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Cattleman Henry Miller's Great-Great-Grandson
by Thomas T. Mein — published October 01, 2007
As a subscriber to your beautiful magazine, I read each article with great interest. Imagine my delight when the latest issue (July-September 2007) arrived. The article on Mount Madonna was very fair and balanced. Henry Miller was my great-great-grandfather; my mother, Sally Nickel Mein, was his first great-grandchild. He died shortly after her birth in 1916. She treasured a $20 gold piece he left for her.
His company, Miller & Lux, survived into the 1970s, managed by family members, until it merged with another farming concern. Pieces of the original empire are still farmed in and around Los Banos and Bakersfield by my cousins. The 1930s were tough times for all; Miller & Lux was forced to divest itself of thousands of acres because of the crushing property tax burden and because few Americans could afford good beef during the Depression.
I recall a lovely trip in the late 1940s to Mount Madonna when the redwoods and the underbrush were not as tall and thick as they are today, leaving marvelous vistas open to view. I can imagine my ancestor looking out over the lands he had acquired, cultivated, and loved so much. I also want to thank the author Richard Mahler for mentioning that Henry Miller was responsible for saving the tule elk, a fact rarely recognized by current historians.
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