Stephen Miller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also, the politician from South Carolina: Stephen Decatur Miller (1787-1838)

Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller
4^th Governor of Minnesota
In office January 11, 1864 – January 8, 1866
Lieutenant(s)	Charles D. Sherwood
Preceded by	Henry Adoniram Swift
Succeeded by	William Raine Marshall

Born	January 17, 1816 Carroll Township, Pennsylvania
Died	August 18, 1881 Worthington, Minnesota
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Margaret Funk
Profession	businessperson

Stephen Miller (January 17, 1816 – August 18, 1881) was an American Republican politician. He was the first Civil War veteran to serve as Governor of Minnesota.

Born in Carroll Township, Pennsylvania, Stephen Miller established a series of successful businesses. Frail health prompted the Pennsylvania Dutch entrenpreneur to leave home at age 42 and follow his friend Alexander Ramsey to Minnesota, where the climate reportedly was more congenial. Miller established a mercantile business in St. Cloud and, within two years, had risen to prominence in the state Republican Party.

During the Civil War, this middle-aged soldier with no previous military experience advanced rapidly from the rank of private to colonel in Minnesota's First Regiment of Volunteers. In 1862 Miller returned from the South and replaced Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley as commander of Mankato's Camp Lincoln. There, 303 Dakota men, convicted of participating in the Dakota War of 1862, awaited their fate. Four months later, Miller supervised, by order of President Lincoln, the mass execution of 38 Dakotas condemned for their part in the war.

His military career and Alexander Ramsey's support assured Miller of a gubernatorial victory in 1863. He was the 4th Governor of Minnesota, serving from January 11, 1864, to January 8, 1866. He was the first of several Civil War veterans to serve as Governor of Minnesota. Although lacking a college degree himself, he valued higher education and advocated generous appropriations to state normal schools and the University of Minnesota. In his final address to the legislature, he strongly but unsuccessfully urged adoption of a black suffrage amendment to the state constitution.

Miller chose not to run for re-election and was unemployed until 1871, when he became a railroad-company field agent in Windom. He served as a state congressman in 1873 and as an electoral college representative in 1876. In 1881 the one-time war hero and popular governor died alone, an impoverished widower in Worthington, Minnesota.