Biography of William A. Miller - Mercer Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 543


WILLIAM A. MILLER, manager of the Princeton Milling
Company at Princeton, Mercer County, ia one of the promi-
nent figures in the industrial and commercial life of this
section of the state, and is a citizen of utmost loyalty and
progressiveness. He was born in Craig County, Virginia,
January 20, 1865, and is a son of George C. and Melvina
(Caldwell) Miller, the former of whom died in 1903, aged
sixty-eight years, and the latter of whom passed away in
1897, at the age of fifty-eight years. Though George C.
Miller was long identified with farm industry, he also gave
many years of effective service as a teacher in the public
schools, and not a few of the leading citizens of the pres-
ent day in Tazewell County, Virginia, and Wayne County,
West Virginia, were numbered among his pupils. In 1871
Mr. Miller came to Mercer County, West Virginia, and set-
tled on a farm on Greasy Ridge, both he and his wife hav-
ing passed the remainder of their lives in this county and
both having been devoted members of the Baptist Church,
in which Mr. Miller held various official positions. In poli-
ties he was a staunch democrat, and at the time of the Civil
war he gave two years of service as a soldier of the Con-
federacy. Of the eight children only two are now living - 
John W., a farmer near Spanishburg, Mercer County, and
William A., of this review.

William A. Miller was a lad of six years at the time when
the family home was established in Mercer County, and he
gained his youthful education in the public schools of the
various localities in which the family resided while his
father was engaged in teaching. At the age of twenty-
one years he opened a small general store at Ingleside, Mer-
cer County, and there he developed a prosperous enterprise.
After continuing this business eleven years he sold the same
and took the position of mill foreman for the firm of Sud-
dith & Bailey at Welch, McDowell County, where he re-
mained thus engaged for six years. He then became asso-
ciated with Bloom Swim in the purchase of a saw mill at
Oney Gap, Mercer County, and they operated the mill three
years. Mr. Miller thereafter held for three years the posi-
tion of bookkeeper for the wholesale establishment of the
Mercer Grocery Company at Princeton. The next three
years found him in effective service as manager of the
Princeton Milling Company, a position which he reassumed
after an interval of two years' administration as city
treasurer. Mr. Miller is an able and substantial business
man and is a citizen who has a secure place in popular con-
fidence and esteem. His political allegiance is given to the
republican party, he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge and
Chapter of the York Rite of Masonry, and he and his wife
hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1892 Mr. Miller wedded Miss Dean Stinson, daughter
of Loraine Stinson, of Mercer County, and she passed to
eternal rest in 1904. She is survived by two sons and
three daughters. Bernard B. is engaged in farming on the
old homestead of his maternal grandfather on Greasy Ridge,
this county, and in this enterprise his younger brother, Guy,
is associated. In 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Miller with Mrs. Mamie (Oney) Straley, daughter of E. M.
Oney, of Mercer County, and the one child of this second
marriage is a son, William A., Jr.


Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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