Peter A. Miller

 

Peter A. Miller, retired contractor, Sacramento, was born in Christianstadt, Sweden, July, 1827. His father was a merchant farmer, who died when he, the subject of this sketch, was twenty-two years old, and for the next six years he had charge of the business of the estate. In 1855, however, he determined to emigrate to the United States, sailing from Hamburg on the 1^st of May, in the ship “Howard”. It proved an eventful voyage for them. While in the English Channel they collided with a French transport bringing troops to Sebastopol, and in consequence were detained for six weeks at Dover, England, for repairs. However, they were eventually landed in New York, and Mr. Miller went direct to Galesburg, Illinois, which place was his home for some time. There he learned the trade of brick-layer, becoming an expert. He afterward lived in Knoxville, Illinois, for about five years, and in 1860 left for California.  Having a friend at Napa, Peter Littengre, whose brother made one of the party, he went directly there and obtained work on the stone bridge, then in process of building, and remained there until the fall of that year, 1861. He then came to Sacramento, stopped at the What Cheer House, and obtained employment at his trade. When, in 1862, the City of Sacramento bought and presented to the State Agricultural Society the grounds for its exhibitions, he got the contract for the brick work on the walls, etc. He also had the building of a stone residence at Putter Creek Canon, Solano County, for John Wolfskill, a pioneer of 1845. The stone from which this dwelling was constructed, and which was taken from the Putter Creek Canon, was so soft and so free from grit that it could be readily cut with a common saw. It hardened by exposure, and the old “Wolfskill House” still stands, in perfect state of preservation. In 1865 he was engaged in laying the brick in the erection of many buildings in the city, among them the St. George Building, D. O. Mills’ Bank, Hastings Building, the Gregory Building, Pioneer Bakery, and the El Dorado Bank, where Wells, Fargo & Co. now are. In 1866, he built the Washington School-house, corner of G and Thirteenth streets, and later on engaged in brick-making at the Grape-vine brick-yards, on the Yolo side of the river. These brick took the first prize in San Francisco. In 1880, he had the contract on the Washington levee, and in 1881 was engaged in similar work under Le Roy & Pierson, and in the reclamation district, near Courtland, and at other points. Mr. Miller has always been a Republican in politics, and in social relations an Odd Fellow since 1862, a member of Sacramento Lodge, No. 40, F. & A. M., and Chapter No. 3, and is also member of the State Agricultural Society. He is a man of domestic habits, married in 1857, to Johanna Johnson, a native of Sweden, who came to California in 1854, with her brother. They have five sons and one daughter, and they are all living at their pleasant residence, situated on M street.