Gerrit Smith Miller

Gerrit Smith Miller (January 30, 1845 – March 10, 1937), commonly called Gat, was an American businessman, farmer, sportsman and politician regarded as "the father of football in the United States" as the founder of Oneida Football Club, considered the first organized team to play any form of football in the country.

Miller was the namesake of his grandfather, the famous abolitionist, businessman, and philanthropist Gerrit Smith. His parents were Smith's daughter, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and her husband Charles Dudley Miller. He grew up on the family's estate in Peterboro, New York, helping his grandfather by hiding escaped slaves in a barn or attic.

Overview

"On this field the Oneida Football Club of Boston, the first organized football club in the United States played against all comers from 1862 to 1865 — The Oneida goal was never crossed. This monument is placed on Boston Common November 1925 by the seven surviving members of the Team" Miller was primarily an importer and breeder of Holstein-Friesian cattle. In Madison County, New York, where Peterboro is located, there were in 1931 more Holstein cattle than in any other county in the country, and more than in most states. More than half of the milk consumed in the United States came from this breed. (Because of this, there was in the late 1940s talk of hosting a national football hall of fame in Cazenovia. ) He subsequently played on Harvard's baseball team, and was known later in Cazenovia and Peterboro as "the best base ball player in this part of the country,” according to the page on him in the baseball history section of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1880.

He was the donor of land and otherwise supported the George Junior Republic at Freeville, New York,

Miller's health failed after the burning on March 2, 1936, of his home, built by his great-grandfather, Peter Smith, in 1803. Fortunately, Miller had already, in 1928, given to the Syracuse University Libraries his grandfather's huge collection of correspondence, business records, daybooks, and pamphlets. Some of his own papers were destroyed in the fire.

He and his wife had three sons, of whom two reached adulthood: Gerrit Smith Miller Jr., a renowned zoologist, and Basil Dixwell Miller.