Logan County, West Virginia Biography of Boyce MILLER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 160-161 BOYCE MILLER. An organization that represents the most complete and modern facilities in the broad field of general real estate at Charleston is Boyce Miller & Company, real- tors. The head of this firm is one of the youngest and most aggressive business men in the capital city, Boyce Miller, who has been a factor in Charleston only half a dozen years. In that time his associates have come to admire his tremendous energy and his remarkable faculty for getting things done and organizing and directing large affairs. Mr. Miller was born in Logan County, West Virginia, in 1896, son of R. B. and Columbia (James) Miller. As a boy he attended public school at Alderson, West Virginia, graduating from high school, and also attended the Uni- versity of Richmond, Virginia. He has been making his own way since an early age, and consequently his career is longer than might be normally expected of a man of his age. While at Alderson he learned the printer's trade in the office of the Alderson Advertiser, and as an apprentice received a dollar a week. He was in the wholesale candy and stationery business at Alderson for a time. Like many successful men, he has learned by his mistakes, and he freely acknowledged that he had "failed before he was twenty." In the meantime between school sessions he worked as solicitor of bank accounts in Charleston for the National City Bank and the Charleston National Bank, first coming to the capital city in 1913, at the age of seventeen. In 1915 he located permanently in Charleston, becoming a salesman for the real estate firm of Poteet & Woodroe, with whom he remained about a year. Then with two part- ners he went into the real estate business for himself, and in 1920 he bought out his partners and has since conducted Boyce Miller & Company personally. This is a business representing every important feature of a modern real estate organization, and includes a mortgage loan depart- ment, city brokerage department, rental department, con- struction department and sub-division department, each de- partment equipped for an adequate service in the line cor- responding to its name. Mr. Miller's firm also has charge of the investment of funds on mortgage loan security in Charleston and vicinity for Eastern financial corporations, and act as mortgage loan agents for the Security Bank & Trust Company of Charleston. Mr. Miller is president of the Miller Development Company, a holding corporation owning considerable property in the Kanawha Valley. Mr. Miller was the leader in organizing and was the first president of the Charleston Real Estate Board. A tempo- rary organization was effected late in 1918, of which Mr. Miller was made chairman, and the permanent organization was completed in 1919, with Mr. Miller as president. The Charleston Real Estate Board is a public-spirited organiza- tion working for the growth and broader development of Charleston, and its usefulness has been exemplified in many directions. Mr. Miller has also served as president of the West Virginia Eeal Estate Association and was formerly a member of the license committee of the National Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards. This committee drafted what is known as the Ideal Real Estate License Law, for licensing real estate brokers. This law has already been adopted by twelve states. Mr. Miller is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and is affiliated with the Order of Elks. He married Miss Florence Thompson, of Charleston. Their two children are Boyce, Jr., and Florence Gale.