The subject of this sketch is of Scotch descent. His father, Ezra Wilson Miller, was the oldest of the four sons of the late Capt. Thaddeus Miller, of Bedford, Westchester Co., N.Y., and of Mary Elizabeth Webb, of Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother was Hannah Ryerson, only daughter of the late George Ryerson, a wealthy gentleman of Pompton, N.J. Both of Col. Miller's parents were possessed of abundant means, and, owing to ill health, his father engaged in no business except that of directing his employers in the management of his farm.
Col. Ezra Miller was born on the west shore of the Hudson, in Bergen County, on May 12, 1812, his parents occupying a quaint but richly-furnished farmhouse which still stands within plain view of and nearly opposite Fort Washington. Here he passed the first five years of his life. Subsequently the family removed to New York City) where they resided three years, and then to find a more healthy residence removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Three years later they changed their residence to Flushing, L.I., where Ezra Miller grew to manhood, receiving a thorough English education. It was the design of his father that he should pursue the study of medicine, but the natural bent of his mind was in the direction of mathematical and mechanical investigation, to which he paid much attention, and which resulted in his becoming a successful civil, topographical, mechanical, and hydraulic engineer, a profession that he has followed more or less down to the present time.
On Sept. 23, 1833, Col. Miller enlisted in a company of horse artillery belonging to the Second Regiment, First Brigade, New York State Militia. After an honorable service of nearly six years, during which time he filled the various offices in the company, he was on the 5th of August, 1839, appointed adjutant of the regiment, and July 2d of the following year he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served until July 4, 1842, when he was promoted to a full colonelcy and placed in command of the regiment.
In May, 1841, Col. Miller was united in marriage to Amanda, daughter of Capt. Seth Millar, of New York, and removed to Fort Hamilton, residing on the "Post place," adjoining the fort. While here he took a warm interest in the efficiency of the United States troops stationed at that point, and rendered material assistance to Lieut. Duncan, of the regular army, in command of Company A of United States artillery, and training his company successfully against the machinations of a superior officer at headquarters, who had for some cause conceived a dislike for the young commandant, and who sought to curtail his chances of success, in the decline of his military discipline, by depriving him of the use of the accustomed sum of money for the yearly renting of a field on which to drill his company. Col. Miller counteracted this influence by loaning Lieut. Duncan one of his meadows in which to drill his command. In the Mexican war, which followed shortly after, Duncan's battery took a very important part, and gave ample evidence of the great value of its perfect drill. It saved the army at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and throughout the campaigns of Taylor and Scott did the most effective service.
In the month of April, 1848, Col. Miller removed with his family to Rock County, in the State of Wisconsin, which had just been added to the union of States. There he engaged in surveying the United States and State lands, with his residence at the new town of Magnolia. He at once took a prominent and influential place in the community, and was elected to various county and town offices. For two terms he filled the office of justice of the peace with general acceptance. It is true that his unfailing good humor often led him to temper justice with mercy, but in the end the greater good was generally thereby accomplished. It was during his first term of office that a constable brought a prisoner before him on a warrant for assault issued by a justice of an adjoining town. The colonel, seated on a log in a grove near his house, listened to the constable's testimony against the prisoner, who was a peaceful man when not under the influence of liquor. On hearing the case the justice found it to be only a petty scuffle, the result of a too free use of liquor at a chopping-bee, and after administering a little good advice to the prisoner, at the same time receiving his promise to do better in the future, he dismissed the case, directing that the costs be paid by the constable, to which that functionary readily responded by pulling a flask from his pocket and treating the court.
The military reputation of Col. Miller followed him to the West, and on July 4, 1851, he was appointed by Governor Dewey to the colonelcy of the Eighth Regiment State Militia, a position which he filled during his residence in Wisconsin.
