Charles R. Miller

Charles R. Miller (ca.1913)

Charles Robert Miller (born September 30, 1857 in West Chester , Pennsylvania , † September 18, 1927 in Berlin , New Jersey ) was an American politician and governor of the state of Delaware from 1913 to 1917 .

Early years

Charles Miller attended Swarthmore College until 1879 and then studied law at the University of Pennsylvania until 1881. After his admission to the bar, he worked in that capacity for the Wilmington Malleable Iron Company and the Philadelphia Mortgage and Trust Company . Soon he was on the boards of numerous corporations and associations across the United States. Among other things, he was in 1911 in Wilmington head of the water supply authority.

Political rise

Charles Miller became a member of the Republican Party . Between January 1911 and January 1913 he was a member of the Delaware Senate . In 1912, as his party's candidate, he was elected the new governor of his state with 47% of the vote against two competitors.

Delaware Governor

Charles Miller took up his new office on January 21, 1913. During his four-year tenure, a ferry service between New Castle and Penns Grove (New Jersey) was put into operation. At that time, Delaware College , later the University of Delaware , established its own faculty for women. The governor called for a revision of both marriage and electoral laws. He supported school reform and the introduction of alternative farming methods in agriculture. In view of the growing volume of traffic, he was also in favor of expanding the road network.

On August 1, 1914, the First World War broke out in Europe . As a result, the demand for gunpowder soared, which benefited many Delaware-based producers. Miller himself experienced the outbreak of war on board a German passenger ship in the English Channel . There was a race with British ships, with the governor and other passengers urging the captain to give up the ship.

Another résumé

After his tenure ended on January 16, 1917, Miller remained politically active. He became a member of his party's federal board of directors and served on the Delaware College finance committee and trustee of various other organizations. He was also a lawyer in Wilmington and President of the Farmer's Bank there . Charles Miller died in 1927. With his wife, Abigail Morgan Woodruff, he had three children, including their son Thomas (1886–1973), who represented the State of Delaware in the US House of Representatives between 1915 and 1917 . His grandson Clement W. Miller (1916–1962) was a member of Congress for the State of California between 1959 and 1962 .

literature

• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 1, Meckler Books, Westport, 1978. 4 volumes.

Web links

• Charles Miller in the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of Delaware (English)
• Charles R. Miller in the database of Find a Grave (English)