Cowles Miles (Myles) Collier was born to Charles Miles Collier, Jr. (1808-48) and Sara Ann Cowles (b. 1815) in Hampton, Virginia in 1836. He attended a military school in Virginia, and after graduation attended West Point, only to resign some months later. Upon returning to Virginia he was appointed to serve with the United States Navy, and served under Captain Samuel Barron on the USS Wabash from 1858 to 1859. Later his service in the Navy took him to foreign waters, mainly in the Mediterranean, visiting Egypt, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, Spain and Portugal. After returning to the United States, he served under service of Charles M. Fauntleroy. When Virginia seceded from the Union, he resigned from the Union Navy, returned to Virginia and applied to Governor John Letcher for a position in the Confederate Navy. He was appointed First Lieutenant and ordered to report for duty at Fort Rappahannock. There he reunited with Fauntleroy, who requested his service under General Joseph F. Johnston's artillery in protecting Harper's Ferry. While serving under Johnston he gained a great knowledge of artillery and weaponry, and was asked by the Confederate Government to oversee the Arsenal in Augusta, which housed the largest plant for the manufacture of gunpowder in the Confederate States at the time. In addition to a sailor and soldier, he was an artist and painter. He mainly painted watercolors of nautical scenes and sailors. His works were shown at multiple exhibitions during his later life. In 1863 he married Hannah Celeste Shackleford(1841-1913), daughter of James Shackelford (1786-1866) and Hariette Cowdrey (1800-67) of South Carolina. They had four children: Barron Gift Collier, Charles Miles Collier, Euphan Marshall Collier and Georgia Shackleford Collier, who married Edward Trippe Comer. In later life Collier and his wife relocated to New York City, where Collier was considered to be an artist of note. Mrs. Collier was involved in the local Revolutionary War descendant societies. Collier died in September, 1908. Georgia (Georgie) Shackleford Collier was born in Aiken, South Carolina. She married Edward Trippe Comer in 1888 in Memphis, Tennessee and after his death in 1927 took over the E.T. Comer Company and ran Millhaven Plantation until its sale in 1942. She was a member of the Colonial Dames of America starting in 1914 and from 1925 to 1928 was a member of the Board of Managers. In addition, she was on the Board of Directors of the Telfair Hospital from 1931 until her death. Perhaps owing to her father's artistic inclinations, she was a great patron of the arts and an active member of Georgia's cultural and historical societies. On her death a good portion of her collected art, including works by her father, was donated to Wellesley College, as well as 75,000 dollars for the erection of a fine arts building at the College. Edward Trippe Comer was born on August 1, 1856 in Springhill, Alabama. He was educated at the Academy in Eufaula, Alabama and the University of Alabama. When he was 17 he went to Savannah, Georgia with his brother Hugh Moss Comer (a future president of the Central of Georgia Railway). In 1887 he relocated to Texas, where he directed the management of a large cattle ranch 30 miles west of San Antonio. He acquired a fondness for livestock and agriculture, an interest he would maintain until the end of his life. In 1897 he returned to Savannah and after the death of his brother, H.M. Comer, he took over the management of H.M.'s business ventures, and assumed his brother's title of president at the Bibb Manufacturing Company of Macon, of which he was a member of the Board of Directors. He later became Chairman of the Board. He was also a director of the Citizen's and Southern Bank as well as the Central of Georgia Railway, and was president of the Chattahoochee and Gulf Railroad and E.T. Comer Company of Millhaven, Georgia. In 1905 Comer purchased Millhaven Plantation in Burke and Screven Counties, Georgia. Comer transformed the plantation into a tenant farming operation, cattle ranch, cotton production and lumber farm. He died in 1927 in his home at Millhaven.
From the description of Collier and Comer families papers, 1860-1975. (Georgia Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 656291386
