Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Infobox person Frederick John Miller (November 24, 1824 – May 11, 1888) was a German-American brewery owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He founded the Miller Brewing Company at the Plank Road Brewery, purchased in 1855.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=apitmbs>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name=hwyg>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name=gtttmt>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> He learned the brewing business in Germany at Sigmaringen.
He was born Friedrich Johannes Miller<ref name="bap_dupe">Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, Katholische Kirchenbücher: Zweitschriften, Riedlingen, F 901 Bd 1217/ Baptim book from 18 March 1818 - 6 October 1840, picture 69, #66</ref><ref>Diözesanarchiv Rottenburg, Familienregister Riedlingen 1808, microfilm 1051174, page 283 (image 548 at FamilySearch</ref> in Riedlingen in the Kingdom of Württemberg. Some German records, like the one about the baptism of his first son Joseph Eduard, also state the name as Müller.<ref name="firstson">Joseph Eduard Müller, „Deutschland, Baden, Erzbistum Freiburg, katholische Kirchenbücher, 1678-1930“ • FamilySearch, familysearch.org</ref> Since the end of the 20th century, some publications state Miller's name as "Frederick Edward John Miller" from which they derive the birth name "Friedrich Eduard Johann(es) Müller".<ref>Yenne, Bill: The field guide to North America's breweries and microbreweries, 1994, p. 72</ref>
Miller married Josephine Müller in Friedrichshafen, Württemberg, on June 7, 1853.<ref>Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, Katholische Kirchenbücher: Zweitschriften, Sigmaringen, F 901 Bd 494, Marriage register from 10 February 1831 - 9 December 1875, picture 64, #5</ref> Their first child, Joseph Edward Miller, was born the next year.<ref name="firstson"/> In 1854, the family emigrated to the United States, spending the first year in New York. They moved to Wisconsin in 1855, arriving through New Orleans.<ref name=mgchiff>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>
Josephine died in April 1860 and Miller married Lisette Gross and had five children who survived infancy: Ernst, Emil, Frederick II, Clara, and Elise. Clara married Carl A. Miller (no relation), also a German immigrant.<ref name=mgchiff/>
Frederick Miller once owned a tract of land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that is now Craig Lake State Park.
Miller died of cancer in 1888 at age 63, and was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee. Following his death, the company was run by his surviving three sons and son-in-law Carl.<ref name=mgchiff/>
Miller's younger daughter Elise was the mother of Harry G. John (1919–1992), president of the company from 1946 to 1947 and founder of the De Rance Corporation, once the world's largest Catholic charity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Older daughter Clara's son Frederick C. Miller (1906–1954) was an All-American college football player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne and became president of the company after John in 1947.<ref name=clffig>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> He and his 20-year-old son Fred, Jr., were killed in a plane crash in Milwaukee in 1954.<ref name=msplcr>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> The nine-passenger twin-engine company aircraft was a converted Lockheed Ventura. It was bound for Winnipeg for a December hunting trip at Portage la Prairie;<ref name=fcmskiac>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> the crash also killed the two company pilots, brothers Joseph and Paul Laird.<ref name=pbsbs>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Eberhard Anheuser
- Jacob Best
- Valentin Blatz
- Adolphus Busch
- Adolph Coors
- Gottlieb Heileman
- Frederick Pabst
- Joseph Schlitz
- August Uihlein
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- John, Tim. The Miller Beer Barons: The Frederick J. Miller Family and Its Brewery. Oregon, Wis: Badger Books, 2005.
External linksEdit
- Template:Find a Grave
- Fred Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, U.S.A. Illustrated booklet with portrait