Husband Gen. Charles Miller 1 2 3 4
Born: 15 Jun 1843 - Oberhoffen, Canton of Bishweiler, Alsace, France 1
Christened:
Died:
Buried: 22 Dec 1927 - Franklin Cemetery, Franklin, Venango Co, PA
Father: Christian Miller (Abt 1809-1896) 6
Mother: Magdalena Voeltzel ( -1851) 6
Marriage:
Other Spouse: Ann Adelaide Sibley ( - ) 1 7 - 1863 - Springville, Erie Co, NY 1
• Biographical Sketch: Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919).
To read this biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
• Biographical Sketch: from History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890).
To read this biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
• Biographical Sketch: from Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889).
To read this biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
• Biographical Sketch: John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913).
To read this biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
• Residence: : Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Residence: : Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Residence: : Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park - Entrance: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
When General Miller made up his mind to have a residence park on a hillside lying to the west of what was then the city of Franklin, he purchased an old pasture lot and woodland that was at that time most unpromising in its appearance. He engaged one of the ablest landscape architects of the country, Mr. Charles N. Lowrie, who was at one time president of the Association of Landscape Architects of America. Cities in the oil regions had not until then possessed residence sections that would be commended by those who have seen the residence sections adjacent to the big cities of the east. After Miller Park (the name given this residence plat) was laid out and transformed in accordance with the plans submitted, visitors, no matter where they came from, spoke of it in terms of highest praise. [GPHAV, 514]
• Property: Miller Park: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park - Japanese Rose Garden: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park - Japanese Rose Garden: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park - a winter scene: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Property: Miller Park - ice scene: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Business: Galena Signal Oil Works: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Business: Galena Signal Oil Company Office: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Business: Galena Signal Oil Company Office: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
• Business: Galena-Signal Oil Co. - advertisement.
• Property: Miller Park - Pergola: Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
Wife Emma Bulen 8
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
• They had no children.
General Notes: Husband - Gen. Charles Miller
Gen. Charles Miller during his fifty years' residence in Franklin probably left a deeper impression of his personality and initiative upon the city than any other resident. Born in Alsace, France, he came to America when a child and spent his boyhood near Boston, New York, and when a young man moved to Franklin, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the dry goods business. He was one of the first to realize the possibilities of the oil industry, and purchasing a refinery entered into a partnership to manufacture railway lubricating oils by a secret process. The little company met with heart-breaking reverses, their plant was destroyed by fire, and the business seemed on the brink of dissolution. With the indomitable spirit that has characterized all his actions, General Miller rebuilt the plant and personally took charge of the marketing and all the affairs of the company. So aggressive was he that the business grew rapidly, and in a short time Glena oils and service were known and recognized as the standard for lubrication on every railroad in the United States and Canada. So confident was he of the quality of Galena materials that he evolved and put into practice the idea of guaranteeing the net cost of lubrication, which saved the railroads millions of dollars. Not satisfied with having practically all the steam and electric railroads of the country under contract, he looked to an extension of the business in foreign fields. Undismayed by the fact that he was confronted by well-established, strong competitors, he proceeded with his exploitation, and developed a large and growing business in South America and European countries. Galena oils furnished lubrication to the French railroads for twenty-two years and during the Great War.
From his home in Miller Park, which spot he transformed from a rough hill-side pasture into one of the show places of Franklin, he could look across the city and see the smoke from half a dozen thriving industries that owed their existence to his initiative and foresight and were the principal factors in the development of Franklin. At the top of the hill back of his home was his farm, situated on a rolling plateau overlooking the city and affording a view for miles up the French Creek valley. His farm was his hobby, but not a plaything. It represented a material investment and made material returns. It was a mecca for sightseers and farmers, who came to see the blooded cattle and hogs and the hundreds of fowls, in the most modern quarters, cared for according to the most advanced methods and practices, and to study the application of scientific farming to what was only a few years previously a waste of barren pastures. Besides its personal gratification to its owner, the farm was an educational institution to the farmers of the surrounding country and contributed much to the improvement of farming methods and production of the county.
General Miller was commander of Mays Post, G. A. R., Franklin, Pennsylvania, for twenty-five years. Had business not claimed him, he would probably have been a soldier. Military affairs always possessed for him a fascination, and his talent for organization and command secured for him the admiration and obedience of men. For many years he was connected with the National Guard of Pennsylvania, rising from one grade to another until he secured the rank of major-general, which position he held for six consecutive years, under two different governors. Then his pressing private affairs necessitated his resignation.
When head of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, while studying a military map, his attention was attracted to the possibility of a short line railroad connecting the northwestern part of the State with the large cities of the southwest, and that would afford a shorter route between New York and Philadelphia and Chicago than any of the established lines. He immediately engaged engineers to make the necessary surveys, which he finally turned over to the New York Central Railroad Company, which built the Jamestown, Franklin & Clearfield railroad.
In securing the rights of way for the railroad, General Miller saw the possibility of large coal development in the territory traversed and purchased and leased coal rights and organized the Pennsy Coal Company, which under his management grew into a very profitable concern. He also purchased the Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion railroad and made it the best equipped road in western Pennsylvania, and increased its earnings over five hundred per cent.
In addition to being president of the Galena-Signal Oil Company, General Miller was president of the Colburn Machine Tool Company, president of the General Manifold & Printing Company, president of the Evening News Printing Company, chairman and acting president of the Franklin Manufacturing Company, president of the First National Bank of Franklin, chairman of the board of the American Steel Foundries Company, and president of the Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion Railroad Company.
General Miller received only a common school education, but all his life was a student, and his retentive memory enabled him to accumulate a fund of knowledge on all subjects that was surpassed by few college men. He held the degree of A. M. from Bucknell University, and was also decorated by the French government as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in recognition of his eminent services to industry and commerce.
General Miller was strongly attached to the city of Franklin, Pennsylvania, to which he contributed so liberally of his time and means, and was prouder of what he had done toward the civic and social betterment of the city than of his contribution to its material advancement. He built at his own expense a Sunday school room for the Baptist Church and contributed liberally to the rebuilding of the church itself, of which he was one of the largest supporters. For forty-five years he was superintendent of the Sunday school and president of the Miller Bible Class, with a membership of over one thousand. For nearly thirty years he maintained at his own expense a night school, which helped hundreds of young men and women to fit themselves for business life. For many years he was president of the Young Men's Christian Association, and assisted it liberally by his time and means. Under his leadership the present Y. M. C. A. building, costing over fifty thousand dollars, was built by public subscription. [CAB, 408]