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Guide to the Miller Family
Collection
A late 19th century view
of the Lewis Miller family at Oak Place in Akron, Ohio. Chautauqua
co-founder Lewis Miller seated in the center.
Son-in-law Thomas Alva Edison, seen leaning against the porch
column on the left.
THE MILLER FAMILY COLLECTION
CONTENTS
Introduction
Biographical Sketches
Chronology of the Miller Family
Descriptive Entry
I. Margaret Miller Newman's
Research Materials
II. Biographical Materials
Lewis Miller
Mary Valinda Miller
The Miller Family of Greentown, Ohio
Abraham and John Miller
The Levi Miller Family
First Methodist Episcopal Church
Aultman, Miller & Co.
Oak Place and Its Surroundings
Lewis Miller's Children (general)
Jane Miller Marvin
Ira Mandeville Miller
Margaret Miller Newman
Edward Burkett Miller
Robert Anderson Miller
Lewis Alexander Miller
Mina Miller Edison
Mary Miller Nichols
Grace Miller Hitchcock
Theodore Westwood Miller
III. Materials relating
to the Chautauqua Institution
INTRODUCTION
In July 1996, Nancy Miller
Arnn generously donated a collection of papers and memorabilia
belonging to the Miller family to the Chautauqua Institution.
These materials included the wedding picture of Chautauqua co-founder
Lewis Miller and his wife Mary Valinda Alexander, which is currently
housed in the Heritage Room of the Smith Memorial Library. The
remainder of the collection is in the custody of the Chautauqua
Institution Archives.
The mission of the Chautauqua
Institution Archives is to identify, organize, preserve and protect
the records, artifacts, and museum objects that add to the general
and scholarly understanding of The Chautauqua Institution and
the Chautauqua Movement. To fulfill this mission, the Archives
actively collects the personal papers of individuals who had
a significant role in the history of Chautauqua. It also assists
in managing the current records generated by the Institution's
administrative offices.
Chautauqua Institution Archives
Manager June Miller-Spann assists researchers from the general
public throughout the year. Hours during the summer season are
9 to 5, Monday through Saturday. Off-season hours are 9:30 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9:30 a.m. until
3 p.m. Saturdays. The Archives can also be reached by phone at
(716) 357-6332, fax at (716) 357-6344, and e-mail at june@chautauqua-inst.org.
The Archives staff would like
to express its sincere gratitude to Nancy Miller Arnn for her
continued interest in and support of the collection. Her contributions
have significantly augmented and enriched the Archives. It is
our hope that other researchers will be similarly inspired to
preserve their own documentary heritage and to encourage a greater
interest in family research.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
The short biographies below
identify names, important events, and relationships that may
appear in materials in this collection. For fuller biographical
information, researchers should consult Ellwood Hendrick's book
Lewis Miller: A Biographical Essay, the source of much of the
following information. Other biographical details can be extracted
from Margaret Miller Newman's research notes, which comprise
the first section of this collection.
Lewis Miller (1829-1899) was born in Greentown, Ohio, the third
son of John and Elizabeth York Miller. His two elder brothers
were Abraham and Jacob. After the death of his mother, his father
married Elizabeth Tawney Aultman, a widow with two children,
Lydia and Cornelius. John and Mary Tawney Miller subsequently
had six children: Elizabeth, John E., Henry, Solomon, Franklin,
and Levi.
After working for a time as
a plasterer, in 1849 young Lewis Miller traveled with Cornelius
Aultman, Ephraim Ball, and Aultman's brother-in-law Michael Dillman
to Plainfield, Illinois. There they opened a shop that manufactured
reapers and other farm machinery. After a year, Miller returned
to Greentown with Aultman and Ball, and became one of five partners
in the manufacturing concern of Ball, Aultman & Co. The following
year, the company moved to Canton, Ohio. In 1855, Lewis Miller
perfected and introduced a more efficient reaper, which he called
the Buckeye Mower and Reaper. Three years later, after Ephraim
Ball left to form a competing organization, Ball, Aultman &
Co. became C. Aultman & Co. In 1863, a second branch of the
company--with Lewis Miller as superintendent--opened in Akron,
Ohio, where it was known as Aultman, Miller & Co. The following
year, the Canton and Akron works together produced 8000 Buckeye
machines and 500 threshing machines.
In addition to attaining success
as an inventor, manufacturer, and businessman, Lewis Miller proved
to be a strong proponent of the cultural and social benefits
of education, serving as superintendent of his own Sunday School
in Akron and as a member of the Akron School Board. He became
a trustee of Mount Union College in 1865 and president of its
board beginning in 1868, serving until his death in 1899. In
addition, he designed a form of church architecture called the
Akron Plan, which was adopted by many Sunday Schools.
It was in 1873 that Lewis Miller
and Dr. John Heyl Vincent, later a bishop of the Methodist church,
visited Fair Point (now Chautauqua) and arranged with the Chautauqua
Lake Camp Meeting Association for the use of its grounds by the
Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly. Following the first Assembly
meeting in 1874, it was determined that a second meeting should
be held the next year. Indeed, the Camp Meeting Association asked
that their efforts be merged with the Assembly's. Miller was
elected Assembly president and served in that capacity until
his death in 1899. After a period of reorganization following
Mr. Miller's death, a new charter was negotiated in 1902 with
the State of New York, and the Assembly formally became known
as the Chautauqua Institution.
