My Genealogy Hound

CONRAD MILLER, who was born in Germany, is one of the leading business men of Bangor, Northampton County, Pa., and few enterprises which have been started of late years in this region have not looked to him for support and been uniformly given aid and encouragement.

Mr. Miller was born in one of the Hessian provinces of Germany, October 20, 1838, his parents being John and Mary (Ashburn) Miller. The father came to the United States in 1852, and settled in Baltimore, Md., where he engaged in the mercantile business. In former years and in his native land he had followed farming, and at all times attended strictly to his business affairs. He died in Blairstown, N. J., and was buried in Baltimore. In politics he was a Democrat, and fraternally a member of the Odd Fellows society. A Lutheran in religious belief, he was kind and devoted to his family and a man of upright life. Of his eight children, six of the number are living and residents of this county. Mary is the wife of John Hebner, of Baltimore; Henrietta is Mrs. Henry Hoffman, of Ackermanville, Pa.; John C. married Nellie Johnson, of Portland; Kate is the wife of John Applebye, of Bangor: Charles N. married Annie Brown, of Nazareth; and Elizabeth lives with her brother Conrad.

Our subject was educated in Germany, receiving instruction from private tutors to some extent. When he first came to the United States he worked for a brewer for $2 per month and board. For six years he was engaged in the mercantile business at Baltimore, and then for five years was in the Government employ as Quartermaster in Washington during the Civil War. About 1872 he began his railroad contract work, being for two years clerk and walking boss of the Metropolitan branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He next took a contract on the Baltimore Short Line in Ohio, and afterward built twenty miles of the South Mountain Road, near Harrisburg, continuing his work on that line to Blairstown, N. J.

In 1876 Mr. Miller constructed the Blairstown Railroad to Delaware Station for J. I. Blair. In the spring of 1878 he built the Belvidere Water Works, and the same year constructed the Bangor & Portland Railway, a distance of eight miles, being then elected its President and Manager. About this time he became interested in opening slate quarries at Bangor and Chapman Quarries. In 1880 he continued the construction of the Bangor & Portland Railroad from this point to Pen Argyl, and the following year the road was completed from the last-named station to Nazareth. In 1882 five miles of the Martin’s Creek branch were built, and in 1884 he constructed the Wind Gap branch, a distance of two and a-half miles. With J. I. Blair he invested to a large extent in slate quarries, and is now President of the Bangor Union Quarry, a Director in the North Bangor Company, President and Treasurer of the United States Slate Quarry of Pen Argyl, President and Treasurer of the Albion Slate Company of the same locality, Vice-President of the American Bangor Slate Company, President of the Wind Gap Slate Company, and Receiver for Jackson Bros.’ Slate Quarry, the Pen Argyl Valley Slate Quarry, the Excelsior Slate Quarry and the Diamond Slate Quarry. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank, is President of the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Railroad in Missouri, and President of the Chicago, Iowa & Dakota Railroad, running from Chicago to Alden, Iowa.

August 31, 1869, Mr. Miller married Anna M., daughter of Andrew Werling, of Muncy, Pa. They have had a son and two daughters: John A., born September 1, 1872, and now a student at Lafayette College; Sarah Virginia, born March 25, 1884, and now at Blair Hall School; and Margaret Anna, whose birth occurred June 27, 1886. In politics Mr. Miller is a Republican, and socially he is a member of Warren Lodge No. 51, of Baltimore, Md. He is a Presbyterian, and a member of Blairstown Church of that denomination. He expects to move his family to his new residence in Nazareth, Pa., in March, 1895.