Linn-Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Miller, Hon. Milton A. August 23, 1861 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 26, 2007, 6:57 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company HON. MILTON A. MILLER. In that part of the Oregon Journal reserved for the “Observations and Impressions of the Journal Man” appeared an interesting sketch of one of Portland’s well-known citizens, whom Fred Lockley introduced as follows: “Milton A. Miller has lived in Oregon since August 23, 1861. He says he came to Oregon without any clothes, which is merely another way of stating that he was born here. ‘I first saw the light of day,’ said Mr. Miller, ‘on August 23, 1861, on my father’s donation land claim, four miles south of Lebanon. My father, Robert C. Miller, who was born in Missouri in 1824, came to Oregon in 1847. My mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Jane Irvine, was born in Kentucky in 1837 and came to Oregon in 1852. My mother was an orphan and came with her brothers and sisters, who started from a point near Liberty, Missouri. My father, although a member of a large family, was the only one to come to Oregon. He got a job driving an ox team for an Oregon emigrant. For sixty-five years he lived on his donation land claim in Linn county. There were eight of us children. I was the eldest. Then came Mary, Benjamin Franklin, Effie, who married C. D. Montague; Charles F., Ada, Nona and Lola. “‘In 1884 and 1885 I put in a couple of years at the University of Oregon. W. C. Taylor and his sister were students there. They were “batching” and offered to take me in if I would help furnish the provisions. I loaded our wagon with potatoes, butter, bacon, eggs and flour, which I replenished as often as they ran low. “‘During 1886-87 I taught a country school in the forks of the Santiam, where the population was almost all Baptists and democrats. If a man moved in there who was a republican the natives would all turn out to see what he looked like. I remember there were one hundred and twenty-five votes cast at an election at Scio and one hundred and twenty-four were for the democratic ticket. The Baptists there used to claim that if a republican ever got to heaven he would be just as lonesome there as he would be at Scio. “‘I decided I could make more money running a book store than at teaching, so I bought a drug and book store at Lebanon for one thousand dollars. I didn’t have a cent, so I had to borrow the thousand to pay for the store. At that time living was not so expensive as it is today. Shortly after I bought the store I got married. We paid five dollars a month rent for our house and when our groceries and meat bill amounted to twelve dollars a month we thought we were getting reckless. I married Miss Flora McCaulley, whose father ran a flouring mill at Lebanon. We had one child, Juanita Mae Miller. She was killed in an automobile accident which occurred on December 31, 1921. “‘I hadn’t been in Lebanon long before they elected me mayor. I served seven years. They elected me school director and I served on the school board twenty years. With others I secured ten acres for a campus for our schools, giving Lebanon the finest school grounds in the state. In 1892 I was called to the Oregon legislature, of which I was a member for two years. Later I was elected state senator, in which I represented Linn county for twelve years. Under President Wilson I was collector of internal revenue at Portland for eight years and during that time I assisted in collecting over one hundred million dollars. “‘I was a delegate to the democratic conventions of 1896, 1900 and 1908. At all of these conventions I voted and worked for William J. Bryan. In 1912 I was a national committeeman at the Baltimore convention. Not many of us who went there had any idea that Woodrow Wilson would be our candidate, but when the delegates found they could not secure the candidate they wanted they combined on Wilson and we all worked tooth and nail for him and he was elected.’” Mr. Miller, who was a candidate for the United States senate in 1924, takes a keen interest in politics and for many years has been one of the leaders of the democratic party in Oregon. As a public official he made an excellent record, discharging his duties with thoroughness and efficiency, and faithfully fulfilled every trust reposed in him. At his own expense he went to Washington, D. C., in March, 1928, in the interest of a national appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a memorial in Champoeg Park. This bill was passed by Senator McNary, the United States appropriating one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars while the state is to give an equal amount. Through the wise management of his business affairs Mr. Miller accumulated a small competence and is now making his home at the Imperial Hotel in Portland. He adheres to the Presbyterian faith and closely observes the teachings of the church. In the Masonic order he has attained the thirty- second degree, and is state lecturer for the Modern Woodmen of America, of which he was the first state deputy. He is an ex-president of the Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers and also a member of the State Historical Society. The development and progress of his city and state are matters of vital concern to Mr. Miller, who has clearly manifested his loyalty and public spirit by giving much of his time to public question, while his genuine worth is attested by all with whom he has been associated in the varied relations of life. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Pages 328-329 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/linn/bios/miller374gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 6.1 Kb