In 1852, Lewis Miller married
Mary Valinda Alexander (1830-1912), with whom he subsequently
had 11 children. Mary Valinda was the daughter of Hugh and Cynthia
Mandeville Alexander of Plainfield, Illinois. The Millers spent
the first years of their marriage in Canton, Ohio, and then moved
to Akron with the opening of Aultman, Miller & Co. In 1869,
the Miller Family settled into Oak Hill, the home that Lewis
Miller had built on twenty-five acres of rolling landscape outside
of Akron.
Lewis and Mary Valinda Miller's
first child was Eva Lucy Miller (1853-1869). Eva died when she
was 16, shortly before the family moved to Oak Hill.
Their second child, Jane Miller
Marvin (1855-1898) married Richard Pratt Marvin, brother-in-law
of B.F. Goodrich who established the rubber business in Akron
and with whom he was associated in business.
Ira Mandeville Miller (1856-1934
or 1935) was married to Cornelia (Cora) Wise Miller in 1886 and
had two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth. After attending Ohio
Wesleyan College, he worked with his father. He was instrumental
in establishing the first street-rail system and commercial electric
light works in Akron, Ohio. Ira Miller moved to Westport, Connecticut,
in 1924.
Edward Burkett Miller (1859-1936)
attended Ohio Wesleyan College and then Stevens Institute at
Hoboken, New Jersey. He, too, worked with his father in Akron
for many years and subsequently began a real estate business.
He was married to Elizabeth Ann Lewis.
According to the family Bible,
Robert Anderson Miller (1861-1911) was born "on the first
day of the attack of Fort Sumter." As a young man, he traveled
to the Hocking Valley on behalf of the Akron Iron Company, which
was organized by his father and his father's partners to produce
iron for agricultural machinery. Later still he went to the C.
Aultman & Co. plant at Canton as an assistant to his uncle
Jacob Miller. He was married to Louise Igoe of Indianapolis in
1887, with whom he had three children, Robert Jr., Rachel, and
Lewis III. Both Robert and Louise Miller served as trustees of
Chautauqua.
In 1899, Robert A. Miller was
appointed Postmaster General at Ponce, Puerto Rico by President
William McKinley, a personal friend of the family. He founded
the Puerto Rican Benevolent Society, which became an industrial
school for disadvantaged children, and died at Chautauqua in
1911.
Lewis Alexander Miller (1863-1943)
attended two years of Mt. Union College before taking a post
in Aultman, Miller & Co.'s Twine Mill. He later joined his
brothers Ira and Edward in the real estate business. He married
Cotta Smyser of Reidsburgh, Ohio, and with her went to Glendora,
California, where they became owners of an orange grove. Lewis
and Cotta Miller had one son named Milton Smyser Miller.
Mina Miller Edison (1865-1947)
graduated with distinction from Akron High School in 1883 and,
after a year in Europe, studied music and the classics in Boston.
Mina Miller married Thomas Alva Edison in February 1886 at Oak
Place. As his second wife, she became stepmother to Marion Estelle,
Thomas, Jr., and William Leslie, the three children from Mr.
Edison's first marriage. She and Mr. Edison subsequently had
three children of their own: Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore.
For most of the year the Edison's
residence was Glenmont, a 23-room mansion in West Orange, New
Jersey, located near the Edison laboratory and factories. In
addition, they wintered in Seminole Lodge, a prefabricated home
that Thomas Edison arranged to have built in Fort Myers, Florida,
and frequently spent part of their summers at Chautauqua.
Researchers interested in learning
more about Mrs. Edison should consult the Guide to the Mina Miller
Edison Collection in the Chautauqua Institution Archives. The
collection itself is also in the custody of the Archives.
Mary Miller Nichols (b. 1867)
first attended school in Akron, and then matriculated from Wellesley
College. With her sisters Jane, Mina, and Grace, she traveled
extensively throughout Europe and also studied art in Paris.
She married William Wallace Nichols of New York. They had a daughter.
Grace Miller Hitchcock (1870-1952)
attended school in Farmington, Connecticut, and then went to
Wellesley College. She married Halbert Kellogg Hitchcock and
lived in Pittsburgh.
Named after the co-founder
of the Chautauqua Institution, John Vincent Miller (b. 1873)
graduated from Yale in 1897. John began a course in engineering
at Cornell, but subsequently enlisted in the navy during the
Spanish-American War. After the conclusion of the war, he worked
for the Edison Works at Orange, New Jersey. He married Florence
S. Nichols, with whom he had two children, Nancy and Stewart.
Theodore Westwood Miller (1875-1898)
studied at St. Paul's and graduated from Yale with his brother
John in 1897. Theodore entered the Law School of New York University,
but when the Spanish War broke out he joined the Roosevelt Rough
Riders and was killed at the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898.
His father, Lewis Miller died the next year.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE MILLER
FAMILY
1776 - Abraham Miller, Lewis's
grandfather, arrives in the United States from Germany, settling
first in Maryland and then in Pennsylvania.
1786 - birth of John Miller,
Lewis's father.
