One of Boyne's more historic events occurred on November 14, 1856. In late afternoon of this day John and Harriet Miller landed at Boyne City. This made the Millers the first permanent settlers of Boyne City. John Miller was born in Ireland on October 10, 1811. As a young man of twenty-two, he emigrated to the United States in 1833, He settled in Saint Lawrence county in upstate New York. On December 25, 1840 he married Harriet (Russel) Miller who was born in Canada in 1824. In 1842 the couple ware blessed with a son, Hugh, and during the following year James was born. The year 1855 was an important one for the history of our town because this was the year Harriet Miller had a strange dream. One morning she awoke from an unusual dream in which she saw a huge bear-shaped lake with an abandoned cabin at its far end.The Millers decided to move westward in search of this place. The Millers arrived at Northport, Michigan in the fall of 1856. There they met a man named John S. Dixon. They talked to Mr. Dixon about the dream and he said there was a lake to the east of his town shaped like a huge bear. They accompanied him to the settlement of Pine River (Charlevoix) arriving on October 16, 1856. Mrs. Miller persuaded Mr. Dixon to take than to the far end of the lake where they found the abandoned "dream cabin." This cabin had been deserted by the Mormons. The Miller's soon found unharvested potatoes that the Mormons had planted and used these for food. The clearing once cultivated by the Mormons was used by the Miller's for planting their crops. At this time the Indian in our area were scattered around, so the Millers didn't see another person for six weeks. It was later that two Indians told the Millers of a man named Andrew Porter who lived on Bear Creek (Petoskey) and was the head of an Indian mission. Later John Miller was to work for Porter for seventy-five cents a day. hugh, their oldest son, worked for Mr. porter during 1857 and made one hundred and fifty dollars. It was during this time that mrs. Miller went out to get the cows and got lost in the woods. When John Miller arrived home he found his wife gone. He then returned to Bear Creek gathering up a search party of Indians. In the second day of being lost with the cows, Mrs. Miller was found by the search party. John Miller was soon know as "Uncle John" in the community. The Boyne River was named by him after the river he had lived near in Ireland. in 1869 he became our postmaster, setting up office in his home. In the same year their youngest son, James, died. He fell through the ice while skating home from visiting his fiance' and drowned. He was to be married the next day. Not many people know that Boyne City was once divided into three villages: Boyne Village, Bay Springs and Spring Harbor. John Miller founded the village of Spring Harbor. He platted it in 1876. It was located in North Boyne. About one hundred and seventeen years ago these hardy pioneers gave our town a beginning. They did a lot for our community. John Miller died in 1896 at the age of eighty-five. Harriet passed away in 1898.