Submitted by Kerry Patrick Miles Prairie Remains Despite House's Absence AUTHOR: Lucy Engerling Wed. Sept. 8, 1982 Stephen Mark Miles VI, a 24 year-old coal miner who lives in Coulterville, was sorry to learn that his great-great-great grandfather's pioneer home in Miles Prairie north of Valmeyer has been torn down. He never saw it. He always meant to visit it, and not long ago did get to stop at his stone and marble ancestral vault at the Miles Cemetery landmark at Fountain Gap. It was built with 64 receptacles, as the final resting-place for the Miles heirs. The large Miles Home had been place on the National Register of Historic Places by Dan Mallovich, editor of Outdoor Illinois magazine. But his death brought a halt in attempts to raise funds for its upkeep. Mrs. Edna Stemler now lives on the site. Her efforts to keep up the homestead stopped when weather and age took its toll. Windstorms blew down the porch roof, along with its delicate arches. The rotting porch floor had been replaced long ago with cement. The hand carved railing slowly disintegrated. Later storms blew over a chimney that crashed through the roof, causing severe interior damage. The cost of repairs was prohibitive. The sad decision was made to remove the structure, and the job undertaken by neighbor Lenard Schanz was only recently completed. The pioneer Stephen Miles was the same age as his Coulterville name sake when he stepped off the boat a Smith Landing near Merrimac in 1819. It was 173 years ago, and he was young, energetic, and ambitious. Long before the Miles Empire was founded, he may have envisioned the grand house he wanted to build. The American Bottomland was nothing like that back in Madison County, New York where Miles left his Welsh parents. This was rich blue-black soil, begging to be cleared and planted. Fresh water was plentiful, and the nearby Mississippi was excellent for transporting supplies and grain. Miles chose Eagle Cliff, nestled in the bosom of the Illinois bluffs, as his home site. He commissioned Isaac "Ike" Eberman, a gifted farmer carpenter, to build the house. Ike's talents had already been proven in the Moredock schools and bridges he erected. One of his bridge models is on display at the Waterloo Peterstown House. The first floor of the Miles home had two huge rooms, 19x22 each, separated by a hallway with a stairway leading to the sleeping rooms. One of the large rooms was used as a parlor, the other as a master bedroom, both with fireplaces. The bedroom had an enclosed spiral staircase which also led upstairs. A den, extra bedroom, and kitchen were also built on the first floor. The entrance door had 24 panes of glass in its upper half. It was luck that Miles had Fannie, his black house slave, to help wash the tiny glass squares. Besides the house, the Eagle Cliffs complex also held an implement shed , two barns, a well house, and a building housing the post office, saloon and general store. Mrs. Stemler recalls the oxen pulling wagons loaded with supplies for the store often stopped at Alexander Lake for a drink despite pleas from their drivers to move on. The pioneer Miles became wealthy by buying large tracts of land, which were cleared with the help of slaves. Plenty of young farmers were eager to settle in the rich land, giving one-third of their crops to Miles in rent. Born in 1828, Stephen Miles II inherited land from his father, but he was a clever businessman and became wealthy in his own right. Miles the III was born at Eagle Cliff in 1860. Entries in the family ledgers stopped in 1874, about which time carpenter Ike Eberman bought the Miles home. Miles the III moved to Crain, Ill., where his son Stephen Miles IV was born in 1897. By this time, the Miles home belonged to Mrs. Stemler's father, Adam Laub, who purchased the property in 1893. Little did Adam know then of the great changes in store for Moredock farmers with the coming of the railroad in 1903. The Miles home held two households when Mrs. Stemler and her husband Homer were married in 1941 and moved in with her parents. They vacated the house in 1961 after building a new brick house on the old post office site. When Schanz dismantled the old homestead, he discovered huge tremendous hand-hewn beams 19 feet long braced over a thick stone foundation. When outside grey siding was removed, weatherboards of walnut were found. The attic above the kitchen revealed several old metal cooking utensils, and a hand made child's walnut bed, all long ago sealed in and forgotten. Some of the items were sold at auction, along with windows, doorframes, fireplaces, and wood moulding. Miles IV moved back to Merrimac where his son Stephen Miles V was born in 1932. His family moved to Coulterville when he was youngster. Stephen Mark Miles VI, the coal miner, was born in 1957. The old house is gone now, but Miles prairie is still there. The farmers no longer haul their crops in sacks to Smiths Landing in wagons with horse teams, to be shipped on Mississippi steamers with name like "Belle St. Louis," or "The Grey Eagle." The farmers are still there too, with familiar names like Shook, Ditch, Eschmann, Meyer, Miller, Rahe, and Wessel. And of course, Miles.