Plumas
County
Biographies
THOMAS J. MILLER
One
of Portola’s best known citizens, who have truly earned the success which is
now his, is Thomas J. (“Tom”) Miller, the owner of “Tom’s Kitchen,” the leading
restaurant of this locality. Born at Wiota, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, on the 25th
of January, 1876, he is a son of Edgar and Abbie (DeSatterley) Miller, and also a first cousin of the late Senator
Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, their mothers having
been sisters. Abbie
DeSatterley was descended from the early French
settlers of northwestern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin, pioneers of that
district, some of whom took part in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Edgar Miller, who was a farmer in Wisconsin,
was a son of Captain Thomas Jesse Miller, one of the early Mississippi River
steamboat captains, and a man of great determination and force of character,
who finally retired to a farm at Wiota, Wisconsin,
where he died at the age of ninety years.
Thomas J. Miller grew to manhood at
Edgewood, Clayton County, Iowa, where his parents had a hotel, and he there
became familiar with that business, becoming an expert at cooking. For a number of years he held important
positions in leading hotels in Iowa. He
came to be known as an unusually good chef and was employed in that capacity at
the Iowa Hotel, at Des Moines, which at that time was owned by Captain Head. Soon after his marriage, in 1898, he went to
Kalispell, Montana, where he became a brakeman on the Great Northern
Railroad. He was promoted to passenger
conductor, which position he resigned in 1905 to go to Tonopah, Nevada, where
he engaged in the restaurant and saloon business, which in those palmy days was a very profitable enterprise. While in Nevada he and
Captain Henry, of Boer War fame, laid out the mining town of Belle Helen, named
in honor of their wives. There
Mr. Miller experienced the common fate of Nevada boomers, having made and lost
one hundred thousand dollars. From there
he went to San Francisco, landing there just after the great earthquake and
fire of April, 1906, with a cash capital of three dollars. He went to work on the coast division of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, becoming a freight conductor. In 1915 he was employed by the Western
Pacific Railroad and established his home in Portola, where he has resided
continuously since. He was a steady
worker, being employed as conductor of a regular freight train and as extra
passenger conductor. On June 11, 1925,
he met with a very serious accident. On
that night, which was very dark, he stepped off his caboose while on the O’Mira Bridge, and fell twenty-seven feet, breaking his
backbone and both pelvic bones. For
twenty-two days he hovered between life and death, and then was placed in a
cast, in which he remained for a year.
When finally he was able to move himself, his money was all gone and he
was unable to follow railroading. His
knowledge of cooking now stood him in good stead. In 1927 in a small room, sixteen by twenty
feet in size, on Commercial Street, in Portola, he opened a restaurant, under
the name of “Tom’s Kitchen.” Through the
persuasive powers of his excellent cooking, his careful attention to the
sanitary condition of his place and his square dealing, he has built up a fine
business, commanding the largest restaurant patronage in this city. He has been compelled to enlarge the place
twice and it is now an attractively and well arranged restaurant, to which come
some of the best people in the community.
He has also opened up “Tom’s Kitchen No. 2,” which is conducted in
“Jack’s Place,” a pool hall in Portola.
In his work here Mr. Miller has been greatly assisted by his wife and
daughter. Mrs. Miller is a painstaking
and tireless worker, seeing that the restaurant is kept in an attractive and
sanitary condition. Mr. Miller uses only
the best meats and groceries in his restaurant and understands the secret of
pleasing his patrons. His prices are
reasonable, the service is prompt and every effort is made to satisfy every
patron. In 1898 Mr. Miller was united in
marriage to Miss Belle Dougherty, who has been a helpmate to him in the truest
sense of the term. They are the parents
of a daughter, Isolda, who is a talented violinist. While a mere child she attracted much
attention as a prodigy and was engaged by the Sherman Clay Music Company, at a
salary of fifty dollars a week, and has since appeared on many concert and
recital programs. She is now very
attentive to her father’s business and is a very valuable assistant in the
restaurant. Nine people are employed in
Kitchen No. 1 and two in Kitchen No. 2.
Mr. Miller is agreeable and cordial, and deserves much credit for what
he has accomplished in the face of great odds.
Because of his success, his excellent qualities and the service which he
is rendering the public he is held in high regard throughout the community.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 189-191. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.