William S. Miller
Biography
per Lodge Archivesb. 18 Mar 1867, Grand Mound, Wash.
m. 26 June 1901, Vancouver, Wash. (Louise Cochran Dundi)
d. 11 Oct 1950, Vancouver, Wash.
Masonic
Ridgefield (Daylight) Lodge, No. 237, unless otherwise noted.Petition: Goldendale Lodge, No. 31 (Goldendale, Wash.)
EA: 02 July 1892
(Goldendale Lodge, No. 31)
FC: 27 July 1892
(Goldendale Lodge, No. 31)
MM: 01 Oct 1892
(Goldendale Lodge, No. 31)
Offices: WM 1921, Tyl. 1924, Treas. 1925
Other Masonic Affiliations (Scottish Rite, Shriners, etc.) unknown.The Mason
At the age of 25, William S. Miller was made a mason in 1892 at Goldendale Lodge, No. 31, in Goldendale, Washington.
Bro. Miller was a charter member of Ridgefield Lodge, serving as its first Worshipful Master. On Oct 29th 1920, Miller was empowered, authorized, and appointed by the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Washington to act as Worshipful Master of Ridgefield Lodge, U.D., which then received its Charter in June 1921.
The Man
William Sheridan Miller was born March 18th 1867 in Grand Mound, Thurston Co., Wash., near Olympia.
His father was a farmer from Ohio, and his mother was from Tennessee. William had about a dozen siblings, all born in Oregon or Washington Territory. Among his brothers were Abraham Lincoln Miller, Thomas Jefferson Miller, Benjamin Franklin Miller and, of course, his father's namesake, George Washington Miller. By 1880, the Miller family had moved south to the Village of Goldendale, Wash.--William, his dad, his new stepmother, and now more siblings. Under the Occupation heading in the 1880 Census, his dad is listed as “Livery Stable,” and William at age 13 “works in Stable” with his older brothers.
It appears that his father George was also made a mason at Goldendale Lodge--while still Under Dispensation. His brother Abraham, a member of Mt. Hood Lodge, 32, served as that Lodge's Worshipful Master circa 1900, then Grand Orator, Junior Grand Warden, and in 1905 Grand Master.
In June 1901, he married Louise Cochran Dundi in Vancouver. The same year that Bro. Miller was Worshipful Master of Ridgefield Lodge, No. 237, his bride Mrs. Louise Miller was Worthy Matron of Eastern Star No. 182. Records shows that Miller himself once served the chapter as Worthy Patron.
Among Bro. Miller's several ventures were a meat market in Vancouver on "Main St., near 8th.," and another in Ridgefield "near the Ridgefield-Pioneer paved highway," both sold in the 1930s after decades in business. With several men from his Lodge, Miller was co-organizer of the Ridgefield Merchant's Association in 1920.
Bro. William Miller was instrumental in bringing electricity to Ridgefield--and later to La Center and out to Battle Ground. In April 1921, he helped incorporate and was trustee for the Ridgefield Light & Power Company--again, with the aid of the brethren of Ridgefield Lodge.
On Oct 11th 1950, at the age of 83, Bro. Miller left this plane for the Celestial Lodge, his body now resting at the Old Vancouver City Cemetery.
And
These advertisements for Miller's were printed in The Vancouver Daily Columbian, January 1910.
Note that the ad, Have us Cut off a Steak, is (perhaps somewhat serendipitously?) placed above the paper's column for Fraternal Orders' of the area some ten years before sitting in the East as Ridgefield Lodge No. 237's first Worshipful Master.
Also
Running his butcher's shops, organizing a Merchant's Association, and incorporating the Light & Power Co.,--all while leading this town's Masonic Lodge into its first year--Bro. Miller still made time for fun with his bride Louise, his Brothers from the new Lodge, and the greater community of ever-growing Ridgefield.
In the local newspaper, The Columbian, Miller is found to be a member of The Community Church Group, The Ridgefield Business Men's Club (1929), the commercial club, the booster club (1925)--and the Ancient Order of Gobblers (1923), an excuse for folks to mix and mingle through the holidays with a series of card games that became tradition for at least the better part of a decade. (The [group's] official color is gobbler red," The Columbian reported. Of course.)
With perhaps every mention in the newspaper of William S. Miller's involvement in the community, there can most often be found the names of his Lodge brethren for many years in Ridgefield, Washington.
See Also
Next Worshipful Master, Walter E. Lentz
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