Lewis Miller was an American inventor, manufacturer, philanthropist. He was also a founder of the Chautauqua.
Background
Lewis Miller was born on July 24, 1829, in Greentown, Ohio. His grandfather, Abraham Miller, emigrated from Zweibrücken in the Palatinate about 1776 and settled in Maryland. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, engaged in many battles, and was at Valley Forge under Washington. In 1813, he bought land in Stark County, Ohio, near Canton, and became a farmer there. His son, John Miller, was a farmer and also a carpenter and cabinet-maker. In 1823, he married Mary Elizabeth York (Jorg), who died at the age of twenty-two, after the birth of their son Lewis.
Education
Although he did not have a college education, Lewis Miller was early interested in education and read widely.
Career
Miller taught school and built up a Sunday school of which he was superintendent for forty-five years. Following his mechanical inclinations, he entered the employment of the Ball brothers in Greentown who were manufacturing mowing machines and reapers. In 1852, he became a member of the firm, which, as Ball, Aultman & Company, established its plant in Canton, Ohio. Upon the withdrawal of Ephraim Ball, the firm became C. Aultman & Company. Miller displayed his creative and administrative powers in all his activities in business, civic, and religious affairs. As an employer, he anticipated some of the later reforms in industrial relations. As a citizen, he was active in the municipal affairs of Akron, serving as president of the board of education, in which capacity he introduced a number of new and now commonly accepted ideas both in public school-house design and in teaching methods. In 1874, he invited John H. Vincent to join in organizing a general assembly, as distinct from a Sunday-school teachers assembly, to meet in a grove on Lake Chautauqua. Under the creative influence of the two men, the Assembly became a pioneer in the establishment of adult education. In it were combined summer study, correspondence work, supervised reading, and the combination of recreation, physical training, popular lectures, religion, and music. In the development of this institution, the two founders supplemented each other and refused to claim any but joint credit for its development. Miller was especially responsible for its financial support and administration, but he was by no means limited to such activity. He was constantly suggesting new plans and methods. The respect in which he was held by all those with whom he came into contact contributed not only to the success of an institution but to the general development of educational theory and practice. The pressure of all these enterprises proved too much for even his exceptionally vigorous health, and he died, in New York City, in February 1899. He was survived by his wife and nine of his eleven children.
Achievements
Religion
In religion, Miller was a Methodist, and as a member of the church he organized a large teachers' class and introduced normal training and an organized course of instruction for the Sunday school.
Connections
On September 16, 1852, Miller was married to Mary Valinda Alexander and for the next eleven years, they made their home in Canton. One of his daughters married Thomas Alva Edison.