Honorable Christian Miller, familiarly known as Chris, is
one of the most influential actors in the present business interests of
Clermont. Unlike the man who has slipped noiselessly through the world, unheard
of, unthought of, and living solely for his own selfish motives, this man has
been seen; heard and felt in every branch of industry - every channel of human
goodness and activity has felt the force of his courage and manly powers.
Christian
MILLER, who was but a lad of nine summers when he came to our
shores, was born in Bern. Switzerland, December 21, 1847, a son of Benedict
MILLER, a native of the same county, born June 12, 1813, and
was one of four children. Benedict was the youngest of his parent's family.
Rudolph, the second of the children, came to America in 1851, and the following
year he took up his residence in Pleasant Valley township, Fayette County, Iowa.
Christian continued farming in his native land, and Elizabeth is now the wife
of Christian DUBY of Switzerland. By occupation Benedict
MILLER was a carpenter and later in life carried on an
extensive building and contracting business. He married Magdalena SHANK.
In the spring of 1856, Mr. Miller, with his
family, consisting of wife and five children, crossed the Atlantic to America
and on his arrival in this country at once came to Fayette county, Iowa, where
he purchased a farm of seventy acres in Pleasant Valley township, near the home
of his brother Rudolph, who had located there some four years previously. This
farm he improved, but it was some years before the income was sufficient to keep
his family, hence he engaged in work at his trade. As time passed he not only
provided well for his family, but was able to lay up some for investment, and at
length possessed two hundred and twenty-seven acres of good land, one-half of
which was under cultivation with good buildings. In 1872 he sold his entire
farm to his son Christian for the sum of four thousand dollars. On May 22,
1880, in the sixty-sixth year of her age, his wife died. In 1882, accompanied
by his son Christian, he returned to Switzerland, where he spent several months,
and while he was visiting the scenes of his boyhood days, and renewing old
acquaintances, Christian made quite an extensive tour over Europe, visiting
places of interest and historic note. They then returned to their home in their
adopted land, after which Mr. Miller resided with his children until his death,
which occurred February 7, 1893, aged almost eighty-two years.
Christian Miller
is the fourth in a family of six children. John F.,
the eldest, is married and owns a fine farm of two hundred acres in Pleasant
Valley Township. He is a well-to-do citizen and an earnest worker in the German
Baptist Church of Elgin. Benedict, at the age of twenty-five
years, went with his family to Green county, Wisconsin, where he engaged in
farming and became an extensive dairyman. He was also the prime mover in
establishing in that neighborhood a cheese factory, one of the first in that
county. Leaving Wisconsin in 1882, he removed to Moody county, South Dakota,
where he is now carrying on farming on a large scale, and is a recognized leader
in all the progressive movements for the public welfare. His family consists of
his wife and eight children. Anna Mary, the next younger
child, in 1866 married Peter LEHMAN, of Elgin, Iowa, and died
in 1885, leaving three children and her husband. Christian is
the next younger in his parent's family. Magdelena became the wife of Jacob
FRAUTCHY, a prominent, prosperous and enterprising citizen who
died on February 7, 1904.
Christian Miller
continued on the old homestead farm, purchased from his father, until March,
1906, when he removed to the village of Clermont, where he already had many
business interests to demand his personal attention. Among his land ownings, in
which his sons are joint owners, he has in Fayette County over two thousand
acres of highly cultivated and improved land, besides seven hundred acres in
Alamakee county, Iowa, all of which farm lands are rented and carried on by
members of his own family and tenants. Within this large possession there are
almost five hundred acres of excellent timber land, of great use and value at
this date. A portable mill is on it. The firm of Christian Miller & Sons
also owns the largest hardware store in Clermont and one of the most modern and
extensive brick-making plants in northeastern Iowa. . . . . .
Mr. Miller also owns several business houses and dwellings in
Clermont, which command good rentals. Whether one views his milling plant, his
mercantile house, his many farms, with their immense modern barns and farm
houses, his hundreds of head of stock, his great brick and tile works, or other
business interests, he is impressed with the thought of good business sagacity
and an endless amount of hard work to bring all these vast interests to their
present state of perfection. . . . . . .
Politically,
Mr. Miller has ever voted the Republican ticket, having cast his first vote for
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. In 1898 and 1900 he was the representative from
Fayette county in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth General Assemblies, where
he did most excellent work for his constituents, so much so that not one line of
newspaper criticism was ever penned against his conduct as a law-maker. . . . .
.
For many years Mr. Miller has been a devoted, consistent member of
the German Baptist church, as is also his excellent wife, both of whom have been
true to the faith they profess, and have reared their interesting and successful
family in the way that they should go, hence are an honor to their parents and
reliable, good citizens. Their children all live within the county in which
they were born, and are men and women possessed of excellent minds and hearts.
The
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Christian Miller are as follows: (1) John F.,
born February 13, 1872, attended college at Rochester, New York, and now
occupies the old homestead in Pleasant Valley township. He is married and has
six children: Walter, Edna, Carl, Wilma, Ervin and Clara. (2) Mary, born June
13, 1874, married William HAAS, of Fayette county, and now
resides at Clermont, being interested in the electric light and milling
business. They have one child, Herbert. (3) Christian C., born February 19,
1876, married Louise HOFFER, and they are the parents of one
daughter, Grace. Christian C. is in company with his father in the various
branches of his business, especially that of milling, and the electric light
plant. He has been mayor of Clermont for several years, and as such gives the
highest possible satisfaction. (4) Eddie M., born July 17, 1877, died November
23, 1879. (5) William B., born November 9, 1880, married Jessie BRACKEN,
of this county, and lives in Pleasant Valley township; they have one child,
Mildred. (6) Alfred E., born July 5, 1882, married Hulda HOFFER
and resides in Clermont. He is associated with his father in the
milling industry. (7) Anna M., born August 12, 1885, died October 2, 1888. (8)
Clara H., born November 11, 1887, married Otto KRUEGER, now
farming in Pleasant Valley township. (9) Meta M., born February 7, 1889, also
farming in Pleasant Valley township. (10) Lillie, born December 13, 1893, died
in infancy. Mrs. MILLER is the daughter of Freiling HAUS, a
native of Switzerland who came to America in 1867 and settled in Pleasant Valley
township. He was a cabinet maker. He died in 1889. Mrs. Miller's mother died
in Switzerland."