Laura Alice Miller was the daughter of Gabriel and Anna (van Evans) Miller. She was born on March 6, 1862 in Knoxville, Iowa. Gabriel and Anna had three daughters; Mary Isabel (1853), Catherine (1856), Laura Alice (1862). In the 1860 Census, Gabriel, Anna and the two oldest of their three daughters, Mary Isabel and Catherine, are found in Webster, Iowa.  Gabriel is a carpenter.  In the 1870 Census, the Miller family is found in Knoxville, Iowa. Gabriel and Anna now have the two younger daughters living with them, Catherine who is a seamstress and twenty-four years of age and Alice (Laura) who is attending school and is eight years old. Mary Isabel has likely married and is no longer living at home. By the time of the 1880 Federal Census, Laura Alice is now an eighteen year old young woman who is still living at home.

Laura Alice Miller James – about 1881 **

Laura Alice married Clarence James on August 10 , 1881. The Clarence James family is found in Clay, Iowa in the 1900 Federal Census. They have a 6 year old daughter whose name is Helen. In the 1910 Census, the James family is still in Clay, Iowa and their daughter is now sixteen. They also have William T. James living with them. He is the 52 year old brother of Clarence. In 1916, Clarence James died. By the 1920 Federal Census, Laura James is living by herself in Knoxville, Iowa. She is a widow at the age of fifty eight. She is again recorded alone in the 1925 Iowa State Census. She lives in Knoxville on Main street in the 1930 Federal Census. Helen James Anderson , the daughter of Clarence and Laura, died in 1930 six years before her mother.

Eighty two years ago today, Laura Alice died in Knoxville, Iowa.  She was buried at Graceland Cemetery.

Rest in peace, Laura Alice!

Love, Jan

**  Thanks so much to the Ancestry.com member PaMayhew who shared this photo of Laura Alice Miller James.