Solomon Miller
Born: Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, on January 22, 1831. Married: Mary Kaucher, Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio, on September 13, 1855. Died: White Cloud, Doniphan County, Kansas, April 17, 1897.
Solomon Miller was born to John and Dicey (Runyon) Miller in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, on January 22, 1831. He was an infant when his family moved to West Alexandria, Preble County, Ohio, where they had previously lived. He credited his fondness for apple dumplings and buttermilk to his German ancestry. Solomon attended local schools and excelled at spelling. Around the age of 18 he took a job with the Germantown, Ohio, newspaper. He formed a partnership with Henry Brooks and purchased the publication in 1852, which they operated until 1854.
Miller married Mary Kaucher in Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio, on September 13, 1855. The first of their two children was born in Germantown in 1857. Sol’s interest in politics increased during John C. Frémont’s presidential campaign. The first Republican candidate, Frémont lost the election to James Buchanan, but the contest enlivened the debate over slavery. The Millers decided to move to Kansas Territory where that debate was intense. They traveled over the Missouri River by steamboat passing through St. Louis, to Weston, and to Doniphan County, Kansas Territory. During the river passage, Sol made observations on the behaviors of passengers, forming opinions that would be expressed in his future editorials. The Millers arrived in Doniphan County in March 1857. Sol purchased a newspaper and issued the first White Cloud Kansas Chief on June 4, published every Thursday. There were no buildings in White Cloud at the time and the Chief occupied a “dilapidated old log cabin on the levee until a house could be built.” Sol’s first pressman was an African American, whose enslaver was paid for the man’s work. Miller developed a reputation as a “fresh and vigorous writer on general topics,” and a “fierce and powerful fighter.” The Haven Journal said he had “an individuality and personal influence that the average editorial writer on the great daily never has.”
For 40 years the newspaper editorials of Sol Miller informed, criticized, and sometimes stunned readers. An outspoken and often vitriolic editor, he plunged into the territorial controversies as a free-state Republican. He criticized those he thought to be fuzzy-thinking politicians and fellow editors when he disagreed with their logic. He was never profane. He used other epithets in his opposition: dirty dog, skunk, and hare-brained jackass. He was colorful; the epitome of the frontier editor; today he might be defending himself from suits of libel and slander.
Horace Greeley once tried to lure Miller to New York, but the Chief editor declined. He said in his autobiographical sketch, "We have always been accused of indulging too much levity and looking at the ridiculous side of everything. Well, there is fun in everything, if it can only be smelted out." Miller's victims of the pen likely had much less fun with his editorials.
William K. Miller, their second of two children, was born in Troy in 1869; he worked as a typesetter for the Chief as a young man. Sol Miller moved the newspaper to Troy in 1872 and continued to produce the weekly paper in a room over the Sinclair drug store until 1880, when it relocated to the Odd Fellows Hall in Troy.
Miller was elected once to the Kansas House of Representatives, in the first state election in 1861. He was elected four times to the Kansas Senate.
A member of the Kansas newspaper editors’ and publishers’ organization, Miller was named to a committee to form the Kansas State Historical Society and was one of the Society’s five founders in Topeka on December 13, 1875. He continued his involvement with the Historical Society, while still issuing critical editorials when he disagreed with its decisions from time to time.
When Sol Miller died on April 17, 1897, he had been publishing the Chief for 40 continuous years. His wife, Mary Miller, took over as managing editor, with assistance from her children, Leila Miller and William Miller. The Chief continues to be published well into the 21st century.
Entry: Miller, Solomon
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: February 2025
Date Modified: February 2025
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