The following year (1852) he was elected a member of the State Senate from the Seventeenth District, comprising the county of Rock, then the most wealthy and populous, excepting Milwaukee, in the State. As a senator he served the State and his constituency with honor and fidelity, and was appointed by the Governor one of the managers of the State Institution for the Blind. After one term of faithful service as a representative he declined a renomination, as well as a remuneration for extra services rendered in behalf of certain local improvements. It was during Col. Miller's senatorial term that the celebrated trial of Judge Hubbel occurred, in which the former took an important part. For this and other duties an extra mileage was voted by both Houses, which Col. Miller opposed, and he was the only member who did not draw pay for the same, the amount still standing to his credit on the books of the State treasurer.
No great length of time had elapsed after the residence of Col. Miller in the West before his naturally inquiring mind led him to investigate the condition of affairs in that growing section, and to suggest changes and improvements that might conduce to its more rapid growth and development. His principal attention was directed to the railroad system of the country. He had been present at the birth of that system; had traveled in the first trains, when stage-coach bodies were placed upon trucks and run upon strap rails; when, in case of rain, the locomotive was housed and horses substituted; and when the construction of tracks, locomotives, and cars was in the most crude state. His acquaintance with these matters enabled him to perceive that improvements were necessary in order to facilitate transportation, making it reliable and expeditious between the seaboard and the far West; and he was not long in finding errors that needed correcting, particularly in the method of making up the passenger trains, which, though it might do for a speed of ten miles, or less, per hour, was dangerous to life at a greater speed.
The height of the first cars was two feet ten inches above the track, and the couplers were placed on a line with the sills, the buffers being on the same line, though separately constructed. Subsequent improvements, however, raised the coach and car bodies, rendering it advisable to combine both buffer and coupler in one, and place them beneath the platform and below the line of the sills,— which is the line of resistance to any longitudinal blow,—— in order to admit of their coupling to the older cars. This depression of time line of resistance between the cars was the greatest error of the American system of making up trains, and led to that most fatal of all forms of railway accidents, telescoping. About the year 1853, while Col. Miller was engaged in the survey of portions of the Northwestern Railway, there were a number of accidents upon the great passenger lines, both East and West, in which cars were telescoped with fatal results, owing entirely to the errors mentioned. Col. Miller also discovered that the oscillation of cars acting independently of each other, coupled as all of them were by slack links or chains, was one of the most fruitful causes of derailment, and that it could only be prevented by tension, or holding the cars firmly together; and the result of long years of labor and experiment on his part was the invention of what is now known as the "Miller Platform," a device that is now in general use on all the railroads of this country, and which is conceded to be the greatest lifesaving invention ever placed upon rail, saving more than a thousand lives a year.
The result of Col. Miller's labors in behalf of safety in railway travel has been to greatly diminish the number of accidents, to put an end to telescoping and oscillation on all the railroads in the country, and to infuse a feeling of safety amid comfort into the passenger, the employé, the manager, and the stockholder. He has in his possession a large collection of letters from presidents, managers, superintendents, master-mechanics, car-builders, conductors, and engineers, all of which bear ample testimony to the great value of these inventions.
Col. Miller has invented several other valuable improvements for various purposes. He has letters patent for his platforms in Russia, and has licensed that government to use them, and it is now a prominent feature of the national standard system of Russian railways. They are also used in nearly all countries, and will soon become the only system of making up trains. The colonel occupies a beautiful residence at Mahwah, Bergen Co., which his ingenious devices and excellent artistic taste have rendered one of the most beautiful rural homes in the United States. Here he loves to retire, away from the cares and anxieties of a large business, engaging in the cultivation and decoration of his lands, and by a spirit of enterprise benefiting the community in which he has located. Socially, he is the most affable of men, and his genial good nature and ready wit make him a welcome guest at many firesides. Occasionally he indulges in a European tour, where he studies the styles of architecture and other improvements of the Old World.
A gentleman who has been intimate with the colonel since his boyhood says of him, "The colonel is one of the most genial and social of men, approachable to all, frank, truthful, honest, faithful, and exceeding1y generous and charitable, and while his Scotch blood fires quickly at an attempt to wrong him, he is calm and forgiving."
