Copyright © 2023 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Fred Miller was a Sosman & Landis employee in 1885. His name was included in a list of individuals who made donations to the Grant Memorial Fund. On August 2, 1885, the Chicago Tribune” reported that Miller donated 50 cents.
Fred Miller.
Frederick Miller.
F. Miller.
Common names are the hardest to track, especially when I don’t know if he was a stage carpenter, scenic painter, or someone who worked in an office. There is nothing for me to follow, so it becomes a bit like playing darts blindfolded. I can only hope to have my dart land somewhere near the board; hitting a bullseye is almost impossible.
Some of the Frederick Millers listed in the 1885 Chicago Directory.
In 1885 there were 29 listings in the Chicago Directory for men named Frederick, Fred and F. Miller. I am sure some were erroneously left out too, or chose not to be listed. Of the potential directory candidates, there was one carpenter, one contractor, one salesman, one plasterer, one machinist, one wood carver, and three laborers. Any one of these men could have worked at Sosman. & Landis. However, with the amount of money that he donated to the Grant Memorial Fund, and his placement in the Sosman & Landis list, I had a hunch that Fred Miller was a carpenter.
SoI took a long shot, and did the newspaper search for “Fred Miller, stage carpenter.” I immediately got three hits in Hutchinson, Kansas, and whispered, “Gotcha.” That was a fatal mistake and I knew better. In fact, I should have learned my lesson by now. After spending several hours doing a deep dive into the life and career of Hutchinson’s Miller, I recognized that this couldn’t be the same 1885 Sosman & Landis employee.
It really is hard to step away from a significant amount of research, especially when you have invested so much time and energy in exploring the life of a one individual. In a way you become emotionally invested in telling this person’s story. It is hard to stop and shift your focus to another potential candidate.
Next, I began following the career of Fred W. Miller, Jr. , advance agent for Minnie Maddern from 1886-1889. This guy is fascinating. Miller got his start in Evansville, Indiana, and made quite a name for himself in the entertainment business by the 1920s. As I followed Miller’s success, and his relationship with Minnie Maddern Fiske, I began to realize that his success began about 1881. It was unlikely that he was working for Sosman & Landis in 1885, unless he was hired as a salesman. Also, this Miller was a little too good about getting his name in the paper, so I doubted that he would have missed an opportunity in promoting the studio if he visited a town. Again, it was hard to walk away from this one.
Then there were about a dozen more lives that I traced between 1850 and 1930, a realistic timeframe for someone working in 1885.
I was just about ready to give up, when a Chicago carpenter named Fred Miller popped onto my radar. Like the previous Sosman & Landis employee, Julius Fehrman, Miller was an immigrant from the same area of Germany. Too coincidental in my mind.
Some of the hardest individuals to track are immigrants who “just got by” and whose name never made the papers or directories for a variety of reasons. Fehrman had only made the papers with a few acting gigs and an fatal accident.
It does not appear that Fred Miller ever made the papers beyond the 1885 Grant Memorial Fund mention. This actually makes senses, as studio workers who never left the shop had little chance of making headlines, unless something tragic happened to them – like robbery or a fatal accident.
Of all the Miller’s lives that I explored, this one seems to be the best candidate.
Fred Miller was born Friedrich Muller in 1850. After emigrating from northern Germany, Muller continued to use his German surname, Muller. He was listed a Friedrich Muller on his 1874 marriage license and the 1875 birth certificate of his first child.
Illinois State records indicate that Friedrich Muller married Sophie Herzog on Jan. 3, 1874, in Cook County, Illinois. Their first child, Louis, was born the following year, also in Cook County.
Fred and Sophie were raised in the same area of northern Germany, and I suspect that they planned their trip to America. Fred came over first, and made enough money to send for his bride. Interestingly, I even found Sophie Herzog listed with her family in the 1867 German census. She was one of seven children born to Carl and Marie Herzog, emigrating to the United States in 1873, the year before her marriage to Fred. I can trace her lineage quite far back.
Friedrich Muller was a carpenter, who settled in Chicago and worked in this trade for his entire life.
Sosman & Landis carpenters worked in a basement studio in the firm’s fiorst an second building. The first building, leased in 1879, was a converted space. They built their second building in 1886, custom made for scenery production. On site carpenters had an entire wood shop at their disposal to making sandwich battens, drop rollers, and frames for wings, shutters and profile pieces. From a terminology standpoint, carpenters worked at the studio. Stage carpenters were sent on site to prepare stage spaces and install stage machinery; they fully understood the intricacies of a stage-house and intricacies of scenic illusion.
Miller was only listed as a carpenter in public records. He was certainly a skilled worker, but there is no indication that he was a stage carpenter, or traveled to deliver stage machinery and scenery.
Like Ferhman/Fährmanh, Miller/Muller knew the significance of a last name. They just wanted to fit in and find a job to support their families. As we see today, the general public seldom welcomes waves of immigrants with open arms, no matter what their reason for seeking refuge in the United States. Many Americans cannot overcome the fear of the unfamiliar; it takes some decades to accept strangers, and some never do.
By 1880, the Friedrich Muller had changed his name to Fred Miller. The 1880 US Federal Census lists Fred and Sophie Miller living in Lake, Cook County, Illinois with their 5-yrs.-old son, Louis. Fred listed his occupation as a carpenter.
The Millers had relocated from Lake to Chicago by 1883. That year, they welcome a second son to their home – Otto. Tragically, on Feb. 16, 1886, their first-born son, Louis, passed away. Despite loss, a third son was born the following year, in 1887. Then the Millers welcome a child almost every two years until 1898.
Unfortunately, there is no record for the Millers in the 1890 census; a fire at the U. S. Department of Commerce building in Washington, D. C., on Jan. 10, 1921, destroyed the majority of population schedules. This means that there is a twenty-year gap in the Miller family’s lives that must be filled with other public records. Despite an abundance of children, the Millers were almost impossible to track down during this period, and I have yet to locate any naturalization documents. They may have been living “under the radar” too.
The 1900 US Federal listed the Miller family as living at 7652 Winston Ave. The household included:
Fred Miller (50 yrs.)
Sophia (44 yrs.)
Otto J. (16 yrs.)
Edward Charles (13 yrs.)
Clara Caroline (11 yrs.)
Laura A (9 yrs.)
Rudolph (7 yrs.)
Frances (5 yrs.)
Lizzie (2 yrs.)
Ten years later, Sophie was listed as a widow, living with her six children in the same house on Winston Ave. The children ranged from ages 12 to 23 yrs. old, with four of them already working.
Fred passed away on Jan. 2, 1909. He was buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago. At the time of his passing, he occupation was still listed as carpenter. He may have still been working at Sosman & Landis. Without any studio records, it is impossible to know.
The year that Miller passed, Thomas G. Moses wrote about the Sosman & Landis staff in the firms’ two studio spaces: “We have quite a force now at Clinton Street. We have forty-eight on the payroll, which includes the sewing girls and foremen. At 20th Street we have an average of twelve. I think we should turn out some work and we do.”
Five years later Sophie Miller joined her husband in death. She died on Sept. 16, 1914 and was buried on Sept. 19, 1914 in Oak Woods Cemetery. Their youngest child was 17 yrs. old at the time.
If I discover anything else about Fred Miller, I will update this post.
