Remembering Marie...eldest child of Pete & Dora Miller

Marie Sophie Miller was born just a week before Christmas 1909 in Longmont, Colorado, to Pete and Dora Miller.  Pete was 22 years old, and Dora was less than three weeks from her 18^th birthday.  For the Millers, it must’ve been a joyous occasion – the birth of their first child!

More problematic for Pete and Dora was the matter of making a living that could sustain the young couple and their new baby.  Certainly, there was the sugar beet industry in and around Longmont, a packing plant, and a variety of manual labor jobs.  Undoubtedly,  Pete Miller tried his hand at many of them.

Miller home at 4504 N.
Kasson Way in Chicago

However, it wasn’t long before the wanderlust that had drawn Pete and Dora to America began working on them.  Sometime in February of 1910, Pete and Dora moved the family to Chicago, leaving behind Dora's father, Conrad Eckerdt, and the stepmother with whom Dora never got along.   Marie was less than two months old when the family went to Chicago.  It was there that Marie started school, probably in the near northside ethnic neighborhood that was heavily populated with German-Russians.   Marie – some 60 years later – remembered that she and her half-brother Alex attended school in a “large school building with three floors and a basement,” not far from their house.

She also remembered some of the social life of the neighborhood.  Even their home on Kasson Way in Chicago was vivid in her memory, and she became very excited when shown a picture of the house, looking remarkably the same, more than six decades later.

“We had to play inside the fence…there was a store there on the corner.  And I had to go there every day to get grandma and grandpa’s German newspaper, and sometimes they’d give me a penny and I’d get a penny ice cream cone or a penny’s worth of candy!”

Dora Miller  is standing at left in back; Marie
is next to her with a bow in her hair.

“There’d sometimes be three, four, or five families; we’d go from our home to visit other people’s homes.  We’d get there and the men folks would play cards and the women folks would just visit.  Or dad would play the accordion – he played the accordion.  And then they’d get together and they’d dance.”

But the time in school at Chicago didn’t last, as Pete and Dora packed up their belongings and five children and migrated to Watertown, South Dakota, where the sugar beet company gave them jobs.  That was in about 1918 – near the end of World War I.  Marie was eight years old when they moved.  In a short three or four years, the family would move again – settling finally in the panhandle of Nebraska.

Marie was almost a teenager by the time the family arrived in the North Platte Valley, a  region inhabited by lots of other German Russians.  There is no evidence, however, that Marie graduated from school before the family moved to Whitney in 1927, when she was almost 18 years old – a time when most young persons would be finishing their schooling.

The Derrick family had found their way to Nebraska sometime around the beginning of the 20^th Century after living in Illinois and Wisconsin.  Bill Derrick was born in Chadron on 18 December 1902.  He was still in the region by the time the Millers arrived in 1927.

Bill’s grandfather, John C. Derrick, led a very colorful life.  Probably born in Delpht, Holland, he was married three times and raised nine children in places as diverse as Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.   The two children with his second wife were Ernest Walter – Bill Derrick’s father – and Dora Ellen, who married William H. Maiden.  This led to the interesting double relationship between Bill Derrick and Lettie Maiden.  They were not only cousins, but when Bill married Marie Miller and Lettie married John Miller, they also became brother/sister-in-laws.   In the process of collecting information about the Miller and Maiden families, we’ve collected many photographs and considerable information about the Derrick family, much it assembled by Joseph William Derrick, a half first cousin to Bill Derrick.

Bill Derrick’s father, Ernest Walter, was also married three times.  As fate would have it, his first bride was a maiden – Sara Jane, who was a first cousin once removed to William H. Maiden.  On June 13, 1900, Ernest Walter married Mary Eva (Mamie) O’Leary in Long Pine, Nebraska.  By the late 1920s, Joe and Mamie Derrick owned a café in Whitney.  It’s probably there that Marie Miller and Bill Derrick first became acquainted in about 1929.  In fact, Dick Derrick remembers his mother saying that she worked in the café for a while.

Dick Derrick with parents Bill and Marie.
Likely taken in about 1946 or 1947.

