Druggist Edward Miller and Ahnequet Quah with unknown Indian people, probably taken at his store on Front Street.
Photo credit: History Center of Traverse City
Edward Eugene Miller was the son of a fur trader from Canada who moved around eventually landing in Old Mission where he was a fur trader and government interpreter of the Odawa language
In 1852 Rev. Dougherty and many of his Native American followers moved across the bay from Old Mission and established their New Mission in what would become Omena. The New Mission church was dedicated in 1858.
Edward as a little boy attended school with Rev. Peter Dougherty and the local Indian children and learned to speak Odawa at an early age.
Later, when he opened a drug store on Front Street in Traverse City, he had a reputation for kindness and good deeds with the Indian people.
They trusted him, traded with him, bought, and sold goods with him, and the store became something of the Indian headquarters when they came to town, according to the Record Eagle May 13, 1904.
Edward Miller’s Indian name meant “Southern Day” How, I wonder, did he get that name? At any rate, he was much loved by them. His headstone in the Oakwood Cemetery, Traverse City, reads “E.E. Miller, A Friend To the Indians”
