George Davies Miles

From the Beckley Post-Herald of Beckley, West Virginia, Dec. 28, 1973:

Yesterday and Today: Spanish War Veteran Ranks Thinning, by Shirley Donnelly

Not many persons - only about one in a million, they say - attain the age of 98 years, 3 months, and 10 days, but George D. Miles (Sept. 12, 1875 - Dec. 22, 1973) did before life of this venerable old gentleman came to its inevitable end on the day of the year when the days start to get longer.

He hailed from the storied land of Greenbrier County and lived up to the tradition of those who occupied the sacred soil of that ancient West Virginia shire.

At the time he made his last bivouac in the sky, Miles was the oldest patient in the Beckley Veterans Administration Hospital.

Since Jan. 8, 1972, this valiant veteran of the Spanish American War had been recipient of the services of the skilled professional people who minister to the physical disability of the patriots who, in the days of their strength, served the nation.

Those of us who work in the local health emporium know that such serves lengthen the lives of those who repair here for medical help and attention.

--

When the 100-day war with Spain broke out in 1898, Miles was an able young man of not quite 23 years of age. When the call for volunteers came, he was one of the first to respond.

The situation in Cuba, under the despotic rule of decadent Spain, was as bad as it is today. Those who had the cause of bettered conditions at heart were grouped under the leadership of General Garcia.

William McKinley was our president at that time and was well aware of Cuba's plight. He wanted Garcia to carry on the fight until we could reach him with help, so asked for a volunteer of ability to contact Garcia.

--

Who filled the bill? A resourceful young man from the grey limestone hills of historic Monroe County, the oldest of the counties formed out of Greenbrier's extensive lands!

When that young man, Andrew S. Rowan, received the order, he didn't start asking questions about how to reach Cuba, where to find Garcia, nor what the assignment paid.

Rowan obeyed the order, found Garcia, and returned to receive the plaudits of the United States government! Dear me, how we do need people like that today.

It was men like Andrew S. Rowan and George D. Miles who helped make America great.

--

Spanish American War veterans grow fewer with every passing year. Only a few, over 1,700 of them, are yet living. The average age of SAW veterans is about 97 years - taht age in a world where "the days of our years are three score and ten."

Acturial statistics point 1978 as the year when the last of the comrades of Miles and Rowan will shuffle off this mortal coil.

Men of that struggle of 75 years ago must have been men of vigor. Here in the V.A. Hospital in Beckley, where the summons came from on high to George D. Miles, there passed away another SAW veteran on April 8, 1966. Henry Lee Ballengee (Mar. 10, 1866 - Apr. 8, 1966), another of Greenbrier County's noble sons, lived to be 100 years and four weeks old.

On the day he was 100 years old, the hospital staff gave the splendid old soldier a birthday party. He was the oldest patient the V.A. Hospital here has ever had.

--

It fell to me to journey to the native haunts of George D. Miles to officiate in his funeral. We laid him to rest in the Muddy Creek Mountain area of Greenbrier County.

Weary of life and the battle won, the cultured old veteran came down to his grave like as a shock of corn cometh in the season, as Job of Bible note expresses it.

All the complications of old age were his afflictions. It had been years since he had heard the voice of friends and loved ones. Even though he was unable to hear a thing in the religious services in the hospital chapel on Sunday morning, he liked to be wheeled in where he could look upon the sacred surroundings. He was of the Presbyterian faith.

Long ago, the friends of his youth went out with the tide of time and earth had become lonesome to the good Greenbrier man.

From the Post Herald and Register of Beckley, West Virginia, Sunday Morning, Dec. 23, 1973:

Deaths... and Funerals... George D. Miles

Funeral arrangements are incomplete for George Davis [sic] Miles, 98, Renick, who died Saturday in a Beckley hospital after a long illness.

Born Sept. 10, 1875, he was a son of the late Edward and Elizabeth Davies Miles and was a retired woodsman and a veteran of the Spanish-American War.

Preceded in death by his wife, Rebecca Hammonds Miles, he is survived by four sons, William of Florida, Lonnie of Rennick, Okey [sic] of Oklahoma, and Oscar of Buckeye, Ohio; a daughter, Mrs. Opal Holm of Colorado Springs, Colo., and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The body is at Jack K. Wallace Funeral Home, Lewisburg. (RNS)