(1818-7 March 1907), foundry owner. According to his obituary in the Glengarry News of 15 March 1907, “He came to Alexandria from Brasher, N.Y. State, in 1849, and a few months later formed a partnership with the late Mr. A.G. Smith, establishing a foundry on the east side of the property now owned and occupied by Sabourin Bros., butchers. The firm carried on a most successful business for many years in the manufacture of stoves, plows, etc. After Mr. Smith’s death the late Mr. A. B. Campbell joined forces with Mr. Miller and later on the late Ogiste Charlebois, a native of the town, was taken in as a partner. In 1865 the firm took possession of their new quarters on the south side of the Garry and continued operations till the death of Mr. Campbell some four years ago.” The 1865 foundry was on the west side of Main Street, behind what was later the Garry Theatre and to the west, therefore, of the present Alexandria municipal parking lot, and between Main Street and the present Town Lake. In 1871 the promoters of the “Proposed Railway from Coteau to Ottawa City” mentioned, in a survey of the economic opportunities of the countyside through which the railway was to run, “the extensive foundry of Miller & Campbell” at Alexandria. (Witness 6 March 1871) An 1876 directory listed “Miller, Campbell & Charlebois, gen blacksmiths and manufacturers.” In 1882 the Alexandria columnist of a Cornwall newspaper reported that Messrs Miller, Campbell and Charlebois, of Alexandria, “are having an Engine and boiler introduced into their Foundry to take the place of water and mill power which is certainly a decided improvement.” (CF 3 Nov. 1882)

     George W. Miller died at his home in Alexandria, aged close to 90, leaving a wife but apparently no surviving children. Miller was twice married. His first wife died about the time he settled in Alexandria. His second wife was Nancy McDougall, from the Alexandria area. His son Henry A. Miller (1849-1905), who died a few years before his father, operated a grocery store in Alexandria, and was the father of Dr G. H. S. Miller, a physician. When John Fraser, the future auditor general, was working in Alexandria, he boarded at George W. Miller’s home. After George W. Miller’s death, the executors of the Miller and Campbell estate sold the foundry property to J. B. Bellefeuille of St-Polycarpe, Que. who intended to use it for a carriage repair shop. (Glengarry News 13 Mar. 1908)

Glengarry News 8 & 15 March 1907 (picture) * gravestone, Alexandria Protestant Cemetery * Ostrom 246 * Fraser (1959) 289 * Harper, plate 51: a Donovan portrait of Miller aged 85 * Woodburn 190