Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE O. MILLER
GEORGE O. MILLER.—The large measure of success in horticulture attained by George O. Miller is due to his close attention to details and a thorough knowledge of the business in all its branches. He was born at Ingersoll, north of London, Ontario, August 13, 1857. His father, William H., was born in New York State and came to Ontario, Canada, when a babe, with his parents, who were farmers. William H. farmed in Canada until 1864, when he came to Michigan, locating near Port Huron, thirty miles north of Detroit, where he farmed until 1866. He then removed to Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa, where he continued farming until his death. William H. Miller’s wife, in maidenhood Helen Ervine, was born in Scotland, and died in Iowa in 1882. They were the parents of nine children, eight of whom are living. George O. Miller, the eldest, as a young boy attended the public school in Iowa, later the Collegiate Institute at Hopkinton, Iowa, and afterwards the Keokuk Commercial College.
After leaving college Mr. Miller entered the train service of the Illinois Central Railroad, remaining with the company twenty-two years, most of the time as conductor, his residence mostly in Waterloo, Iowa, but he was on different divisions from Chicago, Ill., to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Albert Lea, Minn. In 1903 he resigned and for one year was the successful and popular landlord of the Hotel Freeborn at Albert Lea, Minn. In the spring of 1905, having sold his hotel, he came to Portland, Ore., and entered the employ of the Astoria and Columbia River Railroad, running between Portland and Astoria, as a conductor. In January, 1906, he left the railroad company and went upon a tour of investigation through California, finally coming to Chico, where January 31, 1906, he bought a bearing prune and peach orchard of ten acres on Eighth Avenue, and has continued in the horticultural business ever since. In 1911 he bought another bearing orchard of twenty-four acres one quarter of a mile away, which was set to prunes, peaches and almonds. He has convenient warehouses and dry yards, green fruit grader and dipper, and dries Muir and Lovel peaches. On each ranch he has installed an electric pumping plant for irrigation.
He was married in Independence, Iowa, to Miss Annie E. Williamson, who was born there. They have three children, namely: George Ervine, a machinist in San Francisco; John Paul, a graduate of the Law Department, Stanford University, and assistant attorney in the inheritance tax office at Sacramento; and Annie Regina, wife of Dr. James Stewart, of Los Angeles.
Mr. Miller was made a Mason in Waterloo, Iowa, is now a member of Chico Lodge, No. 111, F. & A. M., and also retains his membership in the Order of Railway Conductors. In religion he is a Presbyterian, and in politics he is a Progressive Republican.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1172-1173, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies