BIOGRAPHIES:  John F. MILLER, Cumberland, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  09 April 2001	
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John F. Miller, for many years a prominent business man of Cumberland, now
deceased, was born in Fallinbostel, Hanover, Germany, April 9, 1836, the son
of Herman and Sophia Miller, and descended from a long line of village
schoolmasters. The father was killed by a powder-mill explosion in 1838, and
afterward the mother married a Mr. Elleman. John F. received his early
education in Germany, and learned the tailor's trade. He came to America in
the spring of 1857, with his stepfather, mother, brother and two sisters, and
located at Carver County, Minnesota. He spent the fall in railroad work and in
the winter of 1857-58 helped his people clear up the farm on which they had
settled. In the spring he found work on a farm near Stillwater, Minn., at $9 
a month. The winter of 1858-59 was again spent in helping clear the home farm.
The next spring, 1859, he found employment in a brick-yard at Chaska, at $14 a
month. His wages were soon raised a dollar, and the following year he was made
foreman. In 1865 he started a brickyard of his own at Carver, in Carver
county, Minn. He sold out in 1868, and moved to Cedar Lake, Hennepin County,
Minn. There he was in the employ of Hill, Griggs & Co., having charge of their
brick yard, and purchasing cord wood for them, sometimes buying as much as
60,000 a year. In 1874 he formed a partnership with Col. C. W. Griggs, one of
his former employers, and continued the wood business at Montrose, Minn., on
what is now the Great Northern Railroad. Most of their wood was shipped to St.
Paul. In connection with their cord wood operations, they conducted a large
general store. In 1880, the partners transferred their operations to
Cumberland, Wis., and Mr. Miller moved here. In 1881 a company store was
established at Cumberland. In 1887 attention was turned from cord wood to the
general lumbering business, and a steam sawmill purchased. The Beaver Dam
Lumber Co. was organized at Cumberland, with C. W. Griggs as president, J. F.
Miller as vice president, and A. G. Foster as treasurer. This company operated
extensively, and at the height of its career employed 125 men and cut
something like 12,000,000 feet of lumber annually. Mr. Miller was one of the
real founders of the village. He laid out and platted much of it. He held
village office. He was active in everything that pertained to the growth and
progress of this region. In October, 1883, with J. T. Heath, he established
the Bank of Cumberland, and in 1887 became its sole owner. After a long and
useful life in which he had achieved a well-deserved success he died Dec. 7,
1892. Mr. Miller was married May 1, 1865, to Catherine Huser, a native of
Alsace, France. This union was blessed with eleven children: Ida, Anna,
Frederick W., Lydia, Mary, Clara, William, Albert, Ella, Belle and Ernest. All
except one are still living.

--Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., &
Co., 1922, pg. 577.