (presumably a reference to his Navy rate as Carpenter's Mate (CM)).

Herbert married Dorothy by 1938 when they lived at 1457 Cedar Avenue in Long Beach, Los Angeles County.^{[City 1938]} They moved about three miles east to 1032 Belmont Avenue by 1940. There Dorothy worked as an office manager at a bakery. A widow named Lottie Miller (no relation) lodged with them. The 1940 census also revealed that Dorothy had lived in Long Beach since before 1935 and that in 1935 Herbert lived with the "U.S. Navy."^{[Cen 1940]}

U.S.S. Houston

Photo courtesy of cousin Jeanette Ditty

Navy muster rolls from the U.S.S. Houston record that Herbert became a Carpenter's Mate 1st Class (CM1C) by 1939 and had first been received aboard the Houston on June 14, 1934.^{[USN 1939, WWII]} The Houston was a Northampton-class light cruiser (CL-30) that was redesignated as a heavy cruiser (CA-30) because of her 8-inch main guns. Before America's entrance into World War II the Houston served as the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines (1931); took President Franklin Roosevelt on two cruises (1934 and 1938); was in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge (1937); and, after an overhaul, served as the flagship for the Hawaiian Detachment at Pearl Harbor (1939), and again the Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines (1940).

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Houston was at Panay Island in the Philippines and departed for Darwin, Australia. It later joined the Allied naval force at Surabaya on the island of Java, Indonesia. The Houston engaged Japanese invasion forces three times in defense of Java and Timor in February 1942. The Houston and Australian cruiser HMAS Perth (D29) attempted to resupply at Tanjong Priok (Jakarta) on 28 February but found little fuel and no ammunition there. They set out that evening for the Sundra Strait on the way to Tjilatjap (Cilacap) on the southern coast of Java, but a few hours later the two cruisers stumbled into a large Japanese naval invasion force that surrounded them. The two Allied cruisers dodged torpedoes, returned fire, and scored hits on the Japanese, but the Perth was sunk at 00:25 on March 1st and the Houston followed at 00:40. CM1C Shaw went down with the Houston. Only 368 of the Houston's crew of 1,061 survived the sinking but they were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned. 77 of the survivors died in captivity.

Dorothy lived at 249 Yosemite Avenue in Fresno in 1941^{[City 1941]} and after Herbert's death at 1312 East 8th Street in Oakland, Alameda County.^[WWII]

Dorothy finally moved to 324 Northwest 10th Avenue in Milton-Freewater, Umatilla County, Oregon, in her later years.^{[Dth 1966]} She was buried in her hometown, along with her parents and most of her siblings, at Waitsburg Cemetery.^[Grave]

Dorothy (Keenan) Shaw died of bronchopneumonia at Eastern Oregon Hospital and Training Center in Pendleton, Umatilla County, on March 20, 1966.^{[Dth 1966]}

Hazel (MILLER) SORRELLS (1892-1968)

11HBG4221. Hazel Miller was born on July 5, 1892, in California, likely in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County. She married James Roy Sorrells of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, on the Mexican boarder, in 1912 or 1913. They had two sons, who were stillborn, and one daughter before Roy's untimely death:^{[Cen 1920,1930]}

Roy also had a daughter Veney/Vinia(?) from a previous marriage, who was born about 1905.^{[Cen 1910B]}

Roy reported their first son as still born, but did not name Hazel as the mother.^{[Dth 1922]} Their second son, Roy Jr., was also stillborn, having died because of a knotted umbilical cord. He was delivered in Tucson, Pima County, and buried the following day at Evergreen Cemetery Memorial Park in Tucson.^{[Dth 1927]}

Roy worked as a cattle stockraiser in Nogales and Hazel as a public school teacher. Their ranch was 12 miles northeast of Nogales along the Patagonia-Nogales Road (now East Patagonia Highway, Route 82), which was described in 1920 as being on Old Washington Camp Road and later as between the Tres de Mayo Mine and O.Z. Test Mine.^{[Cen 1920, Dth 1929]}

