Martin P. Miller

As printed in 1909

MARTIN P. MILLER.

On the list of Washington county's honored dead appears the name of Martin P. Miller who for many years figured as one of the most prominent, prosperous and honored merchants of the city of Washington, where he owned and conducted the New York Store. In all things he measured up to the full standard of manhood and the warm regard entertained for him throughout the county caused the news of his demise to be received with deep and sincere sorrow in this portion of the state.

He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, December 28, 1858, and was a son of Samuel and Barbara (Finnefrock) Miller, who were likewise natives of the Keystone state. The family is an old one of Pennsylvania, the grandfather having been born there, while for many years he followed farming about eight miles from the city of Lancaster. The Finnefrock family was also represented in Lancaster county, where the maternal grandfather of our subject was born and carried on general agricultural pursuits.

Samuel Miller, who has made the occupation of farming his life work is still living in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Having lost his first wife in 1855, he has since married a Mrs. Crawford. The children of the first union were: George; Mary, who was the wife of the Rev. John Rover; Martin P., deceased; Rev. Benjamin Miller; Anna, the wife of Harry Dennis; Amanda, the wife of Alfred Collins; Frances, the deceased wife of Charles Jenks; Alice, the wife of the Rev. Charles Wiles; Emma, the wife of Frank McKain; and Samuel, of Chicago.

Martin P. Miller was reared in Lancaster county, Pennsvlvania, on the old home farm and lessons of industry and diligence were early impressed upon his mind. He attended the district schools in the acquirement of his early education, afterward continued his studies at Mount Joy. Pennsylvania, and later taught school for a time. On his removal to the west in 1880 he located in Washington, where he began clerking for T. Saeger, and subsequently became a salesman in the store of Glaze & Ball. He with his brother-in-law, C. R. Daugherty, afterward purchased Mr. Ball's interests and he eventually became sole proprietor of the store. From a small beginning he built up the business until it was the largest dry-goods store in this section of the country, known as the New York Store. He conducted it along modern business lines, actuated in all that he did by a progressive spirit, his labors being the expression of well formulated and carefully executed plans.

On the 8th of July, 1884, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Willie Daugherty, a daughter of Captain Thomas S. and Christiana (Rhodes) Daugherty. Mrs. Miller was born in Rock Island county, Illinois. Her paternal grandfather. William Daugherty, was reared in Ohio and followed the occupation of farming as a life work. He married Susan Scott and in their later years they came to Iowa, where Mr. Daughetry died at an advanced age. His wife survived him for a number of years and passed away in 1890. They were the parents of eight children: Jane and Thomas, both deceased; Susan, the deceased wife of Lewis Quinn; Charity, deceased wife of I. N. Watt, of Moline, Illinois; Rebecca, the deceased wife of John W. Maxwell; Lydia, who has also passed away; Martha, the wife of the Rev. M. A. Head; and Delia, deceased.

Of this family Captain Thomas S. Daugherty was born in Ohio and became one of the early settlers of Muscatine, Iowa. He engaged in teaching school in early manhood and afterward conducted a grocery store in Muscatine. His business activity, however, was interrupted at the time of the Civil war by his active service in defense of the Union. He became captain of Company I, Twenty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, enlisting in 1864, and while at the front was largely engaged in duty at Mobile, Alabama, and Brownsville, Texas. On leaving Muscatine he came to Washington in 1867 and here established a grocery store, that he conducted until his death, which occurred in the '80s when he was forty-six years of age. In early manhood he had wedded Christiana Rhodes, a native of Kentucky. Her father, Thomas Rhodes, was a native of Ohio and married Elizabeth Ragan, who was born in Kentucky. He died in the state of his nativity when yet a young man. Mrs. Daugherty was their only child. She still survives her husband and yet lives in Washington. They were the parents of four children who reached adult age: Maude I., the deceased wife of Frank W. Maxwell; Willie Elizabeth, now Mrs. Miller; Charles R., of New York city; and Docela, who died in early womanhood.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Miller was blessed with four children, three sons and a daughter, but the second child, Charles, died in infancy. Thomas S., the eldest, is a graduate of the Chicago University; Dorothy is a sophomore in the same institution; and Maxwell P. is a graduate of the Washington high school and now a student of the Chicago University.

The husband and father died February 6, 1904, and the news of his death brought a sense of personal bereavement to his many friends as well as his immediate family. Since her husband's death Mrs. Miller has carried on the New York Store and displays excellent business ability, executive management and sound judgment in the control of her affairs. She is also well known socially and is a member of the Methodist church, to which Mr. Miller likewise belonged. He was, moreover, a prominent Mason and held the office of grand treasurer of the state in 1892 and 1893. Politically he was a republican and served for a few years as a member of the city council, exercising his official prerogatives in support of all public measures which he deemed would prove beneficial to the community at large. His life was indeed a busy and useful one and he was justly accounted one of the representative and honored citizens of Washington. He was loyal in all public relations, faithful in friendship and devoted to the welfare of his family. He won his success by straightforward methods and his record constituted an example well worthy of emulation.

As printed in History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.