When David Henry Miller and his wife, Elmira, settled in Medford in 1883, the town was being platted for the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Miller may have been Medford’s first property owner.
Miller opened the town’s first drugstore, founded a business college, served as postmaster for five years, and was elected as a councilman, county treasurer and, after selling the store and moving to Gold Hill in 1909, as a Democratic state legislator.
When a distant relative by marriage, Chuck Sears, came to the Rogue Valley in 1976, he had already heard of Miller and eventually located his unmarked grave in the Jacksonville Cemetery.
In 2015 Sears purchased a headstone and arranged a ceremony to honor Miller.
Sears told Tony Boom of the Medford Mail Tribune, “I’ve been thinking about it for nearly 40 years. I decided it’s something I ought to do.” He said the lack of a headstone was a mystery because Miller’s wife was still alive when he died, the family had money and other relatives’ graves are marked.
Miller, who was hard of hearing, was struck and killed by a train on Feb. 3, 1917, while walking on the tracks.
Source: Boom, Tony. "Anonymous No More." Mail Tribune 30 Oct. 2015 [Medford, Ore.] : B3. Print.
