Description

(51) 1856-64 Beautiful Leather Matched Leather Poetry Books By Little, Brown and Company, Boston, dated from 1856 to 1864. Each book penned before the title page as "Mr. & Mrs. S. W. Miles - Private Library - August 24th 1864". Titles (writers) include Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, John Skelton, Robert Burns, Thomas Hood, Robert Southey, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Matthew Prior, James Mongomery, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, William Cowper, Charles Churchill, Thomas Chatterton, Edward Young, James Thomson, Robert Herrick, John Gay and Samuel Butler. All matching with golden leather around the marbleized end bords with matching page edges. Size 4.5 x 6.7/8” They will take up approximately 56” of book shelf space. Possible information on previous owner found on internet Submitted by Kerry Patrick The late Stephen W. Miles, who died in the year 1872, is deserving of a place among the list of biographies included in this work, no less for his qualities as a prominent business man and an exemplary member of the community, as for his connection with some of the old families of the American Bottom. By his mother he was connected with the Shook family - one of the earliest to settle in Moredock precinct, and his father whose name was also Stephen W. Miles, was a resident of Monroe county as early as the year 1819. The Miles family is probably of Welsh descent. Its first members emigrated to America at a period previous to the Revolutionary war. Some of them took part in that conflict and did their share toward securing the independence of the colonies. Thomas Miles was the grandfather, and married Sarah Fish. Stephen W. Miles, the father was a son by this marriage. He was born at Cazenovia, Madison county, New York, on the thirtieth of November, 1795. He emigrated to Illinois, and settled at Eagle Cliffs in the year 1819. He was at this time a young man of twenty-four. He married Lucretia Shook, and spent the remainder of his life in the American Bottom, where he died. In the year 1858 he built a tomb as a burial place for himself, family and descendants, "to whose use," according to the inscription, "it is freely dedicated under the care of the oldest male heir of his family in succession, in trust for the above purpose." Here rest the remains of the deceased members of the family. The spot is the site of an old burying ground occupying the brow of the Bluff just south of where the Duck Hollow road leads out into the Bottom, overlooking for miles the fertile valley below. The Shook family is of Virginian descent, and was prominent in the settling of the Bottom, where Lucretia Shook, the wife of Stephen W. Miles, sen., was born and raised. Stephen W. Miles, jun., the subject of this biography, was born in the year 1828, in the month of June. Two sisters and a half-brother were other members of the family. The schools in the neighborhood of where he was born gave him advantages for securing his early education. He was under the instruction of a good teacher, and his natural aptitude for learning was so great and he was so industrious in his habits that he made rapid progress. His attainments were far better than ordinary. Through his life he kept up a taste for reading, and acquired thorough scholarship and extended literary culture. He was raised on a farm, and in his youthful years he was employed in agricultural labor, and indeed, though he followed other occupations, he kept up this pursuit through life. In January, of the year 1853, when in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he married Mary E. Tyrrell, then a resident of Monroe county. Mrs. Miles was born in Hancock county, Illinois. Her father was a native of Ohio, and her mother of Pennsylvania. After the occurrence of this event, Mr. Miles went into partnership with his father in the merchandising business, at which he had been previously employed. After a residence in the County of about seven years from the date of this marriage, he removed with his family to St. Louis on account of the great prevalence of sickness in the vicinity of where he lived. While a resident of St. Louis, he carried on business operations in that city, though at the same time his business interests were still largely in the American Bottom. See our other beautiful books Keep in mind the shipping price also covers handling fees, packaging materials & time, not just postage. See our eBay store for thousands of our other items. B16