Mary Millicent Miller

Mary Millicent Miller (née Mary Millicent Garretson; 1846 – October 30, 1894) was an American steamboat master who was the first American woman to acquire a steamboat master's license.

Biography Miller was born in 1846 in Portland, Kentucky to Andrew and Luanna Garretson. The daughter of a steamboat engineer she was immersed into a life on the river. On August 3, 1865, she married widower George 'Old Natural' Miller; a well respected steamboat builder and pilot. During the summer months they would live in a house in Portland where George Miller built boats on Shippingport Island. One such boat was the Saline; a 178-ton steamboat. During the fall, winter, and occasionally spring months of the year the Millers and their children would travel to New Orleans on the Saline and live on the boat while transporting freight and people on the Mississippi, Red, Ouchita, and Ohio Rivers. A criminal offense. When questioned by the SIS George confirmed that he was, indeed, the pilot but that Mary was the ship's master and that she would be applying for a steamboat master's license and her picture appeared in the same publication on March 8, 1884. Respected steamboat masters publicly proclaimed her great skill in New Orleans newspapers, while her accomplishment allowed for other females to become steamboat pilots and masters.

By 1890 competition from the expanding railroad industry was hurting the steamboat business. That coupled with George Miller's advanced age led the Millers to sell the Saline and retire. During the trip Miller became ill with what was believed to be hay fever. She returned to Portland and had the Swan towed back upriver by a coal boat. Within a year her condition worsened and her lower limbs became paralyzed. Miller would die in Portland on October 30, 1894, of paralysis

Legacy Mary Miller was twice recognized in the 1990s for her pioneering effort. The American Merchant Marine Hall of Fame inducted her in 1993. In 1995 she was recognized by the National Rivers Hall of Fame. In July 2017 the City of Louisville, Kentucky renamed the recently acquired riverboat the Georgia Queen to the Mary M. Miller in her honor.