Roy Sorrells was killed by lightening on the afternoon of September 19, 1929. He was 44 years old. Roy is buried at the City of Nogales Cemetery.^{[Dth 1929,Grave]}

Hazel and Dolly stayed on in Santa Cruz County through 1930, along with her late husband's 16-year-old nephew Marvin Sorrells, his 60-year-old, widowed grandmother, and two lodgers.^{[Cen 1930]} Hazel and Dolly eventually made their way to Sacramento County, California.

Hazel (Miller) Sorrells died on June 11, 1968, in Sacramento County, California. She was 75 years old. She was also buried at the City of Nogales Cemetery.^[Grave]

I. D. MILLER (1896-)

11HBG4222. I.D. Miller was born in May 1896 in California, likely in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County.^{[Cen 1900]} She was only known by these initials, which may represent her paternal grandfather, Isaac Dennis Miller⁷, who died the same month she was born.

By 1920 I.D. she was working as a nurse at the Fabiola Hospital in Oakland, Alameda County, California.

Arlene Ann (MILLER) OLIVERA (1897-1988)

11HBG4223. Arlene Ann Miller was born June 24, 1897, in California, likely in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County. She married Manuel D. Olivera about 1917 or 1918 and had at least one daughter:

After their marriage, the Oliveras lived in Corral de Piedra Precinct in San Luis Obispo, perhaps referring to the town of Edna, midway between San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande^{[Cen 1920]}. Their daughter was born in San Luis Obispo County.

By 1930 the Oliveras had moved south to Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County where Manuel worked as a foreman and superintendant at the creamery.^{[Cen 1930,1940]}

Arlene Ann (Miller) Olivera died on November 23, 1988 in Santa Clara County, California while residing in Sunnyvale. She was 81 years old.

Harold F. MILLER (1900-1965)

11HBG4224. Harold F. Miller was born on January 30, 1900, in California, likely in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County.

Orrin apparently did not marry and most of the time lived at home with his parents in Arroyo Grande. He work as a blacksmith with his father through at least 1920.^{[Cen 1920]} 

In 1930, he may have moved up to San Luis Obispo and boarded with the Raymond and Marie Buck family while working as a laborer at a creamery,^{[Cen 1930]} however, by 1940 his was back home with his parents in Arroyo Grande.^{[Cen 1940]}

Harold's father and mother died in 1941 and 1943.

Harold F. Miller died on February 4, 1965, in San Luis Obispo County, at the age of 65. He is buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery in Arroyo Grande.

William Leland MILLER (1893-1947)

11HBG4231. William Leland Miller was born on February 11, 1893, in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County, California. He served with the infantry in France and Belgium during in World War I. He was married briefly around 1928 and divorced, and later married Bessie C. (Terrell) Zursmith sometime in the early 1940s.

William's parents and siblings all moved to Kings County, California, to work in the oil fields, by 1917; but William moved 100 miles farther south to the oil fields at the south end of the Central Valley at Maricopa, Kern County. There he worked as a tool dresser for Kern Lading and Oil Company. His draft registration described him as tall, medium build, with blue eyes and light brown hair.^{[Draft 1917]}

The Great War

William enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army on March 29, 1918, and was assigned to Company "B" of the 363rd Infantry Regiment.^[Vet] The 363rd served under the 182nd Infantry Battalion, under the 91st Infantry Division, which was dubbed the "Wild West Division" because its 25,000 men came from western states. Californians largely comprised the 363rd and 364th regiments. The 91st Division was formed in 1917, at Camp Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. It left Camp Lewis in June 1918 by train for Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and then shipped out aboard the Briton from Brooklyn, New York, on July 6 bound for Europe.^{[Army 1918]}

The division eventually reassembled around its headquarters in Montigny-le-Roi in northeast France in August and trained for the month in preparation for the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which is named for the Meuse River to the east and the Argonne Forest to the west. It was the largest United States military compaign in history and involved 1.2 million American soldiers. The 91st Division took up its position at the front on September 25, 1918, and went over the top, up the middle, and across "No man's land" the next morning under cover of cloud and mist. The Allied Powers slowly wheeled the German line back to the northeast roughly 13 kilometers over the course of a bloody week. The 91st Division casualties were 1,109 killed and 3,916 wounded. Only 11 men were captured by the Germans but the 91st Division captured 2,371 Germans.

