YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
MARK J. MILLER
A leader in the Marysville industrial world is Mark J. Miller, the genial proprietor of the popular wall paper and paint establishment bearing his name, whose up-to-date methods, progressive ideas, and artistic tastes have made Miller’s about as busy a headquarters as one may find anywhere in Marysville. A native of the Prairie State, he was born at Peoria, Ill., on August 2, 1864, the son of John B. and Barbara (Keoner) Miller, the former a wagon-maker noted for his exceptional skill. The Keoners are of pioneer stock, and have a reunion each year at Bloomington, Ill., when over 150 representatives of the family attend.
Mark Miller attended the Illinois schools. At the age of thirteen he began to work at the painter’s trade, learning painting and decorating in their every detail. When twenty-two years old he started a painting shop of his own, in Peoria, Ill., where he established a large business, although he was a mere youth, and conducted it successfully for eight years, at times employing no less than twenty-two young men. As a young man of nineteen, he had left home with only $10 in his pocket. He worked for $1 a day; but at the end of the year, he had saved $100. When he left Peoria to come West, in 1897, he had only $75. After some time spent in San Francisco, he came on to Marysville in 1901. It was difficult to secure employment; and his first job was offered by the Standard Oil Co. He also worked at the cannery; and then he went into the mountains and engaged in mining at Owl Gulch for a winter. After that, for four years he worked for Mr. Robinson. Then he gradually got back to his old trade, and little by little established himself in business; and in time he built up a large trade. Among contracts successfully finished by him have been the Gern Apartments and forty-seven of the houses in Kelly’s Court. He owns four houses in Yuba City, and also owns his store building at 315 E Street, a structure forty by eighty feet in size. In the conduct of his business he employs as many as ten men. He is devoted to his work; but he is never so busy that he can not give some thought to local questions of public moment, and is ever ready to help boost the locality in which he lives. He is a stockholder in the New Hotel, as well as in the Stockton Paint Company, of Stockton.
By his first marriage, Mr. Miller had three children, all daughters. Lottie is Mrs. Rockholt, of Yuba City; Henrietta is Mrs. Levanberg, of Los Angeles; and Janet is Mrs. Bell, also of Los Angeles. There are seven grandchildren in the family circle. Mr. Miller was married a second time in Oakland, in December, 1915, being united with Miss Minnie Rodgers, a native daughter of California, born in Sutter Creek, a cultured and refined woman, who presides gracefully over their home. She is a daughter of William Rodgers, a pioneer of Gridley. Mr. Miller is prominent in fraternal circles, holding membership with the Woodmen of the World, the Moose, the Redmen, three branches of the Knights of Pythias, and the various branches of the Odd Fellows. He is a member and Past Grand of Oriental Lodge, No. 45, I.O.O.F.; a Past Chief Patriarch of the Encampment; and also a member of the Argonauts and the Rebekahs. He is a trustee of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge and a director of the Marysville Odd Fellows Hall Association.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 853
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