Tag: Miller

Timeline-Miller Brothers in Western Oil Fields, c1909-13

The past several weeks I have posted the images of picture postcards from the early 1900 oil fields in the western United States. Postcards that half-brothers Chris Miller and Jacob Miller Jr acquired while the two young men worked there in the oil fields.

The Miller Brothers in the Oklahoma Oil Fields, c1910-13

Today, as I continue the saga of the Miller brothers in the western oil fields, I am posting the last of the picture postcards the two young men sent home to their parents in rural Mercer County, Ohio.

Miller Brothers in the California Oil Fields, c1911

Today, a few more picture postcards that half-brothers Chris Miller and Jacob Miller Jr sent home from the western United States. Chris and Jacob Jr left their farm in northern Mercer County, Ohio, sometime before 1910 and traveled out west to work in the oil fields. There were many oil strikes in several western states during that time and heading out west to join the oil rush have been quite an adventure for two young men. 

The Miller Brothers in Coalinga, California, c1911-12

Last week I showed a 1911 panoramic photo of the A.O. Company oil workers in Oil Center, Kern County, California. Two of my great-uncles are in that photo, half-brothers Chris Miller and Jacob Miller Jr.

Chris (1880-1911) was the son of Jacob Miller and his second wife Margaretha Strabel. Jacob Jr (1885-1913) was the son of Jacob Miller and his third wife Christena Rueck.

Oil Workers, A.O. Co., Oil Center, California, 1911

Adventure and the quest for fortune have always been alluring to some young men. In the early 1900s the news of the oil strikes and oil fields out West was enough to lure two farm boys from rural Mercer County, Ohio, westward, on a quest to make their fortunes. Those two young men, Christian “Chris” Miller and Jacob Miller Jr, were my great-uncles, brothers of my grandfather Carl Miller. They left their farm life to work in the oil fields of Texas, Oklahoma, and California around 1910.