Mary Millicent Miller (
''née'' Mary Millicent Garretson; 1846 – October 30, 1894) was an American
steamboat
A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
master who was the first American woman to acquire a steamboat master's license.
Biography
Miller was born in 1846 in
Portland, Kentucky
Portland is an unincorporated community in Adair County, Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders ...
to Andrew and Luanna Garretson. The
daughter
A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between groups ...
of a steamboat engineer she was immersed into a life on the river. On August 3, 1865 she married
widow
A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died.
Terminology
The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...
er George 'Old Natural' Miller; a well respected steamboat builder and pilot.
Together they had four children Lula Ann, Georgia, Emily, and Norman as well as three children from George's previous marriages.
[''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'']
pp. 638
"Mary Millicent Miller". University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1992. Accessed 10 October 2019. During the summer months they would live in a house in Portland where George Miller built boats on
Shippingport Island.
One such boat was the ''Saline''; a 178-ton steamboat. During the fall, winter, and occasionally spring months of the year the Millers and their children would travel to
on the ''Saline''
and live on the boat while transporting freight and people on the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
,
Red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
,
Ouchita, and
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
s.
While sailing the ''Saline'' Mary Miller would serve as the ship's clerk and
bookkeeper while George piloted it and a son from George's previous marriage acted as the engineer.
In 1883 in an attempt to put the Millers out of business a competing steamboat company, the Banks Line, informed the
Steamboat Inspection Service
The Steamboat Inspection Service was a United States agency created in 1871 to safeguard lives and property at sea. It merged with the Bureau of Navigation in 1932 to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, which in 1936 was reorga ...
(SIS) that George was acting as both the master and the pilot of his steamboat.
A criminal offense. When questioned by the SIS George confirmed that he was, indeed, the pilot but that Mary was the ship's master and that she would be applying for a steamboat master's license
as George himself wasn't eligible for the certification due to
color blindness
Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to color vision, see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may ...
.
When Miller applied for a license the New Orleans Inspector of Hulls office was unsure if it could license a woman. Inspector George L. Norton believed it was improper for a woman to hold such a position and did not render a decision for eight month.
After which in November 1883 he sent her application to the
Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Upon receiving her application Secretary
Charles J. Folger
Charles James Folger (April 16, 1818 – September 4, 1884) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was a State Senator in New York from 1862 to 1869 and served as the 34th U. ...
was equally bewildered and to which he asked "has Mrs. Miller a husband living?" In January 1884 Secretary Folger rendered his decision and
telegraphed
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
the New Orleans office the "Mrs. Miller should be granted her license if she were fit for performing the duties required, without regard to her sex".
![Commission the ladies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Commission_the_ladies.jpg)
Miller passed the examinations and was formally granted her master's license on February 16, 1884 at the age of thirty-eight.
That same day,
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
ran a cartoon entitled, "By All Means Commission The Ladies" and her picture appeared in the same publication on March 8, 1884. Respected steamboat masters publicly proclaimed her great skill in New Orleans newspapers, while her accomplishment allowed for other females to become steamboat pilots and masters.
By 1890 competition from the expanding
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
industry was hurting the steamboat business. That coupled with George Miller's advanced age lead the Millers to sell the ''Saline'' and retire.
While in Portland George built a sailboat named the ''Swan'' and in December 1891 the Millers sailed the swan towards New Orleans. Intending for Miller to become a lighthouse keeper in
East Pascagoula, Mississippi. During the trip Miller became ill with what was believed to be hay fever.
She returned to Portland and had the ''Swan'' towed back upriver by a
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
boat. Within a year her condition worsened and her lower limbs became paralyzed. Miller would die in Portland on October 30, 1894 of
paralysis
Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...
and was later buried at Portland Cemetery.
Legacy
Mary Miller was twice recognized in the 1990s for her pioneering effort. The
American Merchant Marine Hall of Fame inducted her in 1993. In 1995 she was recognized by the
National Rivers Hall of Fame.
The
Portland Museum keeps a permanent exhibit about her. In July 2017 the City of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
renamed the recently acquired steamboat the ''Georgia Queen'' to the ''Mary M. Miller'' in her honor.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Mary Millicent
Steamboats of the Ohio River
People from Louisville, Kentucky
1846 births
1894 deaths