Col. Miller and his wife, who, like himself, is hale and active, have five children, three sons and two daughters, viz.: Ezra Wilson, Jordan Gray, Dr. Frank W., Amanda Josephine, wife of M.L. Hinman, of Dunkirk, N.Y., and Hattie M., wife of J.H. Van Kirk, of New York. All are married and settled in life, and have apartments especially provided for them at the spacious residence of their parents when visiting "home."
Col. Ezra Miller was born on the west shore of the Hudson, in Bergen County, on May 12, 1812, his parents occupying a quaint but richly-furnished farmhouse which still stands within plain view of and nearly opposite Fort Washington. Here he passed the first five years of his life. Subsequently the family removed to New York City) where they resided three years, and then to find a more healthy residence removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Three years later they changed their residence to Flushing, L.I., where Ezra Miller grew to manhood, receiving a thorough English education. It was the design of his father that he should pursue the study of medicine, but the natural bent of his mind was in the direction of mathematical and mechanical investigation, to which he paid much attention, and which resulted in his becoming a successful civil, topographical, mechanical, and hydraulic engineer, a profession that he has followed more or less down to the present time.
On Sept. 23, 1833, Col. Miller enlisted in a company of horse artillery belonging to the Second Regiment, First Brigade, New York State Militia. After an honorable service of nearly six years, during which time he filled the various offices in the company, he was on the 5th of August, 1839, appointed adjutant of the regiment, and July 2d of the following year he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served until July 4, 1842, when he was promoted to a full colonelcy and placed in command of the regiment.
In May, 1841, Col. Miller was united in marriage to Amanda, daughter of Capt. Seth Millar, of New York, and removed to Fort Hamilton, residing on the "Post place," adjoining the fort. While here he took a warm interest in the efficiency of the United States troops stationed at that point, and rendered material assistance to Lieut. Duncan, of the regular army, in command of Company A of United States artillery, and training his company successfully against the machinations of a superior officer at headquarters, who had for some cause conceived a dislike for the young commandant, and who sought to curtail his chances of success, in the decline of his military discipline, by depriving him of the use of the accustomed sum of money for the yearly renting of a field on which to drill his company. Col. Miller counteracted this influence by loaning Lieut. Duncan one of his meadows in which to drill his command. In the Mexican war, which followed shortly after, Duncan's battery took a very important part, and gave ample evidence of the great value of its perfect drill. It saved the army at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and throughout the campaigns of Taylor and Scott did the most effective service.
In the month of April, 1848, Col. Miller removed with his family to Rock County, in the State of Wisconsin, which had just been added to the union of States. There he engaged in surveying the United States and State lands, with his residence at the new town of Magnolia. He at once took a prominent and influential place in the community, and was elected to various county and town offices. For two terms he filled the office of justice of the peace with general acceptance. It is true that his unfailing good humor often led him to temper justice with mercy, but in the end the greater good was generally thereby accomplished. It was during his first term of office that a constable brought a prisoner before him on a warrant for assault issued by a justice of an adjoining town. The colonel, seated on a log in a grove near his house, listened to the constable's testimony against the prisoner, who was a peaceful man when not under the influence of liquor. On hearing the case the justice found it to be only a petty scuffle, the result of a too free use of liquor at a chopping-bee, and after administering a little good advice to the prisoner, at the same time receiving his promise to do better in the future, he dismissed the case, directing that the costs be paid by the constable, to which that functionary readily responded by pulling a flask from his pocket and treating the court.
The military reputation of Col. Miller followed him to the West, and on July 4, 1851, he was appointed by Governor Dewey to the colonelcy of the Eighth Regiment State Militia, a position which he filled during his residence in Wisconsin.
The following year (1852) he was elected a member of the State Senate from the Seventeenth District, comprising the county of Rock, then the most wealthy and populous, excepting Milwaukee, in the State. As a senator he served the State and his constituency with honor and fidelity, and was appointed by the Governor one of the managers of the State Institution for the Blind. After one term of faithful service as a representative he declined a renomination, as well as a remuneration for extra services rendered in behalf of certain local improvements. It was during Col. Miller's senatorial term that the celebrated trial of Judge Hubbel occurred, in which the former took an important part. For this and other duties an extra mileage was voted by both Houses, which Col. Miller opposed, and he was the only member who did not draw pay for the same, the amount still standing to his credit on the books of the State treasurer.
