Frederick John Miller (November 24, 1824 – May 11, 1888) was a German-American brewery owner in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

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. He founded the Miller Brewing Company at the Plank Road Brewery, purchased in 1855. He learned the brewing business in Germany at Sigmaringen. He was born ''Friedrich Johannes Miller''Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, Katholische Kirchenbücher: Zweitschriften, Riedlingen, F 901 Bd 1217/ Baptim book from 18 March 1818 - 6 October 1840
picture 69
#66 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.
Joseph Eduard Müller, „Deutschland, Baden, Erzbistum Freiburg, katholische Kirchenbücher, 1678-1930“ • FamilySearch
', familysearch.org 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". Miller married Josephine Müller in Friedrichshafen, Württemberg, on June 7, 1853. Their first child, Joseph Edward Miller, was born the next year. In 1854, the family emigrated to the

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, spending the first year in New York. They moved to Wisconsin in 1855, arriving through

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. 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. 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 Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

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. 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

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charity. Older daughter Clara's son Frederick C. Miller (1906–1954) was an All-American

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player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne and became president of the company after John in 1947. He and his 20-year-old son Fred, Jr., were killed in a plane crash in Milwaukee in 1954. The nine-passenger twin-engine company aircraft was a converted Lockheed Ventura. It was bound for

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for a December hunting trip at Portage la Prairie; the crash also killed the two company pilots, brothers Joseph and Paul Laird.

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External links

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Fred Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, U.S.A.
Illustrated booklet with portrait {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Frederick 1824 births 1888 deaths People from Riedlingen Württemberger emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Milwaukee American brewers American company founders 19th-century American businesspeople Deaths from cancer in Wisconsin Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Milwaukee)

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External links