A. Miller

Company Names, addresses, dates1:
  August Mueller (1864)2
  Augustus Miller, Q north cor 21st west (1865)
  August Muller, 71 21st west (1866)

Notes:
I see the names "Augustus Miller", "August Muller", and "August Mueller" in old city directories and newspaper articles, and I beleive they are referring to the same guy. In the following paragraphs, I'll use the spelling that matches the referenced source.

The 1865 city directory lists "Augustus Miller" as a bottler, and the 1866 directory lists "August Muller" as both a bottler & a brewer.
An ad in the September 9, 1864 issue of the Evening Star newspaper 2 lists a bunch of bottlers who had made an agreement to sell their bottles of Porter, Ale, Cider and Mineral Water for "Northern prices" of 60 cents per dozen. August Mueller was one of the 8 bottlers listed in this ad. I assume "Northern prices" was in reference to the civil war, and that southern states during that time had different prices.

On September 28, 1866, there was a fire in August Muller's brewery & mineral water establishment. Since there was no water near the fire, they could not prevent the building & its contents from being destroyed. Loss was estimated at $6000, on which insurance only covered $30003. This appears to have put Muller out of busines.

An article in the April 27, 1867 issue of the Evening Star newspaper4 had 2 different bottling companies claim ownership of Millers's bottles. Abner & Mueden claimed all bottles marked "A.Miller" and "A.Mueller". But Geo. Otto claimed all bottles marked "A.Miller". I wonder if Miller sold his remaining stock of bottles to one or both of those companies, or if the companies just arbitrarily put claims on his bottles.

Bottles:

miller book # 417
This is an aqua 7" short blob top bottle embossed:
front: A. MILLER / WASHINGTON / D.C.
back: THIS BOTTLE / IS NEVER SOLD
miller_02 miller_03 book # 116 (Stoneware section)
This is a 7.7" brown stoneware bottle debossed:
shoulder: A. MULLER
The "U" has 2 dots above it.
This bottle does not have any indication what city it was from, but it's likely that it's a Washington DC bottle from the same guy as the glass bottle above.
miller_04 book # (unlisted in the Stoneware section)
This is a 7.7" tan stoneware bottle debossed:
shoulder: A. MEILLER
It's hard to read but it looks like the spelling is "MEILLER", although I'm not sure about the "I" and the first "L". Like the bottle above, this bottle does not have any indication what city it was from, but it's likely that it's a Washington DC bottle from the same guy as the glass bottle above.


1 Boyd's Directory for the District of Columbia (various years)
2 Ad in September 9, 1864 issue of the Evening Star newspaper (p.2)
3 September 29, 1866 issue of the Daily Republican newspaper (p.3)
4 April 27, 1867 issue of the Evening Star newspaper (p.4)


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This page last updated on May 25, 2022.