No great length of time had elapsed after the residence of Col. Miller in the West before his naturally inquiring mind led him to investigate the condition of affairs in that growing section, and to suggest changes and improvements that might conduce to its more rapid growth and development. His principal attention was directed to the railroad system of the country. He had been present at the birth of that system; had traveled in the first trains, when stage-coach bodies were placed upon trucks and run upon strap rails; when, in case of rain, the locomotive was housed and horses substituted; and when the construction of tracks, locomotives, and cars was in the most crude state. His acquaintance with these matters enabled him to perceive that improvements were necessary in order to facilitate transportation, making it reliable and expeditious between the seaboard and the far West; and he was not long in finding errors that needed correcting, particularly in the method of making up the passenger trains, which, though it might do for a speed of ten miles, or less, per hour, was dangerous to life at a greater speed.
The height of the first cars was two feet ten inches above the track, and the couplers were placed on a line with the sills, the buffers being on the same line, though separately constructed. Subsequent improvements, however, raised the coach and car bodies, rendering it advisable to combine both buffer and coupler in one, and place them beneath the platform and below the line of the sills,— which is the line of resistance to any longitudinal blow,—— in order to admit of their coupling to the older cars. This depression of time line of resistance between the cars was the greatest error of the American system of making up trains, and led to that most fatal of all forms of railway accidents, telescoping. About the year 1853, while Col. Miller was engaged in the survey of portions of the Northwestern Railway, there were a number of accidents upon the great passenger lines, both East and West, in which cars were telescoped with fatal results, owing entirely to the errors mentioned. Col. Miller also discovered that the oscillation of cars acting independently of each other, coupled as all of them were by slack links or chains, was one of the most fruitful causes of derailment, and that it could only be prevented by tension, or holding the cars firmly together; and the result of long years of labor and experiment on his part was the invention of what is now known as the "Miller Platform," a device that is now in general use on all the railroads of this country, and which is conceded to be the greatest lifesaving invention ever placed upon rail, saving more than a thousand lives a year.
The result of Col. Miller's labors in behalf of safety in railway travel has been to greatly diminish the number of accidents, to put an end to telescoping and oscillation on all the railroads in the country, and to infuse a feeling of safety amid comfort into the passenger, the employé, the manager, and the stockholder. He has in his possession a large collection of letters from presidents, managers, superintendents, master-mechanics, car-builders, conductors, and engineers, all of which bear ample testimony to the great value of these inventions.
Col. Miller has invented several other valuable improvements for various purposes. He has letters patent for his platforms in Russia, and has licensed that government to use them, and it is now a prominent feature of the national standard system of Russian railways. They are also used in nearly all countries, and will soon become the only system of making up trains. The colonel occupies a beautiful residence at Mahwah, Bergen Co., which his ingenious devices and excellent artistic taste have rendered one of the most beautiful rural homes in the United States. Here he loves to retire, away from the cares and anxieties of a large business, engaging in the cultivation and decoration of his lands, and by a spirit of enterprise benefiting the community in which he has located. Socially, he is the most affable of men, and his genial good nature and ready wit make him a welcome guest at many firesides. Occasionally he indulges in a European tour, where he studies the styles of architecture and other improvements of the Old World.
A gentleman who has been intimate with the colonel since his boyhood says of him, "The colonel is one of the most genial and social of men, approachable to all, frank, truthful, honest, faithful, and exceeding1y generous and charitable, and while his Scotch blood fires quickly at an attempt to wrong him, he is calm and forgiving."
Col. Miller and his wife, who, like himself, is hale and active, have five children, three sons and two daughters, viz.: Ezra Wilson, Jordan Gray, Dr. Frank W., Amanda Josephine, wife of M.L. Hinman, of Dunkirk, N.Y., and Hattie M., wife of J.H. Van Kirk, of New York. All are married and settled in life, and have apartments especially provided for them at the spacious residence of their parents when visiting "home."