1814 - Abraham Miller moves
his family to Stark County, Ohio.
1823 - John Miller marries
Mary Elizabeth York.
1824 - death of Abraham Miller.
1829 - birth of Lewis Miller.
death of Mary Elizabeth York.
1830 - John Miller marries
Elizabeth Tawney Aultman.
birth of Mary Valinda Miller.
1849 - Lewis Miller, Cornelius
Aultman, Ephraim Ball, and Michael Dillman open a shop for manufacturing
reapers in Plainfield, Illinois.
1850 - Lewis Miller, Cornelius
Aultman, and Ephraim Ball return to Greentown and become partners
in the firm of Ball, Aultman & Co.
1851 - Ball, Aultman &
Co. moves to Canton, Ohio.
1852 - Lewis Miller marries
Mary Valinda Alexander.
1853 - birth of Eva Lucy Miller.
1854 - A fire destroys the
shop of Ball, Aultman & Co.
1855 - birth of Jane Eliza
Miller.
Lewis Miller introduces the
Buckeye Reaper and Mower.
1856 - birth of Ira Mandeville
Miller.
1858 - Ball, Aultman &
Co. becomes C. Aultman & Co.
1859 - birth of Edward Burkett Miller.
1861 - birth of Robert Anderson
Miller.
1863 - birth of Lewis Alexander
Miller.
Aultman, Miller & Co. opens
in Akron, Ohio.
1865 - birth of Mina Miller.
Lewis Miller joins the Board
of Trustees of Mt. Union College.
1867 - birth of Mary Emily
Miller.
Lewis Miller becomes Vice-President
of the Board of Mt. Union College.
1868 - Lewis Miller becomes
President of the Board of Mt. Union College.
dedication of the new Akron
Sunday School, designed by Lewis Miller.
1869 - death of Eva Miller.
the Miller Family moves to
Oak Place.
1870 - birth of Grace Miller.
1873 - birth of John Vincent
Miller.
1875 - birth of Theodore Westwood
Miller.
1875 - death of John Miller,
Lewis Miller's father.
1886 - Mina Miller marries
Thomas Alva Edison at Oak Place.
1874 - Lewis Miller and John
Heyl Vincent initiate the first season of the Chautauqua Lake
Sunday School Assembly.
1886 - Ira Mandeville Miller
marries Cora Wise.
1887 - Robert Anderson Miller
marries Louise Igoe.
1892 - Jane Eliza Miller marries
Richard Pratt Marvin.
1898 - death of Jane Miller
Marvin.
death of Theodore Westwood
Miller.
1899 - Robert Anderson Miller
is appointed Postmaster of Ponce, Puerto Rico.
death of Lewis Miller.
1902 - Chautauqua Assembly
is reorganized and renamed the Chautauqua Institution.
1911 - death of Robert Anderson
Miller.
1912 - Mary Emily Miller marries
William Wallace Nichols.
1915 - death of Mary Valinda
Miller.
1916 - Grace Miller marries
Halbert Kellogg Hitchcock.
1929 - centennial of Lewis
Miller's birth and fiftieth anniversary of Edison's discovery
of incandescent lighting are celebrated at the Chautauqua Institution.
1931 - death of Thomas Alva
Edison.
1934 - death of Ira Mandeville
Miller.
1936 - death of Edward Burkett
Miller.
1943 - death of Lewis Anderson
Miller.
1947 - death of Mina Miller
Edison.
1952 - death of Grace Miller
Hitchcock .
DESCRIPTIVE ENTRY
The Miller Family Collection
consists of a variety of materials that document the lives, relationships,
and interests of Lewis Miller, his wife Mary Valinda Miller,
and their eleven children. Many of the papers and memorabilia
it contains may have been created or assembled by Margaret Miller
Newman, a grandchild of Lewis Miller who was an avid scholar
of her own family's history. Materials span almost a century,
from the 1870s to the 1970s, although the bulk of the collection
is from the period of 1890 through the 1920s.
This collection is divided
into three sections: I. Margaret Miller Newman's Research Materials;
II. Biographical Materials; and III. Materials relating to the
Chautauqua Institution. Descriptions of the types of documents
encompassed under these headings are provided at the beginning
of each section of this guide. Essentially, materials in the
first section are useful for understanding the people and events
that feature in the second and third part of the collection.
Files in the second section are devoted to individual family
members, although some are also related to places and entities
associated with the Miller family. The third section contains
materials pertaining to a place that had particular prominence
in the lives of all of the Millers, the Chautauqua Institution.
The collection is an especially
rich, continuous visual record of the Miller family. Approximately
one-third of the materials consist of photographs and postcards,
all of which are located in sections three and four (see below
for a description of the arrangement of the photographs). The
collection also contains correspondence, handwritten notes, invitations,
pamphlets, newspaper clippings, Christmas cards and other holiday
greetings, meeting minutes, photocopies of legal documents, and
a scrapbook.
Photographs
Researchers should be aware that all photographs in this collection
have been transferred to the Archives' Photograph Collection
to ensure appropriate care and handling. A comprehensive list
of the photographs that were removed has been provided for each
folder, however.
