Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1916-11-24
KEPT MILLIONS FROM TAX MEN
Henry Miller, Cattleman, Made Present
of S20,000,000 to Daughtss-Collec-
tors Face A Strange Problem

of S20,000,000 to Daughtss-Collec F,
tors Face A Strange Problem
Because he chose three years before
his death to deed over his 100000
estate TO his daughter, Mrs. j. Leroy
Nickel of San Francisco, Henry Miller.
who died on Oct. II in Oakland Cal,
has provided the inheritance tax col
lectors of the Golden Gate state with
perplexing problem. According to adj
vices which have rcached New York.,
the officials declare that Miller, rated
the largest landowner in the United
States, and whose holdings would have
permitted him TO Craze his cattle from
the Mexican border to the Canadian
line, made the transfer of property lin
expectation of death and in order to
eheckmat the tax collectors.
Out of the controversy has come the
almost romantic story of the rise of
German butcher boy, working long
hours in Washington Market, New
York, to the position of the most pow
erful cattleman in the West-a live
beef magnate who ruled on the ranges
and in the market.
Mr.. Miller, who died in his ninety
first year, came to New York from
Wurttemberg, Germany, in the autumn
Of lS47. For time he worked as a
porter in a small downtown hotel, look.
ing about meanwhile for place as a
butcher. He finally got a Job in Wash
ington Market.
| Theodore Loges, for years in the
creamery products business in the old
market, recalls stories his father had
/ told about "Potsdam AS Miller was
called. Loges said that the late cattle
| king when he went to work in the mar
ket had a rather slender stock of Eng
lish, and because of his lingual mis-
takes and his good nature, generally
was the target for all jokes.
Miller, as Loges remembered It, was
always delegated to take charge of the
repair of the silk hats the master butch.
ers known as the Observation-Disclosures, -
used TO kick about the market at the
close of business on Saturday night
Under the custom in the market it was
considered a sighting of the profession
for any butcher not TO appear behind
his counter with high hat, and il was
thought bad taste if the meat seller at
the end of a prosperous week failed to
destroy the hat. The apprentice butch
ers, Miller among them, couldn Z afford
the silk headgear, but, in order to get
them. the coming cattle king was
selected to gather up the broken hats
and repair them for the use of his fell
low prentices.
In lS49 young Miller was one of the
first of the market men TO be smitten
with the gold fever. For a year he
saved, and in December, 1850, he ar
rived in San Francisco, where, finding
that gold WASH t TO be had for the ask
ing, he obtained employment as a sec
ond butcher. Within ten months he had
saved enough TO 90 into business for
himself, and when later the miners be-
gan to return to Frisco and spend
their wealth with happy disregard for
the value of things Miller was one OF
the tradesmen who grew wealthy.
, Ia 1857 Charles Lux, a cattleman
with small ranch in Nevada, went tc
, San Francisco seeking capital to branch
out with. Lux had options on great
tracts of land and was ambitious Ia
start a huge cattle-raising project he
had thought out. Finally he met Mil
Ter, and the latter agreed to finance
the undertaking, acting as "silent
partner. Eventually, however. the pos
sibilities of the plan presented them.
selves so strongly to Miller that he
forsook his trade and became An ac-
tive associate of Lux.
The new firm soon acquired 100000
acres of grazing land in California and
, nearly 100000 more acres in Oregon
and Nevada. Starting with herds of
hundreds, the partners ran their live
stock up yearly. At one time they
owned more than $4,000 head of cattle
, and 900 sheep, necessitating the
hiring of thousands of men. In 1887 Mr..
Lux died and the business was incor-
porated, Mr.. Miller retaining large in
terests in il, but becoming only semi
active in the direction of the ranches.
The Grm owned tracts in Arizona,
Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Washington
California, and Oregon. So great was
the extent of the Miller holdings that
: the cowboys used to describe them
thus: "Millcr summers his cattle IN
, Canada and winters them in Mexico.
! Several celebrated characters of the
| West got their start on Miller ranches,
among them Denver Sherman, champion
rider of bareback steers, and rated
the second horsemsn of the world; and
Butch MacNeil who even now wanders
from ranch to ranch in Montana with
his "chuck - wagon, and noted for his
, "dOughgOds, hot biscuits, and his
pies.