Master Carpenter From Waterloo
Put Wright Brothers In the Air
By ART FERGUSON, Tribune Staff Writer
I.R. September 20, 1970
Submitted by Lorna Marks
When the famous Wright brothers – Orville and Wilbur – agreed to perform at a country fair near their Kitty Hawk, N.C. airplane testing grounds a year after their first flight in 1903, they didn’t know that a man who now resides near Waterloo would play a major role in their earning $300.
Elias Reeves Miller, 85, of Hall Hollow Rd., remembers the day his supervisor in a woodworking mill at North Wilkesboro assigned him to repair the wing of the Wright Brothers’ plane, which had been crushed when it hit the fairgrounds’ fence.
The fair board had offered the Wrights $300 if they would make three flights over the grounds. But the first takeoff, negotiated as was the custom than from a hill, failed to clear the fence, and the wing was damaged.
A search was done for a qualified carpenter who could repair the wing. The nearby mill was the best place to ask for there. Furniture, mill wheels, and other wooden equipment were built. When the supervisor learned the delicate craftsmanship needed, he sent Miller to the brothers.
The damaged wing of the crude bi-plane was repaired after Miller worked through the evening and night until 3 p.m. the next day. The wooden frame was covered with canvas. A section of fairground fence was removed to allow the plane to be pushed out.
It was positioned again for the takeoff, and with curious crowds watching, it lifted into the air. It circled the fair and flew over the nearby cities of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, giving the area a bonus performance for the $300. Miller recalls the plane flew from there back to Kitty Hawk, an unusual overland feat in those days.
Although Miller has worked in several vocations, woodworking is his profession and love. He still practices it and has his own planning machine, which he built of odds and ends of metal and wheels for about $300. He said he needed a planer some years ago, and the selling price was $10,000. So he built his own, which can plane a plank on all four sides at once.
His home, which he built with his wife’s help, shows the craftsmanship of the master carpenter. All lumber was cut from the local forest and dressed for a special use in the house. A recently laid floor of oak, dressed and placed by Miller, looks like a factory-made job.
As a boy in Jeffersonville, N.C., Miller worked in a blacksmith shop and proved his carpentry ability by building a buggy. After leaving his job at North Wilkesboro, he went to Montana, then came to the Waterloo, Ohio area (Rt. 1 Patriot, Ohio) in December of 1916. He left for Kansas in 1920 and lived there before returning here in 1940.
While in Kansas, he continued working with wood and also did ironwork. He ran thrashing machines for a living during much of his time in the plains state. He also continued to build houses, barns, and other farm buildings.
Although in semi-retirement, Miller keeps busy at home with land to tend, wood to work with, and advice to give to sawmill operators who seek him out. He said every few days. He is called upon to line up somebody’s sawmill. His craftsmanship includes the building of arched rafters, and the design is becoming more in demand, Miller says. Many barns were once made with curved rafters, but now the design is used in modern church buildings. He said he occasionally serves as a consultant on such jobs.
Despite the years, Mr. And Mrs. Miller continue to be active. They maintain their two-story house, do the chores, and Mrs. Miller enjoys quilting just as her husband sticks to woodwork. Six of the eight children are still living. They have 20 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Mrs. Miller says she counts better on the great-grandchildren than on the grandchildren.
Their sons are Bart Miller of Willowood and Carl and Arthur of Kansas. The daughters are Johnnie Miller (who married a Miller), Hazel Duncan, and Nellie Myers of Vinton.
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