The Miller family had lived in Whitney about three years, when – on August 30, 1930 – Marie Miller and Bill Derrick were married in Whitney.  Not only did Bill and Marie “share” a number of relatives, they also shared a common birthday – December 18.

On May 31, 1931, their first child was born.  Richard Warren Derrick was born in Whitney, where he attended school until enrolling at Chadron Prep where he started high school.  However, before he graduated, he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps and was shipped out for basic training.  It was only a few months later that the Marine Corps found out that he wasn’t old enough to serve in the Marines, and he was sent back home.

Shirley Ann Derrick

A second child was born to Bill and Marie Derrick on January 18, 1941.  Shirley Ann Derrick was the only daughter – and was about 10 years younger than her brother.  Tragedy struck on June 12, 1949 when Shirley and one of her neighborhood pals, Sandy Rankin, were swimming at Whitney Lake.  Both of the children drowned in one of the worst such incidences at the lake.  Shirley was just eight years old.

Dick remained in the Chadron area and went to work for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad at about the time his father was retiring.  He married Kathleen Higgins in 1954.  They raised three children:  Debra Dianne, born in 1955; Richard Walter, born in 1958; and Dora Dionne, born in 1971.

In July of 1968, Dick and Kathy Derrick  moved to Alaska where he went to work for the Alaskan Railroad.  It was the beginning of a lifelong change in the Derrick family.  Their ties to the 49^th state became stronger when Debra married Jack Marsh and they raised their family in Alaska. 

Bill and Marie Derrick - March 1979

Even Bill and Marie Derrick – not able to do a lot of traveling –  made the trek to Alaska twice to visit their son and his growing family.

After Kathy Derrick was diagnosed with multiple scleroris, she and Dick moved back to Nebraska in 1983.  They had lived in Alaska for some 15 years.  It was a God-send to Bill and Marie – then well into their 70s and less able to get around.  Son Dick would run them to Chadron or Crawford, as might be needed, for shopping or a doctor’s appointment.  Too, they were able to visit and provide some comfort to Kathy, as her condition continued to deteriorate. 

In December of 1991, when Bill was 88 and Marie 81 years old, they were interviewed by Omaha World-Herald reporter Gabriella Stern for a story she was writing about the problems of elderly citizens in rural areas of Nebraska.  The poignant article touched upon the plight of several representative senior citizens.  The Derricks told of the isolation that comes with being unable to get out of the house on their own – and how that lack of independence contributed to making them old.  The story and their picture was published on Sunday, February 24, 1991. 

Just over a year later, on April 2, 1992, Bill Derrick passed away in Chadron.  He was 89 years old.  Less than a year after that, on February 25, 1993, Marie Derrick died at the age of 83.

In December 2001, Kathleen Derrick passed away.

Nearly three years later, in July 2004,  Dick Derrick – son of Bill and Marie Derrick, and husband of Kathy Higgins Derrick – died at his home in Whitney.


You'll find more photos of the Marie Derrick family in our Miller Gallery.

Remembering Alex -- eldest son of Pete and Dora Miller

Alex Miller was the second child born to Pete and Dora Miller – and the first boy.  He was born July 1, 1911.  Like his older sister, Marie, Alex was born in Chicago.  While we know the Millers lived on Kasson Way in the "Windy City," we know very little about those years.  Alex likely attended school on the near north side of Chicago in the ethnic neighborhood occupied by numerous German families – many of them German-Russians.

Sometime around Alex’s eighth birthday, the family moved to Watertown, South Dakota for a few years, before finally moving to the high plains of western Nebraska in about 1919.  He quit school after the fourth grade in the Scottsbluff area.  When Alex was about 16, Pete and Dora Miller moved to Dawes County.  Alex continued working – and would soon meet Mildred Saxton, who was to become his wife.

Although she was born in Merriman, Nebraska, Mildred Saxton’s parents were also from Dawes County.  In fact, it’s reported that her father, John Elsworth Saxton, was born at Fort Robinson in January of 1891 during an Indian uprising.  After marrying Gertrude Emelia Everson in Chadron and -- like the Millers -- raising nine children, the Saxtons were still living in Crawford by 1931 when Alex and Mildred met.

