Frederick John Miller (November 24, 1824 – May 11, 1888) was a German-American brewery owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He founded the Miller Brewing Company at the Plank Road Brewery, purchased in 1855. He learned the brewing business in Germany at Sigmaringen.

He was born Friedrich Johannes Miller in Riedlingen in the Kingdom of Württemberg. Some German records, like the one about the baptism of his first son Joseph Eduard, also state the name as Müller. Since the end of the 20th century, some publications state Miller's name as "Frederick Edward John Miller" from which they derive the birth name "Friedrich Eduard Johann(es) Müller".

Miller married Josephine Müller in Friedrichshafen, Württemberg, on June 7, 1853. Their first child, Joseph Edward Miller, was born the next year.

Josephine died in April 1860 and Miller married Lisette Gross and had five children who survived infancy: Ernst, Emil, Frederick II, Clara, and Elise. Clara married Carl A. Miller (no relation), also a German immigrant.

Older daughter Clara's son Frederick C. Miller (1906–1954) was an All-American college football player at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne and became president of the company after John in 1947. He and his 20-year-old son Fred, Jr., were killed in a plane crash in Milwaukee in 1954. The nine-passenger twin-engine company aircraft was a converted Lockheed Ventura. It was bound for Winnipeg for a December hunting trip at Portage la Prairie; the crash also killed the two company pilots, brothers Joseph and Paul Laird.

See also

  • Eberhard Anheuser
  • Jacob Best
  • Valentin Blatz
  • Adolphus Busch
  • Adolph Coors
  • Gottlieb Heileman
  • Frederick Pabst
  • Joseph Schlitz
  • August Uihlein

References

Further reading

  • John, Tim. The Miller Beer Barons: The Frederick J. Miller Family and Its Brewery. Oregon, Wis: Badger Books, 2005.
  • Fred Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, U.S.A. Illustrated booklet with portrait