Biography

Melville was the son of John Mill­er and Am­an­da Styles, and hus­band of Amy Cook Pue­tt, niece of In­di­ana gov­er­nor Jo­seph A. Wright (mar­ried 1881).

He at­tend­ed De­Pauw Uni­ver­si­ty, Green­cas­tle, In­di­ana (AB 1878, AM 1881). Af­ter gra­du­ation, he stu­died law in his fa­ther’s of­fice, and was ad­mitted to the bar in 1879.

He was al­so a ci­vil en­gin­eer, and in 1889 en­tered the Tip­pe­ca­noe Coun­ty sur­vey­or’s of­fice as a de­pu­ty. In 1896, he was elect­ed coun­ty sur­vey­or, serv­ing un­til 1908.

Later, he was ed­it­or of the La­fa­yette Morn­ing Jour­nal (1902–08), As­sist­ant Sec­re­ta­ry of the In­te­ri­or, and ed­it­or of the La­fa­yette Cou­ri­er (1909).

He taught Eng­lish at the La­fa­yette High School (1906–11); was with the War­ren Bro­thers Com­pa­ny, Bi­tu­lith­ic Pave­ments (1912–13); and was su­per­in­ten­dent of wa­ter works, La­fay­ette (1914).

He be­longed to the Tri­ni­ty Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church, the Ma­sons, and the Odd Fel­lows.

Works

In ad­di­tion to short sto­ries and po­ems, Mil­ler’s works in­clude:

• Swedish Lyr­ics
• Songs of the Heart
• Songs Re­li­gious
• Songs of Na­ture
• The High Gap Ghost
• The Russ­ian Am­bas­sa­dor
• The Ba­che­lors
• Find Dobbs
• The Match­ma­ker
• The Suf­fra­gette
• She Votes