Miller, Herbert

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Herbert Miller, president of the State Bank of Admire, and one of the very successful and influential farmers, bankers and business men of Lyon County, is one of the comparatively few men who have passed their sixtieth birthday and who can claim nativity in the commonwealth of Kansas.

Of good English stock, of people who settled in America before the American Revolution, he was born in Osage County, Kansas, February 26, 1856. His ancestors located in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, and it was there that his father Richard Miller was born in 1829. Shortly after his marriage he came to the United States in 1849, and after living five years in Wisconsin moved to Osage County, Kansas, in 1855 and in 1856, the year Herbert Miller was born, established a home on the frontier in what is now Lyon County, but was then Breckenridge County. He died there, after some years of activity as a farmer and stockman, in 1864. After becoming a citizen of the United States he voted the whig party until the organization of the republican party, and was a loyal adherent of that political faith. He was a strong temperance advocate before that cause was so popular as it is now, and was an active member of the Methodist Church. Though past the age for military service, he was a member of the Kansas State Militia during the Civil war, and was once called out during Price's raid into Missouri. Richard Miller married Esther Schrivner, who was born in New Brunswick in 1830 and died in Lyon County, Kansas, in 1888. A brief record of their children is as follows: Albion, who died at the age of forty-five years on his large farm and stock ranch in Lyon County; Addie A., wife of William Wayman, who is president of the Emporia State Bank; Herbert Miller; Madison, who died in childhood; Fremont, in the real estate business at Emporia; Collin, who died at the age of three years; Alice, who died at the age of eighteen while attending the State Normal School at Emporia and after some practical experience as a teacher.

Herbert Miller grew up on his mother's farm in Lyon County and was only eight years old when his father died. His education came from the public schools, and with the exception of nine years, from 1887 to 1895, spent in Chautauqua County, his home and activities have been in Lyon County all his life. After attending the public schools he was a student for two years in the State Normal School at Emporia, but left that institution for practical work in 1878. From that year until 1894 he was a farmer and his interests are still largely agricultural. He now owned 600 acres of farm and pasture land in Morris County, a fine farm of 240 acres in Lyon County, and adjoining his residence at Admire is a completely equipped farm of eighty acres.

Since 1894 he had been identified with the State Bank of Admire, and is its president, while his son-in-law, H. T. Chatterton is cashier. This bank was established in 1890 as a private bank, and took a state charter in 1894. The modern bank building is situated at the corner of Main and West streets and was erected in 1905. The bank had a capital of $12,500 and the surplus is an equal amount.

Politically Mr. Miller had always acted with the republican party. His work and influence have gone in the direction of public improvements and the civic welfare, and for a number of years he served as treasurer of the township and had filled the post of treasurer in the local school board for a long time. He is a member of the Kansas Bankers Association and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America at Admire. In Lyon County in 1880 Mr. Miller married Miss Ellen Moore, who was born in Pennsylvania. They have two daughters. Esther is the wife of H. T. Chatterton, cashier of the Admire State Bank. Maude graduated from the high school at Colorado Springs, Colorado, and attended Colorado College of that city, later graduated from the Greeley Normal School in Colorado, is now a teacher in the public schools at Colorado Springs.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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