Next, the 181st and 182nd Brigades boarded trains north to northwest Belgium and arrived at Ypres on October 20, 1918, where they prepared for the Ypres-Lys Offensive and pushed the Germans southeast across the Scheldt River. During action between November 9 and 11, the 91st Division suffered 215 men killed and 714 wounded.

After the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, the 91st Division advanced across Belgium and crossed the Belgian-German border to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) where a victory celebration was held on December 7 before the cathedral and the tomb of Emperor Charlemagne. The 91st afterward withdrew north to the area of Dunkirk for most of December. The division departed Belgium on December 28 for La Ferté-Bernand, near Le Mans, France. They stayed there until transported to Saint-Nazaire on the west coast where they shipped back home to New Jersey and New York. From there the 363rd Infantry traveled to the Presidio of San Francisco where Corporal Miller was discharged on April 24, 1919, and the regiment was demobilized eight days later.

Oil Travels Abroad

After the war, William returned home to his parents in Paddock, Lucerne Township, Kings County, where he and his younger brother Clarence resumed worked in oil fields.^{[Cen 1920]}. William thereafter returned to Kern County where worked as an oil driller at Kerto, northeast of Maricopa, for the Shell Company. In March 1920, the Shell Company arranged for William to depart San Francisco and travel to Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico^{[Pass 1920]}, where he lived from May 1920 to February 1922.^{[Pass 1923, Con 1923]}

After William returned to the United States, he lived with his parents at 1636 East 6th Street in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California. The California National Supply Company arranged a three-year contract with Burma Oil Company, Ltd., to travel to Burma to work as a combination driller. His passport application recorded that he expected to also travel to India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the British Isles, France, and Italy. His passport application also described him as 6' 2½" tall, with a high forehead, oval face, straight mouth, oval chin, blue eyes, medium brown hair, fair complexion, and with a scar on top of his forehead.^{[Pass 1923]} William departed on May 11, 1923, and arrived at his new residence and workplace in Yenangyaung, 520 kilometers up the Irrawaddy River from Yangon (Rangoon), on July 6. He expected to earn about $3,000 a year.^{[Con 1923]}

Long Beach

William likely returned to Long Beach around 1926. His Veterans Administration Master Index card listed his address as 1451 Rose Avenue (but with no associated date)^[Vet], which is where his younger brother Clarence lived in 1925.

William was briefly married around 1928, but by 1930 was divorced and living as a boarder with the James E. and Lela Lisman family from Texas. At the time he was an unemployed oil production laborer who was noted as a veteran of the World War.^{[Cen 1930]}

At the time of the World War II draft, William was again living with his parents at 3625 East 15th Street in Long Beach and worked for the California Shipyard Company. He was described as 6' 3" tall, 198 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair, a light complexion, and with a scar on his forehead.^{[Draft 1942]}

William married Bessie C. sometime after 1942 and they lived at either 720 or 729 East 15th Street, Long Beach, two and a half miles west of William's parents, at the time of his death. He worked for the Pongratz Drilling Company at the time.^{[Dth 1947]}

William checked into Community Hospital in Long Beach on December 13, 1946, and later underwent surgery on December 23, 1946, for an anterior polya gastric resection (surgery on the duodenum, the first section of the small intestine that connects to the stomach). A week after surgery, his blood pressure increased and he died on January 10, 1947. He was 53 years old. William was buried at Sunnyside Memorial Park (which was later renamed as Forest Lawn Memorial Park) on January 14.^{[Dth 1947, Grave]} His death was also recorded by the Westminster Community Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles County.^{[Chu 1947]}

