HARVEY ELLSWORTH MILLER
GRATZ BUSINESS MAN SUCCUMBS
Harvey Ellsworth Miller, son of the late Emanuel Miller and his wife Carolina Miller (nee Klinger), died on Saturday morning, 26 August. He was born in Lykens Township, 9 March 1871.
Since 1894 he was a resident of Gratz being the senior partner of Miller and Brother, General Store, which they conducted in Gratz for the past 41 years. He was a member of Klinger’s Lutheran Church. He was president of the Gratz Fair Association from 1924 to 1941.
Mr. Miller succeeded Harry Smith as President of the Gratz Fair Board in 1925. At that time Mr. Miller was Vice-President of the Board and took over the President’s chair on the death of Mr. Smith in June 1925.
On 19 January 1926, Mr. Miller was elected the new president of the board, and through hard work and perseverance managed to keep the fair going through the depression years.
In 1942, due to ill health, he resigned as president of the fair board. Naldy Leitzel succeeded him as president of the board.
He is survived by one brother Daniel Miller of Gratz, and 4 sisters, Annie Miller of Gratz, Mrs. Catherine Koppenheffer of Halifax, Meta Miller and Mrs. R. H. Snyder, both of Gratz, also three nephews and seven sisters.
Funeral services were held from the residence in Gratz at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 29 August, and interment was made in the family plot in Klinger’s Church Cemetery. Dr. D. I. Sultzbach officiated.
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Note: Mr. Miller was president of the Gratz Fair Association when it approved the Ku Klux Klan demonstration as the concluding event of the 1924 fair. For several years afterward under Mr. Miller, the Klan continued to use the fairgrounds for its hate rallies.
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Photo and text of obituary from a local newspaper at the time of his death.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.