Pueblo County Biographies

Pueblo County, Colorado
RAYMOND MILLER

Contributed by Karen Mitchell.

On the roster of public officials in Colorado appears the name of Raymond Miller, of Denver, who is the president of the state board of land commissioners and whose record has been characterized by marked devotion to duty and intelligent and capable fulfillment of all of the tasks entrusted to his care. He comes to the west from Kentucky, his birth having occurred in Millersburg, that state, on the 20th of December, 1862. He is descended from English ancestry, the family having been founded in America in an early day. Representatives of the name became pioneer residents of Kentucky and there James M. Miller, father of Raymond Miller, was born and reared. He became a successful farmer and stockman, spending his entire life in Bourbon county, Kentucky, where the family home had been established in the eighteenth century and where his brother, Dr. W. M. Miller, a prominent physician, still resides. During the Civil war an elder brother. J. A. Miller, served with the Confederate army under John A. Morgan as a private. He joined the troops when fifteen years of age and continued at the front until the close of hostilities. James M. Miller was quite active and successful in the conduct of his farming interests, lived a quiet, unassuming life and was a devout and loyal member of the Methodist church. He never desired or sought political honors or emoluments and passed away in Kentucky in 1878 at the age of fifty-seven years, thus terminating a quiet but altogether useful career. He had married Rachel Andrew Jackson Hitt, who was born in Kentucky and belonged to one of its oldest and most prominent pioneer families of English descent. Mrs. Miller passed away in 1905 on the old homestead when seventy-nine years of age. In the family were six sons and two daughters. Raymond Miller, who was the seventh in order of birth, was educated in the district schools in Millersburg and in the Kentucky Wesleyan College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1882. His early experiences were those of the farm-bred boy who divides his time between the duties of the schoolroom, the pleasures of the playground and the work of the fields. He remained at home until 1882 and after his graduation removed to Atlanta, Georgia, where he secure'd employment with the wholesale dry goods house of M. C. & J. F. Kaiser. He then entered upon clerical lines and remained in Atlanta until 1886, when he determined to try his fortune in the west. For a year he resided in Scott county, Kansas, and then removed to eastern Colorado taking up his abode in what was then Bent county but is now Kiowa county. He was a pioneer settler, taking up his abode there prior to the building of railroads or the organization of the new county. With the formation of Kiowa county he was elected the first county treasurer and occupied that position for two terms, or four years. He next served as register of the United States land office at Pueblo, occupying that position for a period of four years, and upon his return to Kiowa county he engaged in the live stock business, in which he still retains his holdings. He is one of the owners of one of the largest sheep and horse ranches in the state and his interests along that line have been most carefully and wisely directed. On the 18th of January, 1917, Mr. Miller was appointed to his present office, that of president of the state board of land commissioners, by Governor J. C. Gunter for a term of six years, and this position he has since successfully filled. Aside from his other business and official duties he is a director of the Colorado State Bank of Haswell, Colorado. In politics Mr. Miller has always been a stanch democrat and for sixteen years has been a member of the democratic state central committee, doing valuable and important work in that connection. In 1916 he was made chairman of the state central committee and still acts in that capacity. He does everything in his power to promote the legitimate growth and success of his party, believing most firmly in its principles, and his efforts in this connection have been far-reaching and resultant. He cooperates in everything that has to do with civic advancement and civic virtue and his name as an endorsement upon any plan or measure secures to it a large following. He was made a Mason in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1895 and now has membership in Eads Lodge, No. 142, A. F. & A. M. He is a faithful follower of the craft, loyal to its teachings and its purposes. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the west, for here he has found the business opportunities which he sought and in their utilization has made steady progress toward the goal of prosperity. At the same time his sterling personal worth and ability have gained recognition at the hands of his fellow townsmen, who have called him to office, benefiting by the value of his service and his marked devotion to the public good. History Of Colorado Illustrated Volume III Chicago The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 1918

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