The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

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These items consist of primarily of letters by Lewis Alexander Miller (1863-1943), older brother of Mina Miller Edison. Included are eight letters from Lewis to Mina covering the period April 1898-March 1899. The first two letters were written from Honolulu, Hawaii, where Lewis had gone in an unsuccessful effort to find employment. The impending annexation of Hawaii, the outbreak Spanish-American War, the prospect of Theodore Miller joining the army, and Lewis's relations with the influential Judd family, including longtime Chief Justice Albert F. Judd, are among the topics mentioned in these letters. Other letters written by Lewis during his stay in Hawaii can be found in the Edison-Ford Winter Estates Collection.

Topics discussed in the other letters include the final illness of Lewis's sister, Jane Miller Marvin; his trip to Puerto Rico in February 1899 with his brother Robert Anderson Miller, who had been appointed postmaster at Ponce; the health and financial condition of Mary Valinda Miller following her husband Lewis's death on February 17,1899; plans to close up Oak Place, the Miller family home in Akron, and possibly sell it to the school board; efforts by Ira Miller to collect on Lewis's life insurance policy; and the financial condition of Aultman & Co. of Canton and Aultman Miller Co. of Akron.

In addition to the correspondence, there is a flyer for Lewis's memorial service, held on June 25, 1943 at White's Funeral Home in Azusa, California, along with an obituary from an unidentified newspaper. Also included is a letter by Helen C. Sandler, a family friend in Glendora—the southern California community to which Lewis moved shortly after his marriage to Cotta Smyser in 1916. The letter relates Lewis's final days in the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena and the memorial services at White's Funeral Home