page_title: Mary Miller (Colorado)
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Miller (Colorado) / Colorado pioneer / Early years
caption_attribution_description: "(...) Horse team on the Overland Trail. It was created in 1900." (text from same source)
context_page_description: Mary E. Miller settled in the Territory of Colorado in 1863 with her husband, Lafayette Miller. After her husband died, she founded the town of Lafayette, Colorado, named for her husband. Miller was called the "Mother of Lafayette. She was the first woman bank president in the United States, a philanthropist and an astute businesswoman.
  In 2002, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, having noted: "Her financial acumen and business leadership helped Lafayette flourish and increased respect for women in business."
context_section_description: In September 1863, they settled along the St. Vrain Creek in Burlington (now Longmont) and lived in a log cabin. In 1865, the Millers moved to land patented by Mary Miller's brother, James B. Foote along Rock Creek in the area around the present-day Rock Creek Farm, near the intersection of Highway 287 and Dillon Road south of the present-day town of Lafayette. Together they purchased the Rock Creek House (later called the Miller Tavern) from Thomas J. Lindsey in 1865. Lindsey acquired the tavern from "Dr. Dow" and built a hotel next to Rock Creek House in 1863. They also established a cattle ranch, farm, and orchard.  The Miller Tavern, which Mary Miller described as a "road house" (a drinking establishment) in a November 29, 1912 interview in the Boulder County Miner, was located on the Cherokee Trail along the Denver-Cheyenne route of Ben Holladay's Overland Mail and Express Company, which later became Wells Fargo Mail's stagecoach line. Wells Fargo historians state that the Rock Creek House was never an official stop on the Overland or Wells Fargo stage line, but the stage coach may have stopped from time to time to offload passengers. According to Boulder County Commissioners' minutes of the July 3, 1866 meeting, Lafayette Miller and Thomas Lindsey were granted a saloon license for Rock Creek House, which required a $500 bond and a $50 annual renewal fee.  The three entrepreneurs and saloon owners — Lafayette, Mary, and James B. Foote — also sold butter and eggs in Black Hawk.
  The Rock Creek House served long distance travelers and freighters, and those traveling from Fort Collins to Denver for shopping excursions. Modern narratives state that when he was the Commanding General of the U.S. Army, Ulysses S. Grant stopped at Rock Creek House. In a 1912 interview, Mary Miller stated that in 1868 Ulysses S. Grant instead stopped at White Rock stage station 8 miles north of Rock Creek House in order to "drink from the old well."  In 1867 or 1869, she fed a 100-person troupe with the John Robinson Circus. She fed hot biscuits, canned vegetables, and milk to the first circus performers to visit Colorado.
  In March 1868, the Millers purchased 160 acres along Coal Creek, two miles north of Rock Creek House, for $500 from Denver coal speculators Francis P. Heatley and Edward Chase.  This land would eventually become the town of Lafayette and was adjacent to 240 acres patented by Mary Miller's brothers, James B. and Samuel G. Foote, and her father, John B. Foote. Mary eventually acquired most of the 640 acres in Section 2, Township 1 South, Range 69 West.  The farm was called Willow Glen Farm. The Willow Glen School was established in 1875 in the Coal Creek area and the Miller children attended the school from that time onward. Lafayette was one of the people that established the school.
  In 1868, Wells Fargo abandoned its stage stop at Church Ranch five miles south of Rock Creek house, and in 1869 sold its Denver to Cheyenne route, which was acquired by John Hughes. The construction of the Colorado Central Railroad meant that regional stagecoach service became less frequent. With the writing on the wall, in 1871 Millers and James B. Foote sold the Miller Tavern to Abner C. Goodhue. They resided to Erie for a short time, then moved to Boulder. In 1875, Wells Fargo stopped the rest of its stagecoach service. In the mid-1870s, Lafayette was an owner of two butcher shops and a liquor distributorship. He opened a butcher shop in Boulder on 14th Street with his brother-in-law, James B. Foote, and he built a retail store and opened another in Erie. The Millers owned a house in Boulder on Water Street, now Canyon Street. The men were town trustees there and Mary  served on the school board. Mary may have run the farm and ranch while Lafayette ran the butcher shops, because the Miller children attended the Willow Glen School near their farm during this period. 
  After her husband died in 1878, Miller ran the ranch with her six children. She had more than 100 head of cattle and horses and some pigs. She grew wheat, hay, corn, and oats on 
caption: Horse team on the Overland Trail
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