San Francisco County

Biographies

James Miller

James Miller, owner of the Oakland Art Pottery and Terra Cotta Works, was born at Carlton Hill, Edinburg, Scotland, March 25, 1838, a son of James and Margaret (Campbell) Miller, both now deceased, aged about seventy. The father, a graduate of Edinburg University, became a barrister at law and followed his profession all his life, one of his cases being the celebrated Madeline Smith murder case, which attracted much attention. His brother, James Miller, represented Leith, Musselborough and Porto Bello for two terms in the House of Commons. Grandfather Garvin Miller was a manufacturer of tiles, and the subject of this sketch took a fancy to that business in his childhood. He amused himself making marbles and turning a potter’s wheel in his grandfather’s yard at the age of seven, going to school only in winter. He was early bound as an apprentice in Thompson’s pottery, serving seven years, and attending night school for his general education. At the close of his apprenticeship he went to Porto Bello and worked about eighteen months in Livingston’s pottery, under the instructions of Leroy, an Italian artist in that line, and recognized as the best molder in all Scotland. In his nineteenth year Mr. Miller was appointed superintendent of Thompson’s pottery in Glasgow, serving two years. He then started the terra-cotta works at Gardenkirk for Baird Bros., of the Gartsherie Iron Works, and worked there as molder some fifteen months. His work attracted some attention at that time, especially his model of an equestrian statue of Queen Victoria, still preserved at Falkirk. He also modeled fountains and vases for the decoration of the buildings and grounds of the Crystal Palace in London, in 1862. He then traveled through France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, spending over three years in Naples to perfect himself in his art. He came to America in 1866, and obtained employment in Taylor’s Marble Works in New York, chiefly as molder of busts, at $20 a day, remaining about a year. His next enterprise was to start a stoneware factory at Queenstown on the Hudson, which proved a success, the owners forming an incorporated company after two years to prosecute the business in a larger way. At this time inducements were held out to Mr. Miller by a Mr. Johnston to start terra-cotta works in St. Louis, Missouri, and he worked there on a salary of $300 a month for about two years, until everything was in good running order. In 1872 he came to California and settled in what was then known as Brooklyn, now East Oakland. He formed a partnership first with Mr. Robert Crabb, under the style of Miller & Crabb, for about a year, manufacturing architectural ornaments chiefly, Mr. Miller being the first to introduce terra cotta for such purposes in this State. Then with Mr. Windsor, as Miller & Windsor, he started the California Pottery and Terra Cotta Works, remaining together until August, 1886, when Mr. Miller established his present factory, the Oakland Art Pottery and Terra Cotta Works.

With such a master of his art as Mr. Miller is acknowledged on all hands to be, and with his active and vigilant supervision of every detail, the most artistic and perfect work in the different lines of production could not fail to be realized. A man of tireless energy as well as of great business ability, combined with a natural endowment of a very marked passion for artistic excellence, enhanced by years of patient study, hard work, wide experience in every department, and perfected by travel and observation of whatever was best in others’ methods, Mr. Miller has achieved an invincible reputation as a manufacturer of the best goods in his line on this coast, where his trade is only limited by his capacity of production. His working force is about sixteen hands, and his goods have received first premiums wherever exhibited, as the most beautiful in finish, superior in quality to foreign and domestic manufactures. “Terra cotta,” says Mr. Miller, “when properly made is an improvement on nature’s geological formations. It is harder and more durable than any natural stone, including even marble and granite.” Mr. Miller is owner of a variety of patents connected with different departments of his manufactures, the best-known being Miller’s Filter, the merits of which are within the scope of popular appreciation. He molded all the ornaments of the Oakland courthouse.

He built in 1890, in East Oakland, a neat, artistic residence, abundantly decorated with the products of his art, and surrounded by extensive, ornamental grounds,--a delightful home for his young family.

Mr. Miller was married in Oakland, September 9, 1873, to Miss Isabella Crabb, a daughter of Robert and Sarah (Prophit) Crabb. The family came to America in 1868, and about 1870 to Carson, Nevada, where Mr. Crabb was engaged for a year of two as contractor and builder. They then moved to San Francisco and Mr. Crabb become the partner of Mr. Miller. The mother died of acute disease in 1873, aged thirty-six, and the father a year to two later, at age of fifty. Grandfather Crabb was living in England in 1889, aged over ninety; and grandmother Prophit died there a few years ago, at the age of ninety-three.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Miller are: Emma, born March 22, 1875; James, Jr., March 14, 1877; Maud, February 5, 1879; Sara, October 5, 1880; Margaret, July 14, 1883; Isabella, February 1, 1886; Elizabeth Ann, June 29, 1890.

Mr. Miller is a member of Oakland Lodge of Perfection, No. 12, A. & A. S. Rite, of the thirty-second degree, and is also a member of the A. O. U. W. and of the Knights of Honor.

Transcribed by David and Joyce Rugeroni.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Page 202-203, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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