An undated portrait photograph of John H. Miller (1858-1935) and his wife Ellen C. [Buffington] Miller (1855-1920) of Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The following story was located in a Gratz history:
John H. Miller was a furniture dealer and conducted an undertaking business [in Gratz] until 1928. He took training for the undertaking profession and when he came back to Gratz to start his business, he decided to use the more modern approach. Up to this time everyone in the area had the viewings in their homes when a relative had died. Mr. Miller became aware that in the cities, funeral parlors were becoming popular. He remodeled and prepared the west side of his house for an appropriate parlor. Unfortunately, the residents of Gratz were not ready to have funerals outside their homes, so after a time of trial, he rented that part of the house to tenants for other uses. In 1909, the organizers of the the First National Bank of Gratz rented the space from the Millers.
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