Alex was quite a bit older than Mildred.

A young Alex Miller

“I was 12 years old and he was 20,” wrote Mildred later in life, recalling the circumstances under which they met at the rooming house operated by the mother of Rachel Hiatt, Mildred’s good friend.

          

“One evening, Rachel and I started playing cards in the lobby.  He was sitting there smoking, when Rachel asked him if he’d like to play Hearts.  He did and won the first game.  He didn’t know how to play before.”

It was two years later, while attending a Revival Meeting at the Opera House in Whitney, that Mildred became acquainted with Fannie and Bertha Miller.  

“I asked them if they knew an Alex Miller.  They said yes – he was their brother!”

But it would be another two years before Alex and Mildred began courting.  Those were the Depression years and work was hard to come by.  Although he’d had several farm labor jobs, Alex decided he wanted to strike out on his own.  His destination:  Saginaw, Michigan.

Since Alex still didn't know a lot about Mildred Saxton, he probably didn't know that her  grandfather was from Michigan.  But Alex did know that his mother had relatives in Michigan.  In fact, his mother’s half brother, Alex Eckerdt, had made a surprise visit to the Millers in Whitney in the summer of 1931.   Alex Eckerdt and his family lived in Flint, Michigan, and another half brother of Dora’s, Henry Neuwirth, lived in Saginaw.  Perhaps that was the only incentive Alex Miller needed to make the trek northeastward.

In any event, Alex Miller lived and worked for a short time in Saginaw.  He first drove a truck, but in May 1935 he was issued a chauffeur’s license, and he began driving a cab.  Click on the image at left to see a larger version.

However, by the next winter, Alex was back in Nebraska, staying with Bill and Marie Derrick in Whitney.  His sisters, Bertha and Fannie Miller, were in a New Year’s Day church service when Mildred Saxton gave them a note for Alex.  Later, when she saw Alex driving around Whitney, they met and began dating.

Four months later, Alex Miller proposed marriage.  Mildred remembered that she accepted, but told Alex that she needed to finish her sophomore year at Crawford High School.  Her parents were apparently unhappy about Mildred not completing high school, so she and Alex agreed to marry in July.  Alex went back to Michigan and worked for a few months, and Mildred finished the school year.  

Within three months, Alex arrived back in Nebraska driving a 1931 Model A Ford, which he soon traded for a 1933 Ford Victoria -- he was to be a long-time Ford Motor fan.

Alex and Mildred were married July 1, 1936 at the parsonage of the Methodist Church in Whitney by long-time Methodist pastor Reverend C. Curtis Norlin.  It was Alex’s 25^th birthday, and the marriage was witnessed by Mildred’s sister Eva and her husband, Chet Brown, who had just married two months before.

Alex went to work for the Liggett Company as foreman of a rock crushing crew that provided gravel for the many gravel roads that criss-crossed the region during the Depression years.  While working in the Gordon area, the rock crusher threw a stone in Alex’s face, chipping a front tooth, and it was replaced with a gold crown, which he brandished for the rest of his life.

Alex and Mildred lived in several places:  Rushville, Hay Springs, Gordon, Chadron and Whitney, while Alex worked at a variety jobs, including hauling straw on a horse-drawn hay rack, picking corn, and even topping sugar beets – a job he’d often done in his younger years – and had hoped to avoid as an adult!  

The tough economic times forced Alex to sell his Ford Victoria to his younger brother John, who drove it while courting Lettie Maiden.

Alex and Mildred's first child, Jeanette, was born in Crawford in 1937, and her brother Bruce came along late the following year of 1938, while the Millers were living in Chadron.  After working in Rushville and then back to Gordon, Alex had a chance to again work for his old boss George Rowe, who owned some heavy equipment and needed help at a gravel pumping company along the North Platte River at Bridgeport, Nebraska.  World War Two had begun, and the government needed gravel, which was shipped from Bridgeport to near Edgemont, South Dakota, for the Army to build a munitions storage facility at a place that became known as “Igloo,” for the igloo-looking mounds that contained the munitions.

