Governor Charles Robert Miller

CHARLES ROBERT MILLER was born near West Chester, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1857. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1879, and earned a LL.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1881. Miller became an official of the Wilmington Malleable Iron Company in 1884, and the Philadelphia Mortgage and Trust Company in 1886. He also served as director for numerous corporations across the U.S. Miller entered politics as a member of the Delaware State Senate, an office he held from 1910 to 1914. He also served as Wilmington’s water commissioner in 1911, and was the corporation president of the Farmers’ Bank of Delaware and the Nevada Tonopah Mining Company. Miller won the 1912 Republican gubernatorial nomination and was elected Delaware’s 46th governor. He was sworn into office on January 21, 1913. During his tenure, he advocated for the restructuring of the marriage and ballot laws, endorsed improving roads and highways, and called for creating a women’s college in association with Delaware College. He was a proponent of advancing school reform and increasing scientific agricultural procedures. Miller’s term ended on January 17, 1917, though he continued to stay active in public service and civic affairs. He served on the executive body of the National Republican Congressional Committee, was a member of the finance committee of Delaware College, and was a trustee to several other boards and committees. Governor Charles R. Miller died on September 18, 1927, and he is buried at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.