George Miller

George Miller served as a counselor to Newel K. Whitney in the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1844. At that time he was called as Second Bishop of the Church.

Miller was born on November 25, 1794, near Stanardsville, Virginia. He worked as a carpenter, mill operator, lumber dealer, and steamboat owner. He settled in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee before he moved to Illinois in 1831 and was baptized by John Taylor in August 1839. He served missions to Iowa and Illinois in 1840-1841, and to Kentucky in 1842. He also served a mission to Wisconsin in 1842-1843 to obtain lumber for the Nauvoo Temple and the Nauvoo House. He served a second mission to Kentucky in 1844, this time to campaign for Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign.

Miller served as a bishop in Nauvoo. He obtained the rank of brigadier general in the Nauvoo Legion. He lived the law of plural marriage and had three wives.

After the death of Joseph Smith, he rejected Brigham Young, believing that Texas was a better place for the Saints. Miller was excommunicated on December 3, 1848. He followed Lyman Wight to Texas. He then followed James Strang’s religious group in Michigan. He died in Marengo, Illinois, around July 1856.