San Joaquin County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



NEWLEN J. MILLER.
 
        Among the real builders of a community are those who erect substantial 
and permanent buildings and one who has won for himself a prominent place in the 
city of Lodi is Newlen J. Miller, who has operated in many parts of the United 
States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was born in Christian County, Mo., 
on August 15, 1873, a son of a farmer, and his life was spent on the home farm 
until he was twenty-one years of age. His schooling was somewhat meager, but 
when the opportunity came to learn mining engineering under his uncle, George W. 
Miller, the famous mining engineer of Denver, Colo., he grasped the opportunity 
and joined his uncle in Cripple Creek, Colo., where he remained for two years. 
His uncle is one of the best known and foremost mining engineers of the country; 
in 1910 he wrote and published a book on the subject of mining and our subject 
drew the plans for the maps illustrating the work. .
Mr. Miller later became the mining engineer for the Amdson Zinc Manufacturing 
Company of Joplin, Mo.; he also erected mills at the mines and made a thorough 
study of zinc mining and became an expert on the subject. He then removed to 
Denver, Colo., and engaged in brick contracting and erected many of the finest 
business blocks in the city; he also built several buildings in Colorado 
Springs; he then removed to San Francisco in 1904 and took up the plasterer's 
trade and at the time of the great earthquake and fire in 1906 was most active 
in the rebuilding of the city, constructing many business blocks and fine 
residences around the Bay. The following year, 1907, we find him in Reno, Nev., 
where he remained for a time working at his trade; then to Fresno, Cal., for a 
time; he then engaged in magnesite mining at Ingomar during the years of 1916 
and 1917, after which, for a short time, he engaged in placer mining at 
Mokelumne Hill in Placer County. During the month of January, 1919, he settled 
in Lodi where he has followed contracting in brick and plastering; among the 
outstanding contracts being the brick block for Mr. Guggolz, the tile residence 
for Dan W. Bird, the V. Kyle residence at Thornton, Dr. Bollinger's residence at 
Lodi, the Ed Spiekerman residence, the Strange residence on his ranch, the 
German Baptist Church, an addition to the Lafayette school building; he also 
plastered a $250,000 school building in San Jose and a number of churches, the 
Sanguinetti Hotel, the Women's Club Building, the Ferdun residence and many 
others in Lodi.
        The marriage of Mr. Miller united him with Miss Mertice Thrasher, a 
native of Massachusetts, a direct descendant on her father's side of Gov. 
Bradford of Massachusetts, while on the mother's side she is descended from Lady 
Huntington of England. She is a graduate of Smith College at Northhampton, 
Mass., and for ten years after her graduation taught in the high schools of 
Massachusetts. They are the parents of two children, Carol and Reinette. 
Fraternally Mr. Miller is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the D. O. K. K. 
His skilled workmanship has brought him a fine patronage, and he is a loyal 
supporter of every measure that is constructive.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p  1204        
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.