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carried on farming extensively in Middletown,
and owned and operated a grist
mill and conducted a lumber business.
He was associated with other important
enterprises in his home town. At the age
of sixty years he retired from all active
business pursuits, and lived at ease in
Middletown until his death. He mar-
ried (first) October 5, i8zo, Clarissa, died
in August, 1825, daughter of Noadiah
Whitmore of Middletown. He married
(second), December 2, 1827,, Lucretia,
daughter of Elisha and Lucretia (Tryon)
Fairchild. Children by the first marriage :
Stephen Whitmore, born October 22,
1821 ; Benjamin, born May 6, 1824. Chil-
dren by the second marriage : Darius,
Nathan Gladwin, Charles, Kate (Miller)
Strickland and Frank Miller, deceased
(see forward).
Frank Miller, son of Stephen (3) and
Lucretia (Fairchild) Miller, was born at
Middletown, August 3, 1848, and died at
Bridgeport, August 13, 1921. He received
his preliminary education in the public
schools of his native town. He afterward
studied at Chase Institute under the in-
struction of the celebrated Dr. Chase. In
1863, regardless of the fact that he was
but fifteen years of age, he enlisted for
service in the Civil War and was assigned
to the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
He was with the Army of the Potomac
under General Ulysses S. Grant, and
served until the close of the war, having
participated in many severe engagements.
He came to Bridgeport to make his home
in the early 70's, and soon organized a
coal business, taking into partnership Erwin
Strickland, the firm becoming known
as Miller & Strickland. He later pur-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
chased the Strickland interest and the firm
now became Frank Miller & Co., who car-
ried on an extensive business in their line
until 1907, when Mr. Miller disposed of
his interest to Archibald McNeil & Sons.
Mr. Miller then became active in other
fields of endeavor, among which the lum-
ber trade attracted his major attention,
and he organized the Frank Miller Lum-
ber Company, which became one of the
largest factors in that line in the Bridge-
port territory. He remained as president
of the company until his death. In 1889
Mr. Miller made his beginning in the
financial career that was to see him at the
very top among the leaders in banking
affairs in Bridgeport. In that year he was
elected a director of the City National
80
Bank, afterward becoming vice-president,
and in 1906, on the death of Edwin G.
Sanford, Mr. Miller was made president,
in which office he gave invaluable service
until 1919, in which year his services be-
ing so highly esteemed he was elected
chairman of the board of directors. Ow-
ing to his sound judgment, keen insight
and business acumen, his cooperation in
other lines of business was often sought,
and he became actively and financially
interested in a number of highly important—some
of them epoch-making—enter-
prises. At the time of his death he was,
in addition to being chairman of the board
at the City National Bank, treasurer of
the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of
Bridgeport ; president of the Citizens'
Coal Company of Waterbury, Connecti-
cut, and was an officer in a number of
other business undertakings. While not
actively engaged in political affairs of late
years, Mr. Miller had been prominently
identified with the Democratic party, and
had held a number of offices, civic and
political. These included membership in
the Bridgeport Board of Education and
the Board of Apportionments. He was
deeply interested in religious and philan-
thropic advance, and at his death he remembered
churches, hospitals, and the