The subject of this sketch is of Scotch descent. His father, Ezra Wilson Miller, was the oldest of the four sons of the late Capt. Thaddeus Miller, of Bedford, Westchester Co., N.Y., and of Mary Elizabeth Webb, of Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother was Hannah Ryerson, only daughter of the late George Ryerson, a wealthy gentleman of Pompton, N.J. Both of Col. Miller's parents were possessed of abundant means, and, owing to ill health, his father engaged in no business except that of directing his employers in the management of his farm.
Col. Ezra Miller was born on the west shore of the Hudson, in Bergen County, on May 12, 1812, his parents occupying a quaint but richly-furnished farmhouse which still stands within plain view of and nearly opposite Fort Washington. Here he passed the first five years of his life. Subsequently the family removed to New York City) where they resided three years, and then to find a more healthy residence removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Three years later they changed their residence to Flushing, L.I., where Ezra Miller grew to manhood, receiving a thorough English education. It was the design of his father that he should pursue the study of medicine, but the natural bent of his mind was in the direction of mathematical and mechanical investigation, to which he paid much attention, and which resulted in his becoming a successful civil, topographical, mechanical, and hydraulic engineer, a profession that he has followed more or less down to the present time.
On Sept. 23, 1833, Col. Miller enlisted in a company of horse artillery belonging to the Second Regiment, First Brigade, New York State Militia. After an honorable service of nearly six years, during which time he filled the various offices in the company, he was on the 5th of August, 1839, appointed adjutant of the regiment, and July 2d of the following year he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served until July 4, 1842, when he was promoted to a full colonelcy and placed in command of the regiment.
In May, 1841, Col. Miller was united in marriage to Amanda, daughter of Capt. Seth Millar, of New York, and removed to Fort Hamilton, residing on the "Post place," adjoining the fort. While here he took a warm interest in the efficiency of the United States troops stationed at that point, and rendered material assistance to Lieut. Duncan, of the regular army, in command of Company A of United States artillery, and training his company successfully against the machinations of a superior officer at headquarters, who had for some cause conceived a dislike for the young commandant, and who sought to curtail his chances of success, in the decline of his military discipline, by depriving him of the use of the accustomed sum of money for the yearly renting of a field on which to drill his company. Col. Miller counteracted this influence by loaning Lieut. Duncan one of his meadows in which to drill his command. In the Mexican war, which followed shortly after, Duncan's battery took a very important part, and gave ample evidence of the great value of its perfect drill. It saved the army at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and throughout the campaigns of Taylor and Scott did the most effective service.
In the month of April, 1848, Col. Miller removed with his family to Rock County, in the State of Wisconsin, which had just been added to the union of States. There he engaged in surveying the United States and State lands, with his residence at the new town of Magnolia. He at once took a prominent and influential place in the community, and was elected to various county and town offices. For two terms he filled the office of justice of the peace with general acceptance. It is true that his unfailing good humor often led him to temper justice with mercy, but in the end the greater good was generally thereby accomplished. It was during his first term of office that a constable brought a prisoner before him on a warrant for assault issued by a justice of an adjoining town. The colonel, seated on a log in a grove near his house, listened to the constable's testimony against the prisoner, who was a peaceful man when not under the influence of liquor. On hearing the case the justice found it to be only a petty scuffle, the result of a too free use of liquor at a chopping-bee, and after administering a little good advice to the prisoner, at the same time receiving his promise to do better in the future, he dismissed the case, directing that the costs be paid by the constable, to which that functionary readily responded by pulling a flask from his pocket and treating the court.
The military reputation of Col. Miller followed him to the West, and on July 4, 1851, he was appointed by Governor Dewey to the colonelcy of the Eighth Regiment State Militia, a position which he filled during his residence in Wisconsin.
