MILLER, PETER (1837-1889)

MILLER, PETER, attorney and newspaperman; b. Chatham, 4 Jul 1837, s/o Benjamin Miller and Hannah McCullam; unmarried; d. Oakland, Cal., Dec 1889.

The son of a Chatham painter and glazier who immigrated from Inverness-shire, Scotland, Peter Miller attended the County Grammar School when it was conducted by James Millar. He later studied law and was admitted as an attorney in 1864. In 1865 he set about to launch a new newspaper in Chatham to be called "The Northern Post." This paper was to be published "in the interest of the union of the provinces"; that is, in support of the concept of Confederation, and Miller thought it would be "better able to quicken the intellectual pulse of the North" if it appeared twice weekly. The Miramichi Advance referred some years later to "The Northern Post" having been "started and conducted," but no copies are known to exist.

After Confederation, Miller was appointed to a civil service position in Ottawa through the influence of Peter Mitchell, minister of marine and fisheries. At the time of his death he was the English-language law clerk of the Senate. He was "a remarkably clever and well-read man" and came from a talented family. The Union Advocate stated that he had a brother who was an engineer in Oakland, Cal., another who was a physician in New York, and a third who was the editor of a New York newspaper.