Cathy Forst of Clarkston researched her great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Miller, who is buried in Lakeview Cemetery. Photos by Phil Custodio

Seventh in a series on the families who helped build Clarkston and the descendants who still live here, carrying on their legacy.
BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
Cathy Phillips Forst’s great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Miller set a high bar for her descendants – she helped pave the way for women’s rights and lived to the age of 101.
“I like to think I’m as strong as she was. It would be nice to live as long as she did, as long as I have all my faculties,” said Forst, Clarkston area resident and Springfield Township Library director.
“My great great grandmother couldn’t inherit her farm, she couldn’t vote. My grandmother didn’t drive,” she said. “To see where women made big strides, I’m not sure young women today appreciate all that, what some of these women went through to get to this point.”
Miller died in 1912, from what the Oakland Press Gazette described as “principally old age although she suffered from an injured hip caused by a fall over a year ago,” and was buried in Lakeview Cemetery.
“I didn’t know a lot about her until one day I came across her stone – I go up there occasionally,” Forst said. “I knew her name, and when I found the stone, I wondered if it was her. That’s how it started.”

She has since learned about her ancestor, and portrayed her in the 2011 Clarkston Community Historical Society’s Cemetery Walk.
“I’ve always been interested in history. It’s interesting to find out where your family comes from, knowing all the stories,” she said. “I hope future generations are interested in the research I’ve done.”
It’s important to talk to parents and grandparents and write down what they say, she said.
“I wish I had asked more questions of people before they were gone, what it was like when they were little,” she said.
Elizabeth Miller emigrated to Michigan from Germany through New York as a young woman and married shortly after she arrived here in 1839.She and her husband, Paul Miller, had a farm near the Clarkston train station, and raised seven children.
“She worked in the mill, threshing wheat by hand,” Forst said. “She walked two miles to town, worked in the mill, then two miles back.”
Her grandmother was one of nine children, she said.
“They used to line up for baths. She was the last one because she was the oldest,” Forst said. “She got the short end of the deal on that one. I always remember that story. They had one bath a week, and would have to haul up the water we take for granted.”
She saw a lot of change in her life, her granddaughter said.
“Man landing on the moon, she had a hard time thinking that was real,” Forst said. “She grew up in the horse and buggy days, no indoor plumbing – it was a lot to take in.”
Later, an aunt worked in the ice business.
“They cut the ice off the lake in the winter time and packed in sawdust,” Forst said.
Forst and her sister have always lived in the Clarkston area.
“My sister and my sister’s daughter lives in Clarkston – her niece makes five generations in Clarkston,” she said.
The Clarkston News and Tom Stone, longtime resident and genealogist, are highlighting every month local families who have lived in the area for at least 100 years.