The remains of Mrs. Melissa Miller were brought here from Omaha for burial last Thursday by the side of her husband, John Miller, a former resident of this city. Mr. Miller conducted a shoe shop in a building where the Blair Shoe Co. is now located. She was 69 years old and leaves one son, Chas. F. Miller and two daughters, Mrs. C. W. Debolt and Mrs. Jack Kerren, also one sister, Mrs. Mary S. Miller. This is the exact name of Mrs. Oscar Guyer’s mother, but she is no relation.

Melissa A. Miller

Published in the Enterprise November 23, 1917

The widow of John Miller, a pioneer of Blair, died in Omaha, last week and the remains were brought to this city for burial by the side of her husband Thursday of last week.

At the sale of lots on the Blair townsite March 10, 1869, John Miller, a shoe maker employed by Henry Dohle, a boot and shoe manufacturer located on the present site of the Drexel Shoe Company at Omaha, bought a lot just east of where the post office now stands and soon thereafter erected a one-story frame building thereon which, when completed he rented to the county and county offices, Alex Reed, Treasurer, Peter R. Benner, Clerk, P. N. Stilts, County Judge, and A. T. Chapin, Sheriff, officed there. In addition, the County Board, James S. Stewart, Alonzo Perkins and Tom Frazier held Board Meetings there. John S. Bowen subsequently succeeded Stilts as Judge and held forth there. When Miller found that the business section was being established on Washington and Front Streets and on Walker Ave., between Washington and Front Street, he purchased the lot now occupied by the Citizens Bank, moved his building there, engaging in the boot and shoe trade, his business being principally boot and shoemaking, following the business up to the time of his last illness. His death was occasioned by cancer of the stomach more than two score years ago.

*Vig Files at the Danish American Archives records her first and maiden name as Melissa A. Graham, born March 30. 1846. Her children’s names are recorded, George, Nellie, John W.. Sarah E., and Charles F.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~