Charles Christian Miller, Ph.D.
Charles Christian Miller, Ph. D., president of Lima College, at Lima, Ohio, ex-commissioner of the common schools of Ohio, and a distinguished institute instructor and lecturer, has been intimately associated with the educational interests of his native State almost from boyhood. He was born November 26, 1856, at Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio, and is a son of Enos S. Miller, a representative business citizen of that county.
Dr. Miller's early educational training was secured in the common schools, from which he entered Fairfield Union Academy, at Pleasantville, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1876. Prior to this, however, he had taught school, being but 16 years old when he obtained his first certificate. As he was mainly dependent upon his own resources, he again began to teach; in the first place, in order to procure the means with which he could secure collegiate advantages, and in the second, because his natural inclinations and evident talents lay in this direction. In the spring of 1877 he became a student at the Ohio State University, and in 1883 he was graduated from this institution with the coveted degree of A. B. During a portion of his university career, he was instructor in Latin and Greek. He enjoys the distinction of being the first graduate of the Ohio State University ever appointed a member of he board of trustees of that institution. On June 16, 1903, Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Recognizing very early in his career the call of his nature in the direction of educational work, Dr. Miller bent every energy to advance himself along this line of endeavor, meeting with public recognition and substantial promotion, while still in early manhood. He continued to teach from 1874 until 1884, when not a student himself, his schools being located at Rushville, Pleasantville and Eaton, Ohio. In the latter year he was appointed superintendent of the schools at Eaton, where he continued in this position until 1886, when he accepted a similar one at Ottawa, for a period of four years, gong then to Sandusky, and in 1892 to Hamilton, each change being to his material benefit and professional advancement. In order to accept the responsible position of superintendent of the city schools at Hamilton, Dr. Miller was obliged to resign his office of State commissioner of common schools, to which he had been appointed in 1891 by Gov. James E. Campbell. In 1901 he was again called to public office, being appointed State school examiner.
In 1895 Dr. Miller came to Lima to assume the superintendency of the public schools of this city, and during his incumbency of 10 years he succeeded in advancing their educational standard to a point which could not help reflecting the greatest credit upon his intellectual abilities and executive qualities. To the signed his superintendency at the close ofthe school year in June, 1905, to accept the presidency of Lima College, which had been tendered him.
In addition to the above enumerated honorable and responsible positions efficiently filled by Dr. Miller, he has served as county school examiner in Preble, Putnam and Butler counties and as city school examiner of the cities of Sandusky, Hamilton and Lima.
For a number of years he has also been prominently identified with institute work, his field of labor extending over Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. As an interesting and effective lecturer, Dr. Miller has few equals. His subjects embrace the different branches taught in the public schools, which are particularly appropriate for institute work, and points and periods in history and literature, which are presented and discussed in a happy style peculiar to himself. They show thorough research, wide knowledge, close observation and a critical faculty. The barest theme, taken up by Dr. Miller and clothed in his beautiful and appropriate language and presented with his oratorical ability, becomes a subject of ever recurring interest to his auditors. Crowded houses greet him when he fills a lecture appointment and the various journals of the towns and cities where he has spoken are invariably pronounced in their praise. Being the exponents of the attitude of their communities, this praise is genuine. His gifts as a lecturer are such as to cause his favorable comparison with other notables in the field.
Dr. Miller was married, in 1891 to Nellie C. Wilbur, who was born in New York. The domestic circle includes two sons and a daughter, installed in a beautiful home at Lima, where, when not absent professionally, Dr. Miller enjoys the resources of an extensive library and, on occasion, dispenses hospitality to a large social circle. He is a member of numerous educational organizations, both local and national, and belongs to the fraternal orders of Masons and Knights of Pythias. He is a man of striking personality, gifted both in mind and person. He possesses the courtesy that invites confidence the geniality which attracts friends and the dignity which belongs to the eminent position in the educational world to which his own abilities have advanced him.
Dr. Miller is the editor of the historical department of this work.