The photographs have also been
numbered sequentially to correspond to the file folders from
which they were removed. For example, photographs from the biographical
file for Lewis Miller, which is the fourth folder in box 1, have
been numbered 1.4-1, 1.4-2, 1.4-3, and so on. Similarly, photographs
of Oak Place, which were removed from the second file in box
2 have been numbered 2.2-1, 2.2-2, 2.2-3, and so on. Researchers
interested in seeing specific photographs can therefore identify
them by the appropriate photograph numbers.
The photograph titles provided
in this guide for the most part were derived from captions on
the backs of the photographs or from supporting documentation.
In instances where the identity of people or places were not
definitely known, a question mark has been placed after the photograph
title.
I. MARGARET MILLER NEWMAN'S RESEARCH MATERIALS
This collection division contains
Margaret Miller Newman's handwritten notes, charts and diagrams,
drafts, and card files about the Miller family. Margaret Miller
Newman was the daughter of Ira and Cora Wise Miller and Lewis
Miller's granddaughter. For more materials relating to Margaret
Miller Newman, see correspondence and photographs in Section
II, box 2, folder 6.
The content and volume of materials
in this section suggest that Mrs. Newman had an intense interest
in the genealogy and history of her own family. In fact, in some
of her notes, Mrs. Newman indicates that she intended to write
a comprehensive history of the Miller family, either as an original
work or as an update of Ellwood Hendrick's biography of Lewis
Miller, which was published in 1925. Although somewhat disordered
and fragmentary, Mrs. Newman's notes are useful for identifying
people and places represented in the rest of the collection.
Mrs. Newman's notes pertaining
to individual family members are also in the appropriate biographical
files in Section II.
Box 1
Folder 1 Research Notes. Includes
an outline and drafts of articles or chapters of a book Mrs.
Newman wrote about the Miller family.
Folder 2 Genealogy Card File.
Consists of index cards about various Miller family members,
presumably compiled as a quick reference source.
Folder 3 Genealogy Notebooks
(2). One notebook contains important dates in history in relation
to events in the Miller family; the second is a list of persons
belonging to either the Miller or Edison families.
II. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
This section of the collection
contains files on individual members of the Lewis Miller family,
with the exception of Eva and John Miller. Also included is a
general file in which more than one family member is represented.
In addition, there are files relating to places and entities
that were important to or had some significance in the lives
of the Millers, including Aultman, Miller & Co. and Oak Place.
Of special interest is the scrapbook assembled, possibly by Mina
Miller Edison, to document Theodore Westwood Miller's military
career and death during the Spanish-American War (see box 2,
folders 13 and 14, and box 3).
Included in the files are correspondence,
pamphlets, holiday greeting cards, postcards, newspaper clippings,
invitations to important family events, and more biographical
notes written by Margaret Miller Newman. This section also contains
most of the photographs in the collection; almost one half of
the materials are photographs. To ensure appropriate care and
handling, however, the photographs have been transferred to the
general photographic file of the Chautauqua Institution Archives.
A list of photographs that were removed has been provided under
each file folder.
Box 1 (cont.)
Folder 4 Lewis Miller. The
folder includes a photocopy of Lewis and Mary V. Miller's marriage
license; a letter, dated 2 April 1897, to George Vincent; and
the following photographs:
1. Lewis Miller and Mary Valinda
at Oak Place (interior)
2-3. Lewis Miller and the Buckeye
Reaper
4-6. Lewis Miller
Folder 5 Mary Valinda Miller.
Includes information concerning the Alexander family and the
following photographs:
1. Mary Valinda Miller as a
young woman
2. Mary Valinda Miller (3 copies)
3. Mary Valinda Miller
4. Mary Valinda Miller (2 copies)
Box 1 (cont.)
5. Emily Clark Huntington (Mrs.
John) Miller and Mary Valinda Miller [standing in front of Oak
Place?]
6-7. Mary Valinda Miller as
a young woman
8. Charles Alexander [?]
Folder 6 The Miller Family
of Greentown, Ohio. Contains some materials about Greentown,
the Dillman family, and Cornelius Aultman. Also includes the
following photographs:
1. Jacob Miller
2-3. John Miller
4. Emily Huntington (Mrs. John)
Miller
5. Solomon Miller
6. Lewis, Abraham, and Jacob
Miller (the three eldest Miller brothers)
7. Zion Lutheran Church, located
between Greentown and New Berlin-West
8. Abraham Miller's log cabin
[?]
Folder 7 Abraham and John Miller
Folder 8 The Levi Miller Family.
Includes correspondence from Levi, Marcia, Levi Jr. (also referred
to as Lee), and Linda Miller to various members of Lewis Miller's
family. Also contains the following photographs:
1. Levi Miller
2. Levi Miller with Marcia
and Eliza Lynch
3. Levi Miller in front of
his home in Greentown
4. Levi and Marcia Miller on
their Golden Wedding Day, Sept. 30, 1924
5. Levi, Marcia, Levi Jr. (also
referred to as Lee), John, and Richard Miller
Box 1 (cont.)
