When the fighting for Texas’ independence started, Andrew J. Miller left his wife, Celia, and his family and joined the fray.  He was killed in March of 1836 while fighting with James Grant and F. W. Johnson’s command on the Matamoras Expedition.  After the fall of the Alamao, Sam Houston’s retreat, and Santa Anna’s threat to put all “to the sword”, Celia bundled up her family and by horseback and wagon they fled in a race to cross the Sabine River into the United States.  This has come to be called “the Runaway Scrape” and involved thousands of frightened women and children.

Andrew J. Miller was born in 1786, one of eleven children of Henry Y. Miller and Martha C. Wyly of North Carolina.  As did many of the young men of that day, Andrew left home, and in 1803, he and his brother received from Georgia a passport to travel “thru the Creek Nation to Western Country,” settling in Louisiana where he met and married Celia Neal.

In 1828 Andrew and Celia left Louisiana to join Austin’s Colony in Texas with their children, Mary Celia (born 1820) and Robert J.  Their other two children, Meride Neal (born 1828) and Lucretia (born 1832) were born after they joined Austin’s Colony in Texas.  In 1825 the Republic of Mexico required the recording of personal information on every immigrant.  Stephen Austin’s secretary recorded the entries in Spanish in the “Regis de las Families” which shows Andrew Miller as being married with four children, a farmer from Louisiana, having eleven souls in his household, and taking the oath on 22 December 1829.

Ruth N. Lawrence, Descendant