Vigor Miller is Alvin Miller's oldest son and is a strong, smart, brave young man who dies early in the book. Vigor dies attempting to get the families' wagon and his mother Faith across a raging river. A tree heads for the wagon and he knocks the tree off course but is swept away in the process. He stays alive long enough for his youngest brother to be born, making the new brother the seventh son of a seventh son. He obviously loved both of his parents very much to sacrifice himself for his mother.