John B. Miller
John B. Miller is an enthusiast in his line, marine engineering. When he was sixteen years old he began his mechanical life on Michigan Southern Railroad, afterward becoming a marine engineer. He was born February 16, 1844, at Philadelphia, Penn., and removed thence with his parents to Two Rivers, Mich., at the age of two years, receiving his education at the public schools of that place. His father, Isaac Miller, was a miller by trade and was born in Harrisburg, Penn. He died in Michigan in 1882.
In 1861, Mr. Miller enlisted in the Civil war, going to the front with the Sixth Michigan Light Artillery, with which he continued throughout his term of service. He was through the Georgia campaigns, and afterward participated in the battle of Nashville. At the close of the war he was honorably discharged, and returning home reentered the employ of the Michigan Southern & Northern railroad. He continued in this employ until 1866, and then shipped on the tug U.S. Grant as fireman. Here he remained only a short time, going as fireman on the M. I. Mills and on the tug Sol S. Rumage as second engineer. After a short period of service on the tug Vulcan he joined the Kate Moffat, and there remained one season. The next two seasons he was engineer of the Iron City, and when she laid up at the close of the season of 1877 he went into the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and later spent three and a half years in St. Louis, Mo. Returning to the lakes, he shipped as engineer Torrence, City of Port Huron, Progress, John N. Glidden and John B. Lyons. Again he remained on shore for awhile in a responsible position, but on returning to the lakes became engineer on the Wilcox, Monteagle and finally, in 1890, on the C. B. Lockwood, of which he was chief engineer until the close of the season of 1897, working that winter in the machine shop of Teare & Thomas in Cleveland. In the spring of 1898 he fitted out the steamer Italia, but after two months accepted a position as engineer of the American Wire Company in Cleveland.
On February 15, 1871, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Margaret Banghart, of Canada. On March 3, 1883, he chose for his second wife Mrs. Jennie Dowling. Socially he is a member of the Masonic order and of the knights of Macabees.
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Volume I
This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.
Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.
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