Melchior Miller Auto Repairing, LeMars
The photo called Melchior Miller (M. Miller) Auto Repairing LeMars, IA was taken around 1911. If you zoom into the picture you can read M. Miller on the sign. Melchior Miller (Mueller) born 1861 Zolfingen, Switzerland is my other Great Grand-Father who married Elizabeth Goetz. Melchior Miller's daughter Lena Miller, my Grand Mother, married Leonard Van Pelt, my Grand Father, the son of Albertus (Bert) Van Pelt, who is standing in front of M. Miller Auto-Repairing Shop that the arrow is pointing to in the photo, and Susan Mieras daughter of Jacob Mieras and Adrianna Laurus Centzen. Melchior Miller was a welder and owned the M. Miller Auto Repairing Shop business in LeMars, IA. Albertus Van Pelt owned a garage that put together Model T Fords that arrived in wooden crates by train, and sold them and repaired them. My Grand Father Leonard Van Pelt and his brothers worked in the garage for their Father putting together the Ford cars. My Grand Father Leonard Van Pelt said the wooden crates the Fords arrived in were used for the running boards - nothing wasted. And that the rumble seats were only attached with one big bolt often becoming detached and having to be reattached by their garage. Would love to know who the other individuals are in the photo.
Photo & information contributed by: Sheryl Morace-Mikel