Clarence Walter MILLER^Δ (1895-1965)

11HBG4232. Clarence Walter Miller^Δ was born in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California, on June 5, 1895.^{[Draft 1917]} He served in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I, working the lumber industry for warplane construction.^[Vet] Clarence married Ouida A. Sechrest, a native of Kansas, on January 1, 1925, in Santa Ana, Orange County, California; he was 29 years old, she was 21.^{[Cen 1930]} They had two children:

Before Clarence married, he lived in Hanford, Kings County, and worked as a fireman for Associated Pipe Line Company at Macks Station. He was described as tall, slender, with dark blue eyes and brown hair, when registering for the draft on his 22nd birthday in Fresno.^{[Draft 1917]}

The following year, Clarence enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 12, 1918, three months after his elder brother William enlisted and right about the time William was crossing the Atlantic on his way to France. Clarence was assigned to the Air Service 24th Spruce Squadron^[Vet] at Vancouver Barracks in Clark County, Washington. Facing labor shortages in the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest, because of the draft, the Air Service formed the Spruce Squadrons to supplement spruce production and shore up warplane construction. The 24th Spruce Squadron at Vancouver Barracks worked a "cut-up" plant that milled specialty airplane lumber.^[Swanson] Clarence served the squadron for six months and was discharged on January 18, 1919, when the squadron was mustered out after the war.^{[Vet, Swanson]}

Clarence and Ouida were married by clergyman Rev. Will A. Betts in Santa Ana, Orange County, on January 1, 1925. At the time, Clarence was living at 1451 Rose Avenue in Long Beach, and Ouida was living a mile to the west at 1355 Olive Avenue; he was an oil worker and she a beauty operator. The recorded witness to their marriage was Ouida's next younger brother, Loren E. Sechrest, and his wife Martha (Balstad) Sechrest, of Long Beach.^{[Mar 1925]} Interestingly, Clarence had served as witness to the marriage of Loren and Martha Sechrest a year earlier on December 15, 1923.

The Millers started their family in Los Angeles County, California, and moved to Hutchinson County in the Texas Panhandle by 1930. There Clarence worked in the oil fields and took on two boarders from the oil fields. They rented a home for $7.50 per month.^{[Cen 1930]}

Later they moved back to California and lived in Oakland, Alameda County, by 1934. A few years later they resettled at 5913 Lime Avenue in North Long Beach, Los Angeles County. There Clarence worked as a superintendant for a transportation company. He earned $3,000 in 1939 and rented the home for $30.^{[Cen 1940]}

Clarence Walter Miller died on April 2, 1965, in Los Angeles County at the age of 69. He was buried at Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County.^[Grave]

Ouida A. (Sechrest) Miller died 31 years later on June 10, 1996, in Los Angeles County. She was 93 years old. Ouida was also buried at Green Hills Memorial Park.^[Grave]

James Roy MILLER (1898-1978)

11HBG4233. James Roy Miller was born on January 31, 1898 in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County, California. He married Florence M. Swanson, a teacher and native of Kansas who grew up in Texas, on December 17, 1924, in Santa Ana, Orange County, California. They are not known to have had any children.

During World War I, James lived with his family in Hanford, Kings County, California, and worked as an engineer for E. A. Hackett, 30 miles west in Huron, Fresno County. His draft registration described him as tall, with a slender build, blue eyes, and light-colored hair.^{[Draft 1918]} The 1930 census recorded that James had served in the World War, but if he did serve he apparently enlisted after his draft registration in September 1918.

James and Florence wed on December 17, 1924, in Santa Ana, by the Rev. Will A. Betts of Santa Ana. Witnesses to their marriage were Mr. and Mrs. James H. Sherman of Long Beach, Los Angeles County. At the time of their marriage, James lived at 1451 Rose Avenue in Long Beach, where he worked as an oil driller; and Florence lived in Glendora, Los Angeles County, and worked as a teacher.^{[Mar 1924]} The 1940 census later noted that she had completed three years of college.^{[Cen 1940]}

James and Florence lived with James's parents at 237 Willard Street in Long Beach by 1930. James and his father worked as oil pumpers.^{[Cen 1930]}

James and Florence purchased a home 8 miles west at 2760 Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, Los Angeles County, by 1940. It was valued at $6,500. James worked as a self-employed gasoline deliveryman.^{[Cen 1940]} By the time of the World War II draft in 1942, James was self-employed (occupation not stated) and was described as having blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. (Height and weight were omitted.)^{[Draft 1942]}

The Millers (or at least Florence) moved to Florence's childhood home of El Campo, Wharton County, Texas, southwest of Houston by 1943.

Florence developed a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma) in late 1943, and on December 5, 1943, she checked into Methodist Hospital in Houston where she died a month later on January 9, 1944. She was two weeks short of her 42nd birthday. Florence was buried with her parents at Garden of Memories in El Campo.^{[Dth 1944, Grave]}

James Roy Miller died in April 1978 while living in Avenal, Kings County, California.

Meynard S. MILLER (1900-1992)

11HBG4234. Meynard S. Miller was born in February 1900 in California, mostly likely in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County. He served with the Army as a corporal in World War I. Meynard married Ethel Bernice Payne about 1921, when he was 21 years old and she was 18.^{[Cen 1930]} They are not known to have had any children.

After the war, Meynard returned home to his parents in the oil fields of Paddock, Lucerne Township, Kings County. There he worked as a tractor driver.^{[Cen 1920]}

About the following year, Meynard married Ethel. Meynard, his parents, and siblings all moved south to Long Beach, Los Angeles County, to work the oil fields. Meynard and Ethel rented part of a house at 2351 Chestnut Avenue, which was also occupied by two other households: the owners, Gordon R. and Jennie V. Baird, and John E. and Charlotte M. Miller. John E. Miller was from Minnesota and not suspected to be of any relation to Meynard. Meynard worked as a pumper at an oil field.^{[Cen 1930]}

Meynard bought a home about 5 miles north at 5623 Cerritos Avenue in Long Beach, by 1940. It was valued at $3,700. Meynard continued to work in the oil production business, and had earned $1,900 in 1939.^{[Cen 1940]}

Ethel Bernice (Payne) Miller died on December 19, 1991, in Los Angeles County, age the age of 88. She was buried at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, Orange County, California.^[Grave]

Meynard S. Miller died a year and three days after Ethel on December 21, 1992, in Los Angeles County. He was 92 years old. Meynard was also buried at Westminster Memorial Park.^[Grave]

Orval A. MILLER (1902-1983)

11HBG4235. Orval A. Miller was born on August 19, 1902, in California. He married Isabella Dorothy Hill around 1927 or 1928.

Orval A. Miller died on December 28, 1983, in Fresno County. He was 81 years old.

Isabella Dorothy (Hill) Miller died four years later on March 27, 1988, in Kings County, Washington. She was 81 years old.

Burneice Dorothy (MILLER) GIVENS (1904-1992)

11HBG4236. Burneice Dorothy Miller was born on October 28, 1904, probably in Arroyo Grande Township, San Luis Obispo County, California. She married Thomas Givens by 1940.^{[Cen 1940]}

Burneice and Thomas lived with her parents at 3625 East 15th Street in Long Beach and paid her parents $12 rent. Thomas was a general construction laborer who had been unemployed for 12 weeks during the previous 12 months.^{[Cen 1940]}

Burneice Dorothy (Miller) Givens died on April 11, 1992, in Los Angeles County. She was 87 years old.^{[Dth 1992]}