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The Home Page of Robert Scott Miller

Updated September 5, 2000

Robert Scott Miller

2450 S Rocky Way

Coupeville, WA 98239-9610

360 678-4336

rsmiller@whidbey.net

I am researching the ancestors of PETER MILLER, who was married to ELIZABETH RABER (formerly spelled "Raeber"). They resided on a farm in Heidelberg township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, circa 1827 to 1842. Peter and Elizabeth had a son, JOHN MILLER, born in Heidelberg township on May 26, 1827. John Miller married ELIZA ANDREAS on August 26, 1827. Eliza was a 6th great-granddaughter of the Mayflower's Francis Cooke and Thomas Rogers.
John and Eliza Andreas Miller had the following children: Sarah Amanda, Elizabeth, Emma C., Charles Edwin (my great-grandfather, born May 26, 1856, in East Penn Township, Carbon County, PA), Hannah, and George.

CHARLES EDWIN MILLER, my great-grandfather, was a colorful figure during the Yukon Gold Rush. In April 1897, he preceded his family in moving from Nemo, Tennessee, to Dawson City, after his sawmill burned down under suspicious circumstances. (He had foretold the disaster the day before, but seemed unable to stop it.) Charles, according to his son, John, lived briefly with Robert Service in Dawson.

Charles first made his mark in the Yukon as a steamboat operator ferrying prospectors from Whitehorse to Dawson. He later became a sawmill owner, coal miner, gold prospector (owner of claim #6 above on Sulphur Creek), inventor, restaurateur, and hotelier at Dawson. The Yukon's "Mount Miller" commemorates his accomplishments in the area.

Charles owned or operated four steamboats between 1897 and 1900--the "Clara," "El Dorado," "Flying," and "Reindeer." He was the first steamboat owner to convert his boats to coal. (Until that time each boat consumed between one to four cords of spruce wood per hour.) Charles mined the coal from three of his own mines--Five Fingers, Tantalous, and Tantalous Butte.

Charles was an enigmatic figure. His grandchildren, including my father, were told little about him. Bert Miller, my father, says, "He was a genius, but a poor family man." Charles was a creative entrepreneur who made and lost several fortunes; he was a poor money manager. After business setbacks, Charles retired to his bedroom for hours or days, where he sat in his rocking chair until he thought of new ways to make a living.

When Charles died in Dawson City on May 17, 1930, at the age of 74, his three children did not mourn his loss and they refused to attend his funeral. (Charles' wife, EMMA JANE RICHMANN, had died three years earlier after leaving him and moving to my grandfather's home in Woodinville, Washington.)

My grandfather, EDWIN CHARLES MILLER, was 19 when his family moved to Dawson City during the Yukon Gold Rush. Referred to later in life as "Captain Miller," he was half-owner of the Yukon stern-wheeler, "Clara Monarch." The former captain of this boat--Alexander McLean--was the prototype for the character, "Wolf Larsen," in Jack's London's book, "The Sea Wolf."

I am also researching the ancestors of GEORGE WASHINGTON HARDIN (born 6-2-1835 in Indiana) and his wife HARRIET SHEARER (born 8-21-1840 in Pennyslvania) who moved their family by covered wagon to King County, Washington Territory, from Montezuma, Iowa, in 1871. They had the following children: Mary Francis, Edwin Madison, Margaret Jane (my great-grandmother), William Elmer, and Aamon Marion.

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