The following year (1852) he was elected a member of the State Senate from the Seventeenth District, comprising the county of Rock, then the most wealthy and populous, excepting Milwaukee, in the State. As a senator he served the State and his constituency with honor and fidelity, and was appointed by the Governor one of the managers of the State Institution for the Blind. After one term of faithful service as a representative he declined a renomination, as well as a remuneration for extra services rendered in behalf of certain local improvements. It was during Col. Miller's senatorial term that the celebrated trial of Judge Hubbel occurred, in which the former took an important part. For this and other duties an extra mileage was voted by both Houses, which Col. Miller opposed, and he was the only member who did not draw pay for the same, the amount still standing to his credit on the books of the State treasurer.
No great length of time had elapsed after the residence of Col. Miller in the West before his naturally inquiring mind led him to investigate the condition of affairs in that growing section, and to suggest changes and improvements that might conduce to its more rapid growth and development. His principal attention was directed to the railroad system of the country. He had been present at the birth of that system; had traveled in the first trains, when stage-coach bodies were placed upon trucks and run upon strap rails; when, in case of rain, the locomotive was housed and horses substituted; and when the construction of tracks, locomotives, and cars was in the most crude state. His acquaintance with these matters enabled him to perceive that improvements were necessary in order to facilitate transportation, making it reliable and expeditious between the seaboard and the far West; and he was not long in finding errors that needed correcting, particularly in the method of making up the passenger trains, which, though it might do for a speed of ten miles, or less, per hour, was dangerous to life at a greater speed.
The height of the first cars was two feet ten inches above the track, and the couplers were placed on a line with the sills, the buffers being on the same line, though separately constructed. Subsequent improvements, however, raised the coach and car bodies, rendering it advisable to combine both buffer and coupler in one, and place them beneath the platform and below the line of the sills,— which is the line of resistance to any longitudinal blow,—— in order to admit of their coupling to the older cars. This depression of time line of resistance between the cars was the greatest error of the American system of making up trains, and led to that most fatal of all forms of railway accidents, telescoping. About the year 1853, while Col. Miller was engaged in the survey of portions of the Northwestern Railway, there were a number of accidents upon the great passenger lines, both East and West, in which cars were telescoped with fatal results, owing entirely to the errors mentioned. Col. Miller also discovered that the oscillation of cars acting independently of each other, coupled as all of them were by slack links or chains, was one of the most fruitful causes of derailment, and that it could only be prevented by tension, or holding the cars firmly together; and the result of long years of labor and experiment on his part was the invention of what is now known as the "Miller Platform," a device that is now in general use on all the railroads of this country, and which is conceded to be the greatest lifesaving invention ever placed upon rail, saving more than a thousand lives a year.
The result of Col. Miller's labors in behalf of safety in railway travel has been to greatly diminish the number of accidents, to put an end to telescoping and oscillation on all the railroads in the country, and to infuse a feeling of safety amid comfort into the passenger, the employé, the manager, and the stockholder. He has in his possession a large collection of letters from presidents, managers, superintendents, master-mechanics, car-builders, conductors, and engineers, all of which bear ample testimony to the great value of these inventions.
Col. Miller has invented several other valuable improvements for various purposes. He has letters patent for his platforms in Russia, and has licensed that government to use them, and it is now a prominent feature of the national standard system of Russian railways. They are also used in nearly all countries, and will soon become the only system of making up trains. The colonel occupies a beautiful residence at Mahwah, Bergen Co., which his ingenious devices and excellent artistic taste have rendered one of the most beautiful rural homes in the United States. Here he loves to retire, away from the cares and anxieties of a large business, engaging in the cultivation and decoration of his lands, and by a spirit of enterprise benefiting the community in which he has located. Socially, he is the most affable of men, and his genial good nature and ready wit make him a welcome guest at many firesides. Occasionally he indulges in a European tour, where he studies the styles of architecture and other improvements of the Old World.
A gentleman who has been intimate with the colonel since his boyhood says of him, "The colonel is one of the most genial and social of men, approachable to all, frank, truthful, honest, faithful, and exceeding1y generous and charitable, and while his Scotch blood fires quickly at an attempt to wrong him, he is calm and forgiving."
