I have gathered the information on this page solely from my own personal research - hours of scouring over deeds, land surveys, census records, church records, historical societies and log house books for any information that I could piece together. Some things are still a mystery, but it is exciting to slowly put together the puzzle!
THE TOWN OF MILLERS
When construction of the Baltimore and Hanover Railroad passed through Aaron Miller's farmland, he built and ran the railroad stop, which came to be known as Millers Station, and sold off lots creating a small crossroads community that still bears his name. Lot #2, consisting of a quarter acre and being the second plot of land laid out from the crossroads of Millers Station Road and Young Road towards Warehime Road, was first sold to Bernhart Walsch in 1883. On March 31st 1884, Walsch sold the property to Eliza and Lansing Smith for $325. Eliza took a loan out for $150 plus interest towards the property. The debt was paid off in May of 1887 and within three months they purchased the adjacent property known as Lot #3 for $50 from Aaron Miller. These two quarter acre lots were combined to form what is now known as 4119 Millers Station Road.
In the early 1900's, Millers was a bustling small town. There was a cigar factory, blacksmith, general dry goods store, church, post office, and railroad stop all within short walking distance. Further down the road was a one room log schoolhouse which still stands. The area was rich with limestone, which in turn made for successful crop farming. The railroad provided great oppurtunity for the people of Millers to travel to Baltimore to sell their goods. The early to mid 1900's were perhaps the busiest years Millers would see -- it is now but a quiet, "pass-through" town.
PAST INHABITANTS
In the 1900 census, Eliza and Lansing Smith (55 and 72 years old, respectively) were living in the house along with their son Seward (29) and his blossoming family consisting of Bertha (22), his wife of a year, and Maurice, his 11 month old son. In all, the Smith family lived at the property for 19 years until November of 1906 when they sold it to James and Eliza Hare for $650.
James and Eliza shared their home with their children Maurice, Lola, George, and Mary. Eliza was a homemaker and James was a painter. They lived in the house for ten years until it was sold to George and Susan Bollinger for $700 in October of 1916. Susan passed away and shortly after George sold the property to Everett and Katie Miller on September 24th 1918 for $900.
Everett and Katie lived in the house longer than any of it’s other tenants, past and future -- 52 years! Everett’s father John Miller was the owner of Miller’s Cigar Factory, located on the opposite side of the train tracks. Early in life, Everett worked at the factory, but later became a railroad laborer for the Western Maryland Railroad, and then a salesman for Chase Brothers Nursery. Katie passed away on September 22nd 1960 at 75 and the deed switched hands temporarily in 1963 and resulted in Melvin, Everett’s nephew, being added as a joint tenant.
Everett passed away December 24th 1969 at 81 and Melvin soon after gifted the property to T. Calp in 1970. Calp built the garage sometime between then and 1976. The deed was tossed around a few more times in the 80's and 90's, finally resting in our hands in June of 2014!
LIFE & STYLE 100 YEARS AGO
The original house was a two story chestnut log structure built in the late 19th century. The logs were hand hewed (chopped and shaped individually by hand) and chinked with a mixture of locally mined limestone and water. This structure was quite small and most likely consisted of only a cooking/sitting room downstairs and one or two sleeping rooms upstairs. In the early 1900's (date to be determined) a small two story addition was built onto the log house. This created two more rooms (one above the other).
There was no bathroom, but instead an outhouse. The hand-dug well is just outside the house, to the rear. It appears that the face of the home had a set of mirrored doors and windows on the 1st and 2nd levels. It was common for homes of this age to have two front doors, one for family use and one for visitors. The log walls were finished with horsehair plaster which still remains (albeit in bad shape) in most rooms.
Over the years the house has undergone many period updates and many of it's original features have unfortunately been discarded. The exterior of the house has three layers of siding, starting with log, then german siding (weatherboarding), asphalt shingles, and most recently aluminum siding. It retains an early staircase banister that is in need of heavy restoration, some 2/2 sash windows, wood flooring in some rooms, and three early doors with original hardware.