Family prepares for 128th reunion

By Denise Dick

A family member was an early Mahoning Valley settler.

YOUNGSTOWN — For the 128th year, members of the Osborne-Miller family, which has Mahoning Valley roots stretching to the early 1800s, will gather for a reunion.

They get together the third Saturday of each August at Boardman Park.

Stan Miller, 83, who lives on the city’s South Side, is the oldest family member known to be living in the Mahoning Valley. He said he grew up knowing about his family tree. His great-great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Osborne, was a “very educated man, very community-minded and a self-made individual,” Miller said.

In 2001, then-Mayor George M. McKelvey issued a proclamation, marking the 121st reunion.

The proclamation says that Nicholas Osborne, originally from England, left his Virginia home in 1798 and stopped near the city. He liked what he saw and returned to Virginia to perfect his plans for a move.

In 1804, Osborne bought 2,200 acres of land for himself and the 26 family members and neighbors who came to the Mahoning Valley with him, the proclamation said.

“The site for his home was near the junction of the four township corners of Youngstown, Boardman, Canfield and Austintown,” it says.

Miller was born at Smith Corners, in a farmhouse near the Kirk Road-state Route 46 intersection, to Selma and Charles Miller. His father was a contractor and owned livery stables that stood where the Federal Building is downtown.

The father of three and grandfather of seven says it’s important to continue reunions because family is important.

“You’ll never meet a man who is more proud of his family than I am,” Miller said.