6. Levi, Marcia, John and Richard
Miller
7. Levi Miller and grandson
Richard
8. Old Methodist Episcopal
Church
9. Atwater Church, where Levi
Miller was bank examiner
10. John and Levi (Lee) Miller,
Oct. 1947
11. Levi (Lee) Miller, Jr.,
Oct. 1947
Folder 9 First Methodist Episcopal
Church. Consists of bulletins, a program from the Church's fiftieth
anniversary, and a research paper by Paul B. Pedersen on the
"Akron Idea," dated 1959. Also includes the following
photographs:
1-2. Interior view of the Sunday
School
3. Interior view of the Sunday
School (2 copies)
4. Church organ
5. Helen Storer, teacher who
"took First M.E. Church choir to Chautauqua"
6-8. Exterior view of Church
after 1911 fire
9. Interior view of Church
after 1911 fire
Box 2
Folder 1 Aultman, Miller &
Co. Includes letter from Lewis Miller to the Secretary of the
Treasury, dated 1 Jan. 1897, protesting a proposal to have Cyrus
H. McCormick's portrait on paper currency; a list of patents
granted to Lewis Miller from 1888 to 1899; a small amount of
correspondence written by Lewis Miller to his family during business
trips; and the following photographs:
1. Cornelius Aultman
2. Mrs. Cornelius Aultman [?]
3. The Light Elevator Binder,
manufactured by Aultman, Miller & Co.
Box 2 (cont.)
4. Advertisement for the Buckeye
Reaper - "The Buckeye Heads West"
5. Employees in the Collection
Department of Aultman Miller & Co., ca. 1899
6. Aultman, Miller & Co.
factory - "Buckeye Works"
Folder 2 Oak Place and Its
Surroundings. Includes bills for supplies and repairs to the
Miller house, a blueprint of the neighborhood surrounding Oak
Place, and the following photographs:
Akron, Ohio
1. View of Akron, Ohio, from Oak Place, ca. 1912
2. View of Akron
3-4. City View Apartment and
Storage, sometime after 1925
5. Map of Akron, 1917
Oak Place - Exterior Views
6. Oak Place
7. "Path up to Oak Place
from Cherry St.," July 22, 1925
8. "Rear door"
9-11. Oak Place
12. Side porch
13-14. Oak Place
15. Oak Place (10 copies)
16-17. Oak Place, Aug. 1974
18-19. "The building that
was once the barn for the Miller House," Aug. 1974
20-21. The barn at Oak Place
Box 2 (cont.)
22-25. Glendale, Akron, "showing
land father [Lewis Miller] gave the City...originally part of
Oak Place"
26. Entrance to Glendale
27-29. Conger House, property
adjacent to Oak Place
30. Greenhouse at Oak Place
31-38. Grounds of Oak Place
39. Sleigh party, ca. 1899
40. Oak Place in the winter
41. Grounds of Oak Place looking
towards Akron
42. Grounds of Oak Place "where
old mound was"
Oak Place - Interior
43. "Door into grandfather's study and bath"
44. "Living room"
45. "Aunt Mina's room"
46. Edward's room
47. Bedroom
48. "Upper hall - Iras's
room"
49. "Dining room"
50. "Serving room fire
place"
51. Hall
52. Third floor
53. Hallway "looking into
drawing room"
Box 2 (cont.)
54-56. Drawing room
57. Library
58. "Lewis Miller's living
room" (2 prints)
Staff at Oak Place
59. The gardner ("Gus") and cook
60. Delivery man for Oak Place
Spring Water, ca. 1910 (2 copies)
61. The gardner ("Gus")
in the greenhouse
62. Coachman and family ("Charlie
and Wife, Lily, Violet, and Rose")
Grave Sites
63. "Film of pictures of mother and father Miller [?]"
- grave in Greentown, Ohio
64-67. The Miller family plot
in Glendale Cemetery, Akron, Ohio (letter to Grace Miller Hitchcock
from Betsy [Elizabeth, wife of John Miller], dated 13 June 1950
on reverse)
68-69. "Miller graves,
Glendale Cemetery, Akron, Ohio," Aug. 1974
70-71. John Miller's grave
in Greentown, Ohio
72. Oak Place and Miller grave
sites, Aug. 1974 (negative strip)
Folder 3 Lewis Miller=s Children
(general)
Family Groups
1. Lewis Miller reading to Louise, Lewis III, Robert Jr. and
Rachel Miller
2. Early portrait of the Miller
children
3. Thanksgiving dinner at Oak
Place - Mary Valinda, Ira, Rachel, Cora, and Mary Miller (3 prints)
4. Thanksgiving dinner at Oak
Place - Mary Valinda, Ira, Rachel, Cora, and Mary Miller (5 prints)
Box 2 (cont.)
