Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/361

Rh studied in Paris, Rome, and Florence, and lived on terms of intimacy with Thorwaldsen, Horatio Greenough, and Horace Vernet. His work at this time consisted chiefly of copies of the old masters, but it was done with appreciation and accuracy. In 1837 he accompanied Sir William Drummond Stewart to the Rocky mountains, and made a series of sketches of the scenes and incidents of the journey that were the ground-work of a gallery of Indian paintings that are now at Murthley castle. This is one of the most valuable collections of pictures of aboriginal American life that are now extant. He spent the winter of 1841 at Taymouth, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane, in the highlands of Scotland, painting several portraits of the earl's family. On his return to Baltimore he opened a studio there and followed his art until his death. He belonged to the school of Sir Thomas Lawrence in portraiture.

MILLER, Charles Henry, artist, b. in New York city, 20 March, 1842. He was educated at Mount Washington collegiate institute, and was graduated in medicine at the New York homœopathic institute in 1864. Before this time he had occasionally painted pictures, and in 1860 he exhibited &ldquo;The Challenge Accepted&rdquo; at the National academy of design, in New York city. He went abroad in 1864 and again in 1867, and was a pupil in the Bavarian royal academy at Munich under the instruction of Adolf Lier. He was elected an associate of the National academy in 1873 and academician in 1875, and was president of the New York art club in 1879 and of the American committee at the Munich international exposition in 1883. Among those of his pictures that have been exhibited at the National academy of design are &ldquo;Near Munich&rdquo; (1870); &ldquo;A Long Island Homestead&rdquo; (1873); &ldquo;High Bridge from Harlem Lane&rdquo; (1875); &ldquo;A Bouquet of Oaks&rdquo; (1884); &ldquo;A Suburban Way-Side&rdquo; (1886); and &ldquo;Cornfield at Queen Lawn&rdquo; (1887). He exhibited &ldquo;Old Mill at Springfield, L. I.,&rdquo; and other paintings at the Philadelphia centennial, &ldquo;Oaks at Creedmore&rdquo; at the Paris exposition of 1878, and &ldquo;Sunset at Purgatory&rdquo; in that of 1882. He received the gold medal that was awarded by the Massachusetts charitable association in 1878, and another at the World's exposition in New Orleans in 1885. He has also published, under the pen-name of Carl de Muldor, &ldquo;The Philosophy of Art in America&rdquo; (New York, 1885).

MILLER, Cincinnatus Heine, poet, b. in Wabash district, Ind., 10 Nov., 1841. He removed with his parents to Oregon in 1854, became a miner in California, and after various adventures returned in 1860 and studied law under George H. Williams. The next year he was express-messenger in the gold-mining districts of Idaho, edited in 1863 the &ldquo;Democratic Register,&rdquo; a weekly newspaper in Eugene, Oregon, which was suppressed for disloyalty, and then opened a law-office in Canon City. He was judge of Grant county, Oregon, in 1866-'70, and while occupying that office began his literary career. From early boyhood he had written verses that were not devoid of merit, although he was ignorant of the rules of versification and of grammar. Having published a paper in defence of Joaquin Murietta, the Mexican brigand, he signed his first two collections of poems by the latter's first name. He was abroad in 1870, travelled in southern Europe and in England, and while there prepared and published his first volume of sustained verse, which met with praise from the English critics. On his return he settled as a journalist in Washington, D. C., and in the autumn of 1887 returned to California. He has

several successful plays, including &ldquo;The Danites.&rdquo; His poems are &ldquo;Songs of the Sierras&rdquo; (Boston and London, 1871); &ldquo;Songs of the Sunlands&rdquo; (1873); &ldquo;Songs of the Desert&rdquo; (1875): &ldquo;Songs of Italy&rdquo; (1878); &ldquo;Collected Poems&rdquo; (1882); and &ldquo; Songs of the Mexican Seas&rdquo; (Boston, 1887). His prose works are &ldquo;The Baroness of New York&rdquo; (New York, 1877); &ldquo;The Danites in the Sierras&rdquo; (Chicago, 1881); &ldquo;Shadows of Shasta&rdquo; (1881); &ldquo;Memorie and Rime&rdquo; (New York, 1884); and &ldquo;49, or the Gold-Seekers of the Sierras&rdquo; (1884). His first wife,, whom he married in 1863, and who obtained a divorce from him in 1876, was a writer of graceful verses, which were published under the pen-name of &ldquo;Minnie Myrtle.&rdquo;

MILLER, Ezra, inventor, b. in New Jersey, 12 May, 1812. He received a good education and became a civil engineer, which profession he followed during many years in New York. In 1842 he moved to Wisconsin and settled in Magnolia, where he was soon elected justice of peace for two terms. In 1852 he was chosen a state senator and served for one term, refusing a renomination. The frequent accidents on railway trains by collision led to an endeavor to devise means for their prevention, and he finally invented his trussed platforms, compression buffers, and automatic couplers. These he patented in 1864, and they have since become almost universally adopted by the railway companies in the United States. He also obtained patents for his platform in Europe, and it is now extensively used on the continent and elsewhere. Mr. Miller has also invented other devices that have come into constant use. He has also been active in the militia. In 1833 he enlisted in a company of horse artillery belonging to the 2d New York regiment, and advanced until he reached the colonelcy in 1842. In 1851 he was appointed colonel of the 8th Wisconsin militia, which office he held during his residence in that state. He subsequently settled in Brooklyn.

MILLER, Henry, soldier, b. in Lancaster county, Pa., 13 Feb., 1751 ; d. in Carlisle, Pa., 5 April, 1824. He received an English education, studied law, and about 1770 was admitted to the bar in York county, where, from 1772 until he joined the Continental army, he held the office of collector of the excise. He was an early and ardent advocate of the cause of the colonies, and on hearing the news from Lexington and Concord assisted in organizing a company, was commissioned 1st lieutenant, and reached Cambridge on 25 July, being the first to arrive from south of Long Island and west of the Hudson. With a portion of his company he succeeded in getting in the rear of the British sentries, and became engaged with the guard, killing several, and taking two prisoners, with the loss of one man. Shortly afterward he was promoted captain. He bore a conspicuous part in the battle of Long Island. In November, 1777, he was promoted major, and in 1778 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant in the 2d Pennsylvania line, in which post he continued until he left the army. A companion- in-arms, writing in 1801 of him, says : " He must have risked his person in fifty or sixty conflicts." At Monmouth two horses were shot under him, but he mounted a third and continued in the thick of the fight. Gen. James Wilkinson, in his memoirs, says that " Maj. Miller, of Hand's riflemen, was orclered by Gen. Washington to check the rapid movements of the enemy in pursuit," while the patriot army was retreating across New Jersey, and the services of Miller on this occasion probably saved it from irreparable disaster. In 1779