Biography of Sebastian M. Miller - Raleigh Co. WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 556 SEBASTIAN M. MILLER is a mining engineer, with a wide and varied experience in the mining district of West Vir- ginia and other states. He has been the engineer and operating official in the development of the most important coal districts in the southern part of the state. His home for the past ten years has been at Beckley in Raleigh County, and he has been manager of the sale of land for a large group of mining properties in the interest of the Interstate Coal and Dock Company of Huntington. This company is incorporated under the laws of Maine, and its officers and directors comprise one of the most powerful groups of coal operators in the Middle West. The general manager and secretary-treasurer of the company is C. H. Mead of Berkeley, and Mr. Miller for a number of years has been associated with the Mead coal interests in this state. Mr. Miller was born February 18, 1868, at Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His ancestors have been in Pennsylvania since Colonial times, and comprise an ad- mixture of English, German and Scotch. About 1750 the German branch of the family acquired an interest in lands in Pennsylvania, and subsequently brought a colony of Germans who settled on the land. The parents of Mr. Miller were George and Katherine (Mull) Miller, natives of Pennsyl- vania. Mr. Miller's grandfather on his mother's side was an Abraham Lincoln elector for Pennsylvania. The Millers were pioneers in the development of the anthracite coal fields of Schuylkill County. Sebastian Miller's grandfather began mining coal in that county in 1827, and subsequently associated with him his sons David, George and another son, and they continued these operations until 1890. George Miller was a Union soldier who joined the army in the closing months of the Civil war. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died in 1881. Sebastian M. Miller attended the common schools 01 Schuylkill County, also Mercersburg Academy, and from there entered Franklin and Marshall College of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he graduated A. B. in 1888. Subse- quently he pursued special courses in mine engineering, and also as a matter of general business education rather than with a view to fitting himself for the profession he read law for about a year. On leaving Pennsylvania Mr. Miller spent about a year and a half as a practical geologist and engineer in the gold, silver and lead fields of Colorado in big own interest. He was also in the coal mining district of Utah and acquired some interest in a considerable acreage of coal land. For about a year he was in the coal mining section around Fort Scott, Kansas. While in the West he became interested in a proposition to build what was to be known as the Utah & California Nevada Railway, and he connected with the construction company as treasurer and director in charge of the survey, and secured the right of way for this line. He returned to New York in the interest of the railroad in 1896. Not long afterward he be- came associated with his uncle in coal mining operations in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. His uncle died in 1905, and the mine properties were sold to New York parties, Mr. Miller remaining in charge for the new owners. These operators subsequently became interested in West Virginia, and Mr. Miller came to the state to represent them in 1906, and he handled many of the matters connected with the purchase of the properties of the New River Smokeless Coal Company, Cunard Coal Company, Brooklyn Coal Com- pany, Red Ash Coal Company, Rush Run Coal Company, the Sun Mines Nos. 1-2-3, the Lanark Coal Company and the Royal Coal Company. These purchases included nine mines in all, and the properties were organized as the New River Collieries Company. Mr. Miller became general manager of this corporation, and he negotiated the lease of 8000 acres from the Crab Orchard Land Company. He was the practical man in charge of the development of this property, and supervised the installation of two sets of shafts and the building of railroads, power plants, store buildings, offices, tipples, dwellings and club house. The first coal was shipped from this property in 1907. Mr. Miller remained with the organization for two and one half years, and then established himself as a consulting engineer at Beckley. In 1912 he became associated with P. M. Snyder, S. A. Scott, J. L. Bumgardner and others in securing leases to fifteen hundred acres of coal lands in the Winding Gulf District. The development of this property was under his personal supervision, and the corporation handling it was known as the East Gulf Coal Company. Mr. Miller sold his interests in this corporation in 1917, and then became interested in the Interstate Coal and Dock Company a Coal Sales Company, becoming its manager in order to round out his experience in the coal business in this district. He is also interested in the Low Volatile Consolidated Coal Company, of which C. H. Mead is president. Mr. Miller is now general sales manager for all the coal produced in the properties of C. H. Mead Coal Company, Bailey-Wood Coal Company, Ragland Coal Com- pany, Ingram Branch Coal Company, and the Low Volatile Consolidated Company, there being six mines producing about a million tons annually. In November, 1907, at Washington, D. C., Mr. Miller married Miss Anna B. Scott, daughter of Samuel Scott, a native of Maryland. Mr. Miller is affiliated with the Elks Lodge and the Kiwanis Club, and is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is also a member of the Raleigh County Country Club, the White Oak Country Club, and the Old Colony Club. 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