5. Thanksgiving dinner at Oak
Place - Mary Valinda and John Miller; "Grandmother Wise";
and Edward, Margaret, and Lewis A. Miller (3 prints)
6. Thanksgiving dinner at Oak
Place - Mary Valinda and John Miller, "Grandmother Wise,"
and Edward and Margaret Miller (4 prints)
7. Mina, Grace, Theodore, and
Lewis Miller
8. Grace and Mary Miller (2
prints)
9. "Carolyn=s mother and
sister, Aunt Annie and Florence Nichols, Louise Humphreys, Charlie
Poyer, Louise [Igoe Miller], Thomas [Edison], Will [Nichols],
and Mary [Miller]" (2 prints)
10. Levi [Jr.?] and Margaret
Miller
11. Ira and Edward Miller in
a club or fraternity photograph
12. "John and Theodore
Miller on the lawn at Oak Place," 1892
13. Mary, Robert Jr., and Louise
Igoe [?] Miller
14. Madeleine Edison and Margaret
Miller on the porch at Oak Place
15. Levi L. and Ira Miller
examining the grave of Abraham Miller, Sr., 1920
16. "Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth,
and Prince" at Oak Place
17. Robert, Louise Igoe, Margaret,
and Edith Miller with "Mr. Yamaguchi" on the porch
of Miller Cottage, July 1921 (2 copies)
18. Robert, Louise Igoe, Margaret,
and Edith Miller on the porch of Miller Cottage, July 1921
19. Rachel Miller, Jeanette
Bestor, Mina Edison, Edith Potter, and Louise Igoe Miller on
the steps of Louise Miller's home in Pelham, New York
20-21. John, Louise, Edith,
Cora, Lewis, Ira, Cotta, Milton, Rachel, and Lewis Miller in
the living room of Louise Miller's home in Pelham, New York
Box 2 (cont.)
22. Mina Edison, Grace Hitchcock,
and Lucy Bogue with Mary, Ira, and John Miller at the Edison
home in Glenmont, New Jersey, Fall of 1932
23. Halbert K. Hitchcock and
Milton Miller
24-25. Grace Hitchcock and
Milton Miller
26. Mary Valinda, Edward, Jane,
Mina, Grace, Robert, Mary, John, Theodore, Lewis, Lewis Jr.,
and Ira Miller
27. Lewis Miller with his sons,
Robert, Edward, Ira, John, Theodore, and Lewis Jr. (2 copies)
28. Lewis Miller Family, including
Thomas Alva Edison, Marion Edison Oser, William Edison, and Thomas
Edison, Jr., on the porch of Oak Place, ca. 1892 (3 copies)
29. Mary Miller with Madeleine
Edison or Margaret Miller in the drawing room or parlor at Oak
Place, ca. 1892
30. Lewis, Lewis Jr., Mary
Valinda, Mina, Edward, Grace, Mary, John, Jane, and Theodore
Miller with Thomas Edison, William Edison, Thomas Edison, Jr.,
and Richard Marvin in the living room of Oak Place
31. Grace, Rachel, Mina, Mary
Valinda, Lewis, Ira, and Cora Miller with "Mrs. Bruch"
and "Miss Waymouth" in the dining room at Oak Place
32. Robert, Rachel, Grace,
Edward, Robert, Louise Igoe, and Lewis Miller with "Mr.
Minson, Mrs. Bray, and Georgia Igoe" at Panama Rocks, Chautauqua,
sometime before 1911
33. Nancy Miller Arnn with
Girls Club members and counselors, 1940
34. Miller family and friends
in the drawing room of Oak Place, ca. 1890
35. Jane Miller and Richard
Marvin (on reverse of photographs 36-37)
36-37. Theodore Westwood Miller
(on reverse of photograph 35)
Unidentified
38-69. Unidentified
Box 2 (cont.)
Folder 4 Jane Miller Marvin.
Contains the following photographs:
1. Jane Miller Marvin as a
young woman
2-3. Jane Miller Marvin (2
copies of each)
4. Jane Miller Marvin (9 copies)
5. Jane Miller Marvin
6. Richard Pratt Marvin as
a young man
7. Richard Pratt Marvin (2
copies)
8. Jane and Richard Marvin
(2 copies)
Folder 5 Ira Mandeville Miller.
Includes an invitation to Ira Miller=s wedding to Cora Wise;
a short biography; a small amount of correspondence with friends,
dated 1901, 1926, and 1928-1932; and the following photographs:
1. Ira Miller as a young boy
2. Ira Miller and Ned Stone
3. Ira Miller as a young man
4. Ira Miller as a young man
(2 copies)
5. Ira Miller and co-worker
[?] in his office
6-7. Ira Miller
8. Ira and Cora Miller with
their daughters Margaret and Elizabeth
9. Cora, Ira, and Margaret
Miller in Chautauqua, ca. 1924
10. Ira Miller, ca. 1925 (3
copies)
11. Ira Miller in his garden
Box 2 (cont.)
Folder 6 Margaret Miller Newman.
Contains correspondence from 1923, 1947-1948, 1958, 1963, 1966-1967,
1974, 1977, and undated. Also includes the following photographs:
1. Margaret Miller Newman
2. Margaret Miller Newman working
in the Smith Memorial Library, Feb. 1973
3-4. Margaret Miller Newman
speaking at Chautauqua, July 1967
Folder 7 Edward Burkett Miller.
Consists of the following photographs:
Edward Miller [?] at "Edison
Camp, Canada, Summer of 1902"
Postcard of Edward Miller's
home [?] with message to Grace Miller Hitchcock, dated 12 Jan.
1927, on reverse
Folder 8 Robert Anderson Miller.
