John and Harriet Miller, the first permanent settlers of Boyne City, arrived on the shores of Pine Lake, now Lake Charlevoix, on November 14, 1856, from up state New York. It was said that they found the place by following Harriet’s dream of a lake to the west shaped like a bear with an abandoned cabin at the east end. Determined to follow that vision, Harriet convinced John to sell their property, and after traveling from New York to Northport, they met John Saxton Dixon and persuaded him to take them to the eastern end of Pine Lake. When they arrived, they found an abandoned cabin just as Harriet had seen in her dream. John and Harriet had married on Christmas Day in 1840. John, born in 1811 to Scotch and Irish emigrants, and Harriet, born Harriet Russell in 1823 to Canadian parents of Irish descent, had two sons, Hugh and James. John became known in the community as Uncle John, while Harriet came to be regarded as Boyne’s First Psychic. They named the place Boyne after a river in Ireland where a famous battle was fought. John died on May 8, 1896, and Harriet died two years later.