Col. Miller and his wife, who, like himself, is hale and active, have five children, three sons and two daughters, viz.: Ezra Wilson, Jordan Gray, Dr. Frank W., Amanda Josephine, wife of M.L. Hinman, of Dunkirk, N.Y., and Hattie M., wife of J.H. Van Kirk, of New York. All are married and settled in life, and have apartments especially provided for them at the spacious residence of their parents when visiting "home."
Col. Ezra Miller was born on the west shore of the Hudson, in Bergen County, on May 12, 1812, his parents occupying a quaint but richly-furnished farmhouse which still stands within plain view of and nearly opposite Fort Washington. Here he passed the first five years of his life. Subsequently the family removed to New York City) where they resided three years, and then to find a more healthy residence removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Three years later they changed their residence to Flushing, L.I., where Ezra Miller grew to manhood, receiving a thorough English education. It was the design of his father that he should pursue the study of medicine, but the natural bent of his mind was in the direction of mathematical and mechanical investigation, to which he paid much attention, and which resulted in his becoming a successful civil, topographical, mechanical, and hydraulic engineer, a profession that he has followed more or less down to the present time.
On Sept. 23, 1833, Col. Miller enlisted in a company of horse artillery belonging to the Second Regiment, First Brigade, New York State Militia. After an honorable service of nearly six years, during which time he filled the various offices in the company, he was on the 5th of August, 1839, appointed adjutant of the regiment, and July 2d of the following year he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served until July 4, 1842, when he was promoted to a full colonelcy and placed in command of the regiment.
In May, 1841, Col. Miller was united in marriage to Amanda, daughter of Capt. Seth Millar, of New York, and removed to Fort Hamilton, residing on the "Post place," adjoining the fort. While here he took a warm interest in the efficiency of the United States troops stationed at that point, and rendered material assistance to Lieut. Duncan, of the regular army, in command of Company A of United States artillery, and training his company successfully against the machinations of a superior officer at headquarters, who had for some cause conceived a dislike for the young commandant, and who sought to curtail his chances of success, in the decline of his military discipline, by depriving him of the use of the accustomed sum of money for the yearly renting of a field on which to drill his company. Col. Miller counteracted this influence by loaning Lieut. Duncan one of his meadows in which to drill his command. In the Mexican war, which followed shortly after, Duncan's battery took a very important part, and gave ample evidence of the great value of its perfect drill. It saved the army at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and throughout the campaigns of Taylor and Scott did the most effective service.
In the month of April, 1848, Col. Miller removed with his family to Rock County, in the State of Wisconsin, which had just been added to the union of States. There he engaged in surveying the United States and State lands, with his residence at the new town of Magnolia. He at once took a prominent and influential place in the community, and was elected to various county and town offices. For two terms he filled the office of justice of the peace with general acceptance. It is true that his unfailing good humor often led him to temper justice with mercy, but in the end the greater good was generally thereby accomplished. It was during his first term of office that a constable brought a prisoner before him on a warrant for assault issued by a justice of an adjoining town. The colonel, seated on a log in a grove near his house, listened to the constable's testimony against the prisoner, who was a peaceful man when not under the influence of liquor. On hearing the case the justice found it to be only a petty scuffle, the result of a too free use of liquor at a chopping-bee, and after administering a little good advice to the prisoner, at the same time receiving his promise to do better in the future, he dismissed the case, directing that the costs be paid by the constable, to which that functionary readily responded by pulling a flask from his pocket and treating the court.
The military reputation of Col. Miller followed him to the West, and on July 4, 1851, he was appointed by Governor Dewey to the colonelcy of the Eighth Regiment State Militia, a position which he filled during his residence in Wisconsin.
The following year (1852) he was elected a member of the State Senate from the Seventeenth District, comprising the county of Rock, then the most wealthy and populous, excepting Milwaukee, in the State. As a senator he served the State and his constituency with honor and fidelity, and was appointed by the Governor one of the managers of the State Institution for the Blind. After one term of faithful service as a representative he declined a renomination, as well as a remuneration for extra services rendered in behalf of certain local improvements. It was during Col. Miller's senatorial term that the celebrated trial of Judge Hubbel occurred, in which the former took an important part. For this and other duties an extra mileage was voted by both Houses, which Col. Miller opposed, and he was the only member who did not draw pay for the same, the amount still standing to his credit on the books of the State treasurer.
