This file part of www.watertownhistory.org website

Miller Cigar Factory

314 E Main (Fourth & Main)

Main, E, 316 1898, Adolph Miller house, WHS_004_NT_063

Reminiscences of Early Days in Watertown, Jacobi

In the pioneer days, the manufacture of cigars, not alone here, but everywhere, was in the hands of men who were driven by the revolution of 1848-49 from their fatherland. We here in Watertown had a large colony of such men, mostly highly educated and who were not afraid to take hold of anything to make an honest livelihood.

In the fifties and sixties the following cigar factories were established here, namely: Bernhard & Rothe, Ernst and Carl Grossmann, August Tanck, Charles T. Lotz, Charles and Hugo Juessen, Eugene Wiggenhorn, later Wigrenhorn Bros., Ade & Broeg, Squire Dacasse, Bernhard Miller, A. F. Miller and a few others.

Miller Cigar Store “Turk” Resides at Octagon House

Carved in 1860’s

Normally a wooden effigy of a Native American holding a cluster of cigars

was used as the emblem of a tobacconist, not that of a Turk

Visitors to Watertown’s famed Octagon House can see, among other things, a relic of the Wooden Indian age.

Only in this instance it is not a wooden Indian they’ll be seeing, but a carved wooden Turk. The Turk was presented to the Watertown Historical Society some years ago by the Miller family of Watertown, for several generations operators of a cigar factory here.

The wooden Indians and also some other figures, such as the Turk were once quite common and occupied a place in or in front of cigar stores. Watertown had several of them, most of them figures of Indians or Indian chiefs. Today they are a collector’s item and many of them have been bought up for private collections. Even today an occasional inquiry is made in Watertown by representatives of dealers and collectors who visit Watertown “scouting” for any stray wooden Indians that may have escaped the eye of previous inquirers.

The Turk, carved from a solid block of wood, was in the Miller family since the 1860’s and was purchased by the late A. F. Miller, father of the late Charles H. Miller under whom the family cigar business here continued until it was taken over by the grandson, the late Edgar C. Miller under whom the business was finally liquidated.

Before 1870, many wooden Indians and other heroic figures were carved in Milwaukee for cigar manufacturers. It was there that Mr. Miller bought his Turk.

Wooden Indians, however, date back to England as early as the reign of King James I.

There is pictorial evidence that a wooden Indian was in existence in the year 1617, the year Pocahontas died, the year prior to Sir Walter Raleigh’s beheading and only 12 years after the celebrated Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes.

In the United States wooden Indians were used in front of cigar stores as early as 1780.

Among owners of wooden Indians here – not Turks – were Schlueter Bros., and Walter Kuenzi who operated cigar manufacturing concerns in the city.

WHS_006_597

WHS_006_600

WHS_006_599

Main, E, 310, Emil Seibel dry goods, post remodel, c1910

Main, E, 312, Wright's Art Gallery, post remodel, c1910

Main, E, 314, Miller Cigar Manufactory, Charles A, post remodel, c1910

Pedigree (PDF file) where you can see the roots back to about 1600.

In the 1860 Adolf Friedrich Miller left Diepholz Germany to settle in Watertown. He had two children Charles and Bertha. Was owner of a cigar manufactory in Watertown. We know also about a lost brother who may have died in the Civil War called Carl or maybe Charles Miller in the English version. He was born 19.12.1840 in Diepholz. His full German name is Carl Diedrich Mueller.

1908

10 02 Chas. H. Miller's cigar factory was entered by burglars. WG

1937 Philip J McCarthy took over the Miller Cigar business.

William Schlueter was employed at Millers.

Walter A. Schimmel became associated with the Tri-County Tobacco Co., formerly the Miller Cigar Company.