Contains wedding invitations for three generations of Robert
A. Miller's family, a small amount of correspondence from Rachel
Miller to Margaret Miller Newman, dated 1962-1963, and the following
photographs:
Robert Anderson Miller and
Family
1. Louise Igoe Miller (2 copies)
2. Robert A. Miller holding
Robert Jr., 1885
3. Louise Igoe Miller standing
in a doorway
4. Louise Igoe Miller holding
Robert III, 1921
5. Robert A. Miller
6. Louise Igoe Miller's home
in Pelham, New York, ca. 1924 (2 copies)
7. Louise Igoe Miller, ca.
1918
8. Louise Igoe Miller and friend,
ca. 1918
Box 2 (cont.)
Robert Anderson Miller in Puerto
Rico
9-11. En route, ca. 1899
12-20. With friends and family
21. Walk "up the drive
at the ranch"
22. Unidentified public building
23. Boy selling fish
24. With Staff at the Post
Office in Ponce
Robert Anderson Miller, Jr.
25. Robert Miller III and friend
26. Robert Miller III "taken
at Plainfall - Pelham Manor"
27. Robert Miller, Jr. and
"Aunt Alice" (2 copies)
28. Robert Miller, Jr. (2 copies)
29-30. Robert Miller, Jr.
31. Edith Hotchkiss Miller
(Robert Jr.'s wife)
32. Richard Miller (Robert
Jr.'s son) and family, Christmas 1970
Rachel Miller
33. Rachel Miller as a baby
34. Rachel Miller as a young
girl (2 copies)
35. Rachel Miller as bridesmaid
for Madeleine Edison Sloane's wedding in Orange, New Jersey
36. Rachel Miller at Oak Place
in winter
37. Rachel Miller in Ft. Myers
(with message from Mina Miller to Margaret Miller Newman on reverse,
1920)
Box 2 (cont.'d)
38. "Rachel Miller and
Elenore Park 'Rainbow'", ca. 1930
39. Rachel Miller's stone house
in Lyme, New Hampshire
40. Postcard of Rachel Miller's
house in Lyme, New Hampshire (with message to Margaret Miller
Newman on reverse, Jan. 1951)
Lewis Miller III
41. Lewis Miller III as a baby
42. Lewis Miller III [?] as
a young boy
43. Lewis Miller III in uniform
with 2 unidentified children
44. Lewis III, Helen, and Barbara
Miller on the beach (with Christmas message to Grace Miller Hitchcock
on reverse)
45. Barbara Miller as a baby
(with Christmas message to Grace Miller Hitchcock on reverse)
46-49. Christmas card with
photograph of Lewis Miller III's home
50-51. Christmas card with
photograph of Barbara and Mary Miller (Lewis Miller III's daughters)
52. Christmas card with photograph
of Lewis Miller III's home
53. "The old man [Lewis
Miller III?] with his 'boy' and dear little granddaughter Evelina
Kran, Summer 1969"
Folder 9 Lewis Alexander Miller.
Contains a small amount of correspondence from Lewis, Cotta,
and Milton Miller to various Miller family members, dated 1925,
1936, 1943-1944, 1946, 1958, and undated. Also includes the following
photographs:
Lewis Alexander Miller and
Family
1. Lewis A. Miller as a young boy
2. Lewis A. Miller with bicycle,
ca. 1880
3. Lewis A. Miller
Box 2 (cont.)
4. Lewis A. Miller in the kitchen
at Oak Place, ca. 1912
5-7. Lewis A. Miller [?] on
the lawn at Oak Place
8. Milton Miller as a baby,
Jan. 1918 (2 copies)
9-10. Milton Miller as a baby
11-14. Milton Miller in front
of the Christmas tree
15. Milton Miller wearing a
sailor suit
16. Milton Miller on a pony
17. Lewis A. and Milton Miller
18. Lewis A., Cotta, and Milton
Miller "taken in our garden just before Milton went to school"
19-20. Milton and Cotta Miller
reading
21. Milton Miller and unidentified
woman
22. Lewis A. And Milton Miller
with friends
23. Lewis A., Cotta, and Milton
Miller with friends
24. Lewis A. and Milton Miller
25. Lewis A. and Milton Miller
at the beach (on same page as photographs 26-28)
26. Milton Miller holding a
scythe (on same page as photographs 25, 27-28)
27. Lewis A. Miller and friends
(on same page as photographs 25-26, 28)
28. The Lewis A. Miller home
[?] (on same page as photographs 25-27)
29. Lewis A. and Cotta Miller
on the beach in Barcelona, 1918
Lewis A. Miller's Homes in
California
30. Glendora [?]
Box 2 (cont.)
31. "Looking over the
grove in the bungalow"
32. "Cotta's Villa"
33-36. Glendora [?]
37. First home in Pasadena
(2 copies)
38-40. First home in Pasadena
.Folder 10 Mina Miller Edison.
