Woman of the Century/Addie Dickman Miller

MILLER, Mrs. Addie Dickman, born in West Union, Iowa, 26th July, 1859. Her maiden name was Dickman. In 1863 her parents moved to a farm near that town, where her youthful years were passed in quiet. Her schooling from her seventh to her fourteenth year was limited to a few months each year. She was the oldest of nine children. From her refined and educated mother she learned music and inherited literary tastes. From her public-spirited father she imbibed a taste for discussing current questions of public interest ADDIE DICKMAN MILLER.

She became a teacher in her fifteenth year, and continued in that profession for eight years, teaching during vacations and studying in the Western College of Iowa. In that institution she completed a Latin and scientific course in 1881, and took the chair of history and literature in Avalon College, Missouri. At the close of her first term in that institution she became the wife of Prof. G. M. Miller, a fellow-student and graduate of the Iowa College, who was professor of ancient languages in Avalon College. During the next two years she taught German and acted as supernumerary to the Faculty of Avalon. In 1883 Professor Miller accepted the presidency of Philomath College, in Philomath, Ore. In that college Mrs. Miller taught German and acted as superintendent of the young women's department, giving the students practical lectures on the questions of the day. Mrs. Miller and her husband identified themselves with the temperance movement, and Professor Miller served as president of the Oregon Temperance Alliance. In 1886, having been nominated for Congress, he lectured in various towns in the State, and while he was gone Mrs. Miller performed his work in the college. Leaving Philomath they went to Portland, Ore., where Mr. Miller began to practice as an attorney-at-law. Mrs. Miller gave up teaching and has devoted herself to the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. While caring for her three children, she found time to serve for two years as president of the Portland Woman's Christian Temperance Union, arraying the motherhood of the city against the evil of intemperance. She is a most enthusiastic worker. Besides her platform work she for years edited the woman's department in the "'West Shore," a Portland periodical. She has also published "Letters to Our Girls" in an eastern magazine, a series of articles containing many valuable thoughts for the young women to whom they were addressed. In 1890 Mrs. Miller and her family removed to Woodbridge, Cat, While living there, her practical nature found expression in the invention of a dish-washing machine. Her life is still devoted to moral and charitable work.