No great length of time had elapsed after the residence of Col. Miller in the West before his naturally inquiring mind led him to investigate the condition of affairs in that growing section, and to suggest changes and improvements that might conduce to its more rapid growth and development. His principal attention was directed to the railroad system of the country. He had been present at the birth of that system; had traveled in the first trains, when stage-coach bodies were placed upon trucks and run upon strap rails; when, in case of rain, the locomotive was housed and horses substituted; and when the construction of tracks, locomotives, and cars was in the most crude state. His acquaintance with these matters enabled him to perceive that improvements were necessary in order to facilitate transportation, making it reliable and expeditious between the seaboard and the far West; and he was not long in finding errors that needed correcting, particularly in the method of making up the passenger trains, which, though it might do for a speed of ten miles, or less, per hour, was dangerous to life at a greater speed.
The height of the first cars was two feet ten inches above the track, and the couplers were placed on a line with the sills, the buffers being on the same line, though separately constructed. Subsequent improvements, however, raised the coach and car bodies, rendering it advisable to combine both buffer and coupler in one, and place them beneath the platform and below the line of the sills,— which is the line of resistance to any longitudinal blow,—— in order to admit of their coupling to the older cars. This depression of time line of resistance between the cars was the greatest error of the American system of making up trains, and led to that most fatal of all forms of railway accidents, telescoping. About the year 1853, while Col. Miller was engaged in the survey of portions of the Northwestern Railway, there were a number of accidents upon the great passenger lines, both East and West, in which cars were telescoped with fatal results, owing entirely to the errors mentioned. Col. Miller also discovered that the oscillation of cars acting independently of each other, coupled as all of them were by slack links or chains, was one of the most fruitful causes of derailment, and that it could only be prevented by tension, or holding the cars firmly together; and the result of long years of labor and experiment on his part was the invention of what is now known as the "Miller Platform," a device that is now in general use on all the railroads of this country, and which is conceded to be the greatest lifesaving invention ever placed upon rail, saving more than a thousand lives a year.
The result of Col. Miller's labors in behalf of safety in railway travel has been to greatly diminish the number of accidents, to put an end to telescoping and oscillation on all the railroads in the country, and to infuse a feeling of safety amid comfort into the passenger, the employé, the manager, and the stockholder. He has in his possession a large collection of letters from presidents, managers, superintendents, master-mechanics, car-builders, conductors, and engineers, all of which bear ample testimony to the great value of these inventions.
Col. Miller has invented several other valuable improvements for various purposes. He has letters patent for his platforms in Russia, and has licensed that government to use them, and it is now a prominent feature of the national standard system of Russian railways. They are also used in nearly all countries, and will soon become the only system of making up trains. The colonel occupies a beautiful residence at Mahwah, Bergen Co., which his ingenious devices and excellent artistic taste have rendered one of the most beautiful rural homes in the United States. Here he loves to retire, away from the cares and anxieties of a large business, engaging in the cultivation and decoration of his lands, and by a spirit of enterprise benefiting the community in which he has located. Socially, he is the most affable of men, and his genial good nature and ready wit make him a welcome guest at many firesides. Occasionally he indulges in a European tour, where he studies the styles of architecture and other improvements of the Old World.
A gentleman who has been intimate with the colonel since his boyhood says of him, "The colonel is one of the most genial and social of men, approachable to all, frank, truthful, honest, faithful, and exceeding1y generous and charitable, and while his Scotch blood fires quickly at an attempt to wrong him, he is calm and forgiving."
Col. Miller and his wife, who, like himself, is hale and active, have five children, three sons and two daughters, viz.: Ezra Wilson, Jordan Gray, Dr. Frank W., Amanda Josephine, wife of M.L. Hinman, of Dunkirk, N.Y., and Hattie M., wife of J.H. Van Kirk, of New York. All are married and settled in life, and have apartments especially provided for them at the spacious residence of their parents when visiting "home."
Family Members
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