Includes correspondence to Mina Miller Edison from her brothers
Ira and Lewis, dated 1877-1878, 1881-1885, 1894; a biography
of Lewis Miller signed by Thomas Alva Edison; and the following
photographs:
Mina Miller Edison
1-3. Mina Miller Edison as a young girl
4. Mina Miller Edison holding
a book
5-8. Mina Miller Edison
Thomas Alva Edison
9. Thomas Alva Edison as a young man
10. Photograph of a sketch
portrait of Thomas Edison
11. Thomas Edison standing
in front of his car in Ft. Myers, Florida
12. Thomas Alva Edison seated
on his porch in Ft. Myers
13. House in Greentown, Ohio,
"where Thomas Edison courted Mina Miller"
14. Marion Edison Oser
The Edisons and Friends in
Ft. Myers, Florida
15. John Burroughs, Mina Edison, Thomas Edison, Madeleine Edison,
Lucy Bogue [?], Clara Ford, Carolyn and Charles Edison, and Henry
Ford, ca. 1914
16. Thomas Edison and John
Burroughs, ca. 1914
17. Thomas Edison, John Burroughs,
and Henry Ford, ca. 1914
Box 2 (cont.)
18. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison,
ca. 1914
19. Thomas Edison, John Burroughs,
and Henry Ford, ca. 1914
20. The Edisons on the grounds
of their home in Ft. Myers, 4 April 1912 (2 copies)
21. "Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
A. Edison - Electrical Laboratory" (2 copies - letter to
Margaret Miller Newman on reverse of one copy)
22. Mina Miller Edison and
Margaret Miller with four friends
23. Elizabeth Miller, Helen
Jewett, and unidentified friend (2 copies)
24. Elizabeth Miller, Helen
Jewett, and unidentified friend
25. Mina Miller Edison, Edith
Edison Potter, and Grace Miller Hitchcock
26. Grace Hitchcock, Mary Nichols,
Will Nichols, Thomas and Mina Edison, Lucious Hitchcock, and
unidentified friends on front porch
27. Mina Miller and Thomas
Alva Edison
28. "Dock and Boat House
- Thomas A. Edison Winter Home"
Folder 11 Mary Miller Nichols.
Consists of the following photographs:
1. Wedding of Mary Miller and
William Nichols, 1912 - the bridesmaids
2. Wedding of Mary Miller and
William Nichols, 1912 - "rice episode"
3. Wedding of Mary Miller and
William Nichols, 1912 - "Aunt Mary throwing the bouquet"
4. Wedding of Mary Miller and
William Nichols, 1912 - the wedding party
5. Wedding of Mary Miller and
William Nichols, 1912 - dancing on the lawn
Folder 12 Grace Miller Hitchcock.
Contains correspondence with Ira Miller's family, dated 1926,
1929-1931, 1930, 1944, and undated; a valuation of the Grace
M. Hitchcock Estate, 1957; and the following photographs:
Box 2 (cont.)
1. Grace Miller with two friends
2-3. Grace Miller and Charles
Lewis
4. Grace Miller [or Mary Miller?]
5. Grace Miller with two friends
Folder 13-14 Theodore Westwood
Miller. Consists of loose materials that were originally a part
of Theodore Westwood Miller's scrapbook. The core of the scrapbook
is in Box 3. Mina Miller Edison may have been responsible for
assembling the scrapbook, which documents Theodore Miller's military
career and death at the Battle of San Juan Hill. The scrapbook
contains correspondence from Theodore to various members of the
Miller family, dated 1888 to 1898, newspaper clippings, correspondence
between Lewis and John Miller arranging to have Theodore's body
sent home, tributes from friends, the text of John Vincent's
address at the funeral, and other pieces of memorabilia. Photographs
of Theodore Miller are as follows:
1. Theodore Westwood Miller
2. Theodore Westwood Miller
and friends in costume, ca. 1897 (2 copies)
3. Theodore Westwood Miller
and friends in costume, ca. 1897
4. Theodore Westwood Miller
and three children, ca. 1897
5-7. Audience at Theodore Miller's
funeral service [?]
Box 3
Book 1 Theodore Miller's Scrapbook.
See description immediately above.
II. MATERIALS RELATING TO THE CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
This section consists of materials
relating to the Chautauqua Institution, a place that was of central
importance in the lives of all of the Miller family members.
In addition to a general file about the Institution, this section
includes materials relating to the Chautauqua Hotel Company,
the stock company organized in 1880 to construct and maintain
the Athenaeum Hotel. Correspondence of the Company consists of
letters exchanged by stockholders and officers, including various
members of the Miller family. A small number of minutes from
meetings of the Company are also included, presumably because
they were enclosures sent with the correspondence.
Box 4
Folder 1 The Chautauqua Institution.
Includes materials about the St. Elmo Hotel, pamphlets from various
programs, Margaret Miller Newman's handwritten notes and correspondence
about the history of Chautauqua, and several articles and speeches.
Also contains the following photographs:
1. Postcard of the Miller Bell
Tower
2. Edward Miller and Mina Miller
Edison on the porch of Miller Cottage, ca. 1922 (3 copies)
3. Postcard of Miller Cottage
with message from Louis Igoe Miller to Mina Miller Edison on
reverse
4. Postcard of Miller Cottage
with message from Margaret Miller Newman to Elizabeth Miller
on reverse
5. Colored postcard of Miller
Cottage
6. Palestine Park
7. The first Hall of Philosophy
8. Rustic Bridge
9. Light celebration at the
Golden Jubilee, 1929
Folder 2 Chautauqua Hotel Company
Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws
Folder 3-11 Correspondence
of the Chautauqua Hotel Company, 1900, 1904-1905, 1910, 1914,
1917, 1919, 1920-1935, 1943, 1946-1950, 1952, 1955 |