Huntington Advertiser, July 7, 1961- Captain Henry J. Miller, 70, veteran Ohio River steamboat captain died this morning in a Huntington {WV} hospital. A resident of Burlington, Ohio, Captain Miller retired in April 1959 after 54 years of river service. His river experience began at an early age in assisting his father, the late Thomas J. Miller, who owned and operated a skiff ferry at Burlington, [Ohio].
At the age of 14, he began steamboating on the Sea Lion, which was owned by the late Captain Carl Mace of Ashland, Ky., and wich towed logs from the Big Sandy River to Louisville.
Captain Miller held pilot’s licenses from Pittsburgh to Louisville on the Ohio River, from the mouth of the Kanawha River to Harewood, WV, and on the Illinois River waterways from Havana, Ill., to Chicago. His employers included the Ohio River Co., the Island Creek Fuel & Transportation Co., the Campbell Creek Coal Co., and the Wheeling Steel Corp.
He received his mate’s license in 1926 while working on the Ohio River Co’s towboats A.C. Ingersoll and E. D. Kenna. In 1931, while aboard Island Creek’s Sam P. Suit, he received his master and pilot license. He later served on the Ohio River Co.’s steamer Omar and steamer John J. Rowe. Captain Miller was a member of the Ohio and Kanawha River Masters Pilot Association.
Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Burlington Methodist Church, of which he was a member by the Rev. James Wagner. Burial will be in Greenlawn Cemetery at Burlington, [Ohio].
Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Sam. Kouns of Burlington; two sisters, Mrs. Frank Dorynek and Mrs. Jess B. Boswell of Huntington, [WV]; a brother Frank Miller of South Point, [Ohio], and a granddaughter, Susie Kouns of Burlington, [Ohio].
The body is at the Schneider Funeral Home at Chesapeake, [Ohio] where friends may call after 6 p.m. tomorrow, and will be taken to the church one hour before the services.
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