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Gerrit Smith Miller Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: -
Date: Jun 1993

Biographical History

Gerrit Smith Miller (1845-1937) was a New York politician and dairy farmer. His father was Charles D. Miller (1818-1896); through his mother Elizabeth Smith (1822-1911) he was the grandson of New York reformer, philanthropist and abolitionist Gerrit Smith.

Gerrit Smith Miller was one of the early importers of Holsteins from Holland (following the example of a neighbor, Winthrop W. Chenery) and maintained the oldest purebred Holstein herd in the United States from 1869 to 1937. Many of the 1.8 million animals registered in the Holstein-Freisian book today descend from Miller's Kriemhild herd. He was also one of the first to approach dairy farming scientifically, keep daily year-round records of milk production in his effort to increase yields. Miller was also a member of the New York State legislature, and was involved with the George Junior Republic, a boys' school founded by American philanthropist William Reuben George in 1909.

He and his wife, Susan Hunt Dixwell, had three sons: Gerrit Smith Jr. (1869- ?), Basil Dixwell (1873- ?) and William Fitzhugh (1878-1890).

A genealogy of the Smith family is available in PDF (if online) or at the end of this finding aid (if in hard copy).

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Gerrit Smith Miller Papers contains correspondence, financial material, dairy business and herd records, and miscellany.

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is arranged chronologically. Financial material is subdivided by type and within that arranged chronologically. The remaining series are arranged alphabetically by topic or type.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has the papers of several members of the Smith family. See also the following:

Gerrit Smith Papers
Greene Smith Papers
Peter Smith Papers

Subject Headings

Persons

Dixwell family.
Fitzhugh family.
Miller family.
Miller, Elizabeth Smith, 1822-1911.
Miller, Gerrit S. (Gerrit Smith), 1869-1956.
Smith family.
Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.
Smith, Greene, 1841-1880.
Smith, Peter, 1768-1837.

Subjects

Dairy farmers -- New York (State)
Dairy farming -- New York (State)
Legislators -- New York (State)

Genres and Forms

Correspondence.
Receipts (financial records)

Occupations

Dairy farmers.
Legislators.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Gerrit Smith Miller Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Table of Contents

Biographical material

Correspondence

Family correspondence

Business correspondence

Financial material

Business records

Memorabilia

Inventory