Samuel Miller

Background

Samuel Miller was born on October 4, 1820, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Career

While a young man, Miller moved to Avon, Lebanon County. Here he served as justice of the peace in 1840 and 1845. His horticultural work was begun probably several years before the Concord grape was introduced in 1854. Miller later stated that he was the first man in Pennsylvania to fruit the Concord grape before it was offered to the public, as well as the well-known seedling grapes introduced by Edward S. Rogers of Salem, Massachusetts. In 1867, he moved to Bluffton, Montgomery County, Missouri, where he lived until his death. Here his horticultural experiments were carried on with increased energy, and from his gardens many plants were disseminated, either of his own breeding or from selections he had made. At the time of his death, he was engaged in an attempt to improve the native persimmon and had selected a number of promising varieties. For about thirty years, Miller was an officer of the State Horticultural Society but steadfastly declined to accept the presidency, which was often tendered him. The annual reports of the society contain many papers by him on all phases of horticulture. He was survived by seven of his children.

Achievements

• Miller's best-known plant contribution is perhaps the Captain Jack strawberry, a chance seedling found on his farm about 1870. Captain Jack soon became a standard sort, especially in the Rocky Mountain states. It was not only a hardy, drouth resistant variety but commonly served as a pollinizer for the much more famous strawberry Crescent. Most of his plant-breeding work was practiced with grapes and about a half-dozen varieties which he developed found a degree of prominence in the horticultural lists of the times. One particularly, Martha, was for a time the most popular of the green grapes. He also originated or introduced several minor sorts of raspberries. His greatest contribution to horticulture and to the welfare of mankind lies not in the plants he bred so much as in his extensive testing of various types and varieties of fruits and ornamental plants sent him by their owners. He was also a regular contributor, for a third of a century, to the horticultural column of Colman's Rural World.

Personality

Miller's knowledge of varieties and values was considerable and his carefully considered opinions were frequently sought, particularly in the states adjacent to Missouri, concerning varietal adaptabilities to that region. Miller apparently was not concerned with attempting to secure either fame or financial gain from his plants.

Quotes from others about the person

• A contemporary observed in an obituary notice: "It never occurred to him to see 'if it would pay' in any of his experiments. I really believe that he took more genuine enjoyment in finding a new flower or in the ripening of some new fruit which he was testing than he would in the finding of a thousand dollars. He often said 'that he had no time to make money'".

Connections

In 1847, Samuel Miller married Martha Isabel Evans, who became the mother of nine children.

Father:

David Miller

24 December 1790 - 28 November 1863

Wife:

Martha Isabel Evans

Daughter:

Elizabeth L. Miller Teubner

4 June 1854 - 15 January 1929

Son:

George Husmann Miller

15 June 1866 - 8 December 1947

Son:

Robert E. Miller

25 September 1858 - 24 April 1940

Son:

Samuel E. Miller

1 July 1863 - 10 October 1940

References

• The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. (3 Vols)