Undated photograph of Alex and Mildred Miller with their children.
Standing (L-to-R) are Bruce, Jeanette, Charlene, Jerry (seated) and Connie.

Alex and Mildred moved to Bridgeport in May 1942, and Connie was born on June 23.  By the following spring, however, that job ended, and the Millers returned to Dawes County, and Alex took a job with a building crew in Crawford.  This would be his opportunity to learn bricklaying from a couple of Alliance bricklayers who were also on site.  He enjoyed the work and soon learned the trade, taking a major job in Chadron for what would become a large implement dealership building on the south side of U. S. highway 20 on the west edge of Chadron. That building still stands today.  

When the company Alex was working for won a building contract in Lusk, Alex started commuting, and did so for nearly a year.  He was still commuting up and down U.S. Highway 20 when daughter Charlene was born in 1949.  Finally, the family moved to Lusk in June of 1949, and Alex went to work for Oscar Bostrom -- and later for Frontier Lumber.  

Alex & Mildred - ca 1984

Alex and Mildred bought property at 822 South Oak and built a basement home in which they lived for 16 years.  Son Jerry John was born in 1954.  Alex and Mildred went into business themselves, creating the Miller Construction Company.  Alex honed his bricklaying skills by building many fireplaces, homes, and Main street store fronts.  Eventually,  son Jerry would learn the trade and help his father with the business.  

We've included a few photographs of the Alex Miller family in this posting.  You'll find many more photos in our Miller Gallery.  

Alex and Mildred were members of the Open Bible Standard Church of Lusk for many years, and she recalled Alex accepting Christ has his personal Savior while at a church camp in Custer, South Dakota.  Alex Miller died at home on April 15, 1985.  He was 73 years old.  Mildred Miller passed away in January 2007 at the age of 87.

Miller Reunion less than two months away!

The good news is that we have heard from lots of Miller family members who tell us that they'll be at the reunion next month in Chadron.  Latest additions to the list are members of the Jan Miller family from Kentucky.  There'll be Alex Miller family members from California, Wyoming and South Dakota, and a pretty good sized entourage from Washington state representing the Fred and Albert Miller families.  And Marie (Miller) Derrick family members are planning to come from Alaska and South Dakota.

Other cousins are coming from Oklahoma, California, and Texas.

That's far from the complete list, but it's an indication of the broad interest -- and wonderful commitment -- among cousins in all parts of the country.

Right now, we're estimating about 50 people, but with more than six weeks left before the event, that could change significantly.  Please, if you've not yet responded to our Picnic Survey, please click on the box to the right and respond to the questions so we'll have an accurate count of folks who plan to be at the Miller Reunion Picnic in Wilson Park at Chadron on Saturday, June 25th!

A few cousins who live close to Chadron will be making a "day trip" for the picnic, but most will be camping at Chadron State Park or Fort Robinson State Park, staying in cabins at one of the parks, or have made reservations at an area hotel or motel.  Alas, we know of no Miller family descendants who remain in Dawes County, so we're all having to "bunk" commercially.

By the way, the picnic should be a top-notch event -- allowing families to visit while enjoying some great food.  The event is catered by Country Kitchen in Chadron, and they have a great reputation around the Chadron area.  There'll be roast beef amd chicken, potato salad, baked beans, bread and butter, tea and lemonade.  Country Kitchen will provide all tableware.  The cost is $11 per person, which we think is an excellent rate, but we must tell them how many people will be eating, and we need to provide them with that number by Friday, June 17th.  Please take a moment and respond to our survey.  If you've already done that, Thank You!

Judy Miller from Metaline Falls, WA has volunteered to make name tags, so let us know the names of folks in your group so all will have name tags.  By the way, you can use that same survey form to the right.  Just put names in the "Comment" box.

We hope you're as excited about this event as we are.  If you have special requests, ideas, or comments, please send them along to either Pete Miller or Larry Miller.

Thanks!