OHFAIRFI-L Archives

From: Carole Paprocki <>
Subject: [OHFAIRFI-L] Dr. Charles C. Miller
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 21:10:51 -0500

SOURCE: "History of Fairfield County, Ohio and Representative Citizens",
edited and compiled by Charles C. Miller, Ph. D., Ex-State Commissioner
of Ohio Schools. Published by Richmond-Arnold publishing Co., Chicago,
IL. No publication date given, but the Preface written by Dr. Miller is
dated April 15, 1912.

Pages 513-515

CHARLES CHRISTIAN MILLER, Ph.D. ex-President of Lima College, at Lima,
Ohio, ex-commissioner of the common schools of Ohio, and a distinguished
institute instructor and lecturer, has been intimately associated with
the educational interests of his native State almost from boyhood. He
was born November 26, 1856, at Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio, and is
a son of Enos Strawn Miller, who was a representative business citizen
of that county.

Dr. Miller's early educational training was secured in the common
schools, and the Baltimore high school, from which he entered Fairfield
Union Academy, at Pleasantville, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1876.
Prior to this, however, he had taught school, being but 16 years old
when he obtained his first certificate. As he was mainly dependent upon
his own resources, he again began to teach; in the first place, in order
to procure the means with which he could secure collegiate advantages,
and in the second, because his natural inclinations and evident talents
lay in this direction. In the spring of 1877 he became a student at the
Ohio State University, and in 1883 he was graduated from this
institution with the coveted degree of A. B. During a portion of his
university career, he was instructor in Latin and Greek. He enjoys the
distinction of being the first graduate of the Ohio State University
appointed a member of the board of trustees of that institution. On June
16, 1903, Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio, conferred upon him the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Recognizing very early in his career the call of his nature in the
direction of educational work, Dr. Miller bent every energy to advance
himself along this line of endeavor, meeting with public recognition and
substantial promotion, while still in early manhood. He continued to
teach from 1874 until 1884, when not a student himself, his schools
being located at Rushville, Pleasantville and Eaton, Ohio. In the latter
year he was appointed superintendent of the schools at Eaton, where he
continued in this position until 1886, when he accepted a similar one at
Ottawa, for a period of four years, going then to Sandusky, and in 1892
to Hamilton, each change being to his material benefit and professional
advancement. In order to accept the responsible position of
superintendent of the city schools at Hamilton, Dr. Miller was obliged
to resign his office of State commissioner of common schools, to which
he had been appointed in 1891 by Gov. James E. Campbell. In 1901 he was
again called to public office, being appointed State school examiner for
a term of five years.

In 1895 Dr. Miller went to Lima to assume the superintendency of the
public schools of that city, and during his incumbency of 10 years he
succeeded in advancing their educational standard to a point which could
not help reflecting the greatest credit upon his intellectual abilities
and executive qualities. In 1898 he spent the entire summer in post
graduate work in Chicago University. To the regret of his
fellow-citizens, Dr. Miller resigned his superintendency of the Lima
schools at the close of the school year in June, 1905, to accept the
presidency of Lima College, which had been tendered him.

In 1908 he resigned the presidency of Lima College, and made a visit to
Europe for study and recreation. Returning, he engaged for a time in
lecture work for the Redpath Bureau, and was, for nearly a year a
post-graduate student in Columbia University. He is at the present time
Deputy State Commissioner of Common Schools of Ohio.

In addition to the above enumerated honorable and responsible positions
efficiently filled by Dr. Miller, he has served as county school
examiner in Preble, Putnam, Butler and Allen counties and as city school
examiner of the cities of Sandusky, Hamilton and Lima.

For a number of years, he has also been prominently identified with
institute work, his field of labor extending over Ohio, Indiana and
Pennsylvania. As an interesting and effective lecturer, Dr. Miller has
few equals. The barest theme, taken up by Dr. Miller and clothed in his
beautiful and appropriate language and presented with his oratorical
ability, becomes a subject of ever recurring interest to his auditors.
His gifts as a lecturer are such as to cause his favorable comparison
with other notables in the field.

Dr. Miller was married in 1891, to Nellie Cornell Wilbur, who was born
in New York. The domestic circle includes two sons and a daughter,
installed in a beautiful home at Lima, where, when not absent
professionally, Dr. Miller enjoys the resources of an extensive library
and, on occasion, dispenses hospitality to a large social circle. He is
a member of numerous educational organizations, both local and national,
and belongs to the fraternal orders of Masons and Knights of Pythias. He
is a man of striking personality, gifted both in mind and person. He
possesses the courtesy that invites confidence, the geniality which
attracts friend and the dignity which belongs to the eminent position in
the educational world to which his own abilities have advanced him.

Dr. Miller is the editor of the historical department of this work. His
portrait appears as the frontispiece of this work.

This thread:

• [OHFAIRFI-L] Dr. Charles C. Miller by Carole Paprocki <>