Miller City

How Miller City began

Miller City, in Palmer Township, began as St. Nicholas when platted by Nicholas Miller in 1882, and took his surname when its post office opened the following year. The village incorporated in 1890 and remains one of Putnam County's smallest.

Platted 1882-08-22 (as St. Nicholas), incorporated 1890-11-26, by Aaron Overbeck, surveyor, for proprietors Nicholas Noriot and Nicholas Miller.

Where the name comes from

Platted by the surveyor Aaron Overbeck on August 22, 1882, and dedicated as St. Nicholas by its two proprietors, Nicholas Noriot and Nicholas Miller, who each owned one of the two parcels of land making up the plat -- hence the saint's name, shared by both men. When the village incorporated on November 26, 1890, it was renamed Miller City for Nicholas Miller alone, credited by the county's 1915 historian with the energy and business sense that drove the young village's growth.

Before the town

No Native American site or village specific to Miller City was located in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1855-01-01 — Palmer Township, the youngest in Putnam County, holds its first election with thirteen voters, choosing John Frazee, John Kerns and John S. Welch trustees; the late organization reflected how thin settlement was in the Black Swamp.
2. 1870 — Kieferville is laid out by D. A. Kiefer on the old Continental railroad grade, the first town platted in Palmer Township; North Creek follows in 1879.
3. 1882-08-22 — Surveyor Aaron Overbeck plats the settlement, dedicated as St. Nicholas by proprietors Nicholas Noriot and Nicholas Miller.
4. 1883 — A post office called Miller City opens, and the settlement takes that name.
5. 1884 — Nicholas Miller, whose energy drove the village's rapid growth in produce and lumber shipping, lays out a new addition.
6. 1886 — The Catholic parish at Miller City is organized by Rev. Joseph Rosenberg of New Cleveland; Nicholas Noirot gives two lots for the church site.
7. 1887 — A second addition is laid out as the village continues to grow.
8. 1888-08-26 — St. Nicholas church, built for about $2,000 with pews and $400 donated by St. John's parish of Glandorf, is dedicated by Mgr. F. M. Boff; the first resident pastor, Rev. Charles Wagner, arrives only in July 1899.
9. 1890-11-26 — Miller City incorporates as an Ohio village, taking the name of proprietor Nicholas Miller; J. M. Dobneyer serves as the first mayor named in the county history's account of its then-current officers.
10. 1910 — The county history puts the village population at three hundred in 1910 and names the Miller City Tile Company among its greatest industries.

Stories

Two Nicholases and a South Prairie

Miller City sits on what was once called the South Prairie, swampland in Palmer Township that became a garden spot once it was drained. In August 1882 the surveyor Aaron Overbeck platted a village here for two proprietors who happened to share a given name: Nicholas Noriot and Nicholas Miller, each of whom owned one of the two parcels that made up the new plat. They dedicated it as St. Nicholas. As the surrounding prairie yielded large crops of garden and farm produce, and timber and lumber besides, the village became a shipping point on the Nickel Plate railroad, and Miller judged the growth strong enough to add new plats of his own in 1884 and 1887. When the town incorporated in November 1890, the saint's name gave way to a businessman's: it became Miller City, credited by the county's historian to Nicholas Miller's "energy and business tact," to which the growth and progress of the village was said to be largely due. A tile company later became one of its chief industries.

The beavers who dammed the Black Swamp

Palmer Township, where Miller City stands, was among the last parts of Putnam County to be organized, and the county's 1915 historian blamed the swamp. Old residents recalled that beavers had thrown hundreds of trees across the sluggish North and South Powell creeks, and the backed-up water spread over a good part of the township. Before the land could be drained those natural dams had to be torn out, and for many years afterward the streams were so clogged that artificial drainage did little good. When the ditches finally worked, ground that had stood under one to two feet of water became what the historian called some of the best land in the county. The wet prairie around the future St. Nicholas became known as the South Prairie, shipping garden produce and lumber from the village by the 1880s.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Country Acres Golf Club100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-07

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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