Victoria Josephine Jarvis and George Miles, Part 2

George Edmond Miles was born in the Parish of Surrey, St. Mary, London, England, December 9th, 1866, and lived in London until 1878. Then his half brother, John H. Miles, a Mormon convert, upon returning to St. George, Utah, brought George and the rest of his family with him. His mother, two brothers, and a sister came. His father died in England, leaving a small fortune to John, the oldest son, a half-brother to George.

In St. George, he worked at various jobs for a year. Then worked for A.W. Ivins for a year, for which he was paid $125.00 in Canaan script 1. He hauled wood, hay and bullion to Milford; hauled supplies to Silver Reef, a booming mining town twenty miles from St. George. He worked on a ranch near the Silver Reef for another year, then got work with Wooley, Lund and Judd, at Reef, driving a delivery wagon, hauling supplies, etc. He drove the mail to Toquerville for four years.


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Next he worked in the Wooley, Lund and Judd store at the Reef for seven years. Then he attended school in St. George. Next, worked for awhile for E.B. Snow Sr. He went to school again, attending the Stake Academy at St. George, and later attended the University of Utah one winter. Then went back to the Reef, and worked a few months in the Assay office.

Next he taught school at Leeds, Utah, during the winter of 1894-5.

He was about twenty-seven years of age when he was asked to take a Sunday School course at B.Y. U. He did this, later relaying the information to a class of Stake workers at St. George.

He had been baptized into the L.D.S. Church in England, but had taken no interest in religion until his marriage. Then he made up his mind to get into the Church in earnest, which he did, and has remained a faithful worker.

He next worked in Wooley, Lund and Judd store in St. George for some time. His next work was at the Cotton Factory at Washington, Utah. Then he combined with his brother Henry, and they ran a store at Delamar, Nevada.

George E. Miles was married to Victoria Josephine Jarvis in the St. George Temple, June 30th, 1895. He had met her while doing the Sunday School work.

While he was at Delamar he was called to go on a Mission to the Southern States. He left in August 1895 and returned March 1899. While he was gone his first son was born.

He became Stake Superintendant [sic] of the Sunday Schools and served in that position for seventeen years. He often had to travel a distance of 500 miles in a buggy, to visit the Sunday Schools of the large St. George Stake each year.

He worked in the St. George Co-op Store, and hired a man to run his farms which he owned in the Washington field area. Later, did the farming himself with the help of his sons. In 1907 he managed the James Andrus store for two years.

He taught in the Woodward school at St. George from 1909 until 1912. He farmed again until 1916, when he became City Clerk and Stake Clerk. He held these book-keeping positions for eighteen years, then held the Stake Clerk position until 1935. Also served as City Treasurer for awhile. He was Juvenile Judge from 1921 until 1930. He often audited the County books during this time.

He taught Parents Class in Sunday School for ten years. Was teacher of High Priests for some time. He has done Ward Teaching all his life since becoming active in the Church, and is still busy; is a Patriarch in St. George Stake, serving in that office for eleven years. (1953)

Brother Miles has been a full tithe-payer since he started to do Church work, and in addition has always donated liberally to all Church funds and to schools, and all worth-while causes. He has been an Ordinance worker in the St. George Temple for the last ten years, and is still working there. Is now in his 89th year. (1955)


From Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. George Jarvis And Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: M.J. Overson, 1957, pp 80-81.


1 There is a single reference to "Canaan script" on the internet. It is in a biography of John Macfarlane (Macfarlane, L. W. Yours Sincerely, John M. Macfarlane. Salt Lake City, Utah: L.W. Macfarlane, 1980) and the book is not available online, so I can't see the context, but it is in the sentence "received in pay Tithing Script and Canaan Script, little more than enough to feed the family. Charles W. Seegmiller was the commissary. It was his responsibility to somehow find the food for the men."