John J. Miller

SCHWY, BOLLINGER, LANZ, EICHELE, MEINHARDT

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/21/2004 at 11:58:38

John J. Miller, a leading dry-goods merchant of Maquoketa, has been established here several years, and has built up an extensive and lucrative business. He is a native of Switzerland, his birthplace being in the Canton of Schaffausen. His father, Nicholas Miller, was also a native of that republic. When a young man he learned the trade of a tailor, but followed it but a short time after marriage, however. He resided in the village of Luoehngen, Switzerland, and became one of its prominent citizens, and was honored by election to its chief office, that of Burgomaster, presiding magistrate, or mayor, and served in that capacity some years. In 1851 he came to America, accompanied by his family, setting sail from Havre, and landing at New York in the month of April. He went directly to Indiana and invested some money in a farm two and one-half miles from Charlestown, in Clark County, and prosperously engaged in farming until the death of his wife, which occurred in March, in 1860. After that sad event he rented his farm, but continued to make his home there until the building were burned two years later, when he took up his residence with his children, and finally died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Bollinger, in Clinton County, this State, in 1878. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Schwy, and she was also of Swiss birth and antecedents. Six children blessed their marriage to them, of whom the following is recorded: Simeon is dead; Anna, married Jacob Bollinger, of Clinton County, Iowa; Barbara, married William Lanz, of Clark County, Ind.; Elizabeth, married Joseph Eichele, of Louisville, Ky.; Martha, married Charles Meinhardt, of Maquoketa.

The subject of this brief biography was the youngest of the family, and having been but four years old when he came with his parents to the United States, he has only a vague remembrance of the land of his birth, and has scarcely known any other home than this, where he was reared to manhood. He attended school but very little, and that before his mother's death. After the loss of her, who had watched so tenderly over his childish years, and had carefully instilled into his mind those honorable principles that have been his guide in after life, the pleasant home was broken up, and he was bound out to a general merchant at Henryville, Ind., for a period of three years. He was kept busy during the day and early evening, but the remainder of the time, when most lads of his age would be bent on amusement, the ambitious youth, desirous of securing a good education, studied far into the night, often burning the midnight oil, and eagerly arising at four o'clock in the morning that he might be at his books until it was time to open the store, and in that way he became the possessor of an education far superior to that of many young men who have had every possible advantage that money could obtain. At the expiration of his term of apprenticeship Mr. Miller engaged with the man whom he had been serving, at a salary of $400 per year. The next year he went to Seymour, Ind., as clerk in a dry-goods store. He remained there two years and then secured a like position in a store at Terre Haute, Ind. When the panic of 1873 struck the country our subject resigned his clerkship, and going to Effingham, Ill., engaged in the dry-goods business for himself, and conducted it successfully for five years, when on the account of the precarious state of his health, he was obliged to give up his business, and sold it to his former employer from Henryville, Ind. He then tried life in Colorado to recuperate in its healthful, invigorating climate, and for four years roughed it in the mountains. At the expiration of that time, with health restored, he came to Maquoketa, and established himself in his present business. He has a neat, well-appointed store, well stocked with a fine class of goods, such as meets the demands of his customers. By his attentiveness to his business, his gentlemanly, courteous manners toward all, and his strict honorable dealings, he has built up an extensive trade, and his credit stands high in financial circles. Mr. Miller is a man of superior intelligence and culture, and is classed among our best citizens. He is an active and useful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and no one is more earnest in his endeavors to advance the moral, educational, and religious interests of this community than he.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois)