The Miller Lumber Company Since 1911
History
The dusty horse-drawn lumber wagons that 70 years ago hauled
planks to erect Bend’s historic Pine Tavern have now
become a convoy of flatbeds delivering wood for entire
subdivisions. And thus the sticks of Miller Lumber
have
grown indigenous to Central
Oregon.
A family business spanning three generations and four
locations, Miller Lumber has been proudly serving Central 
Oregon for almost a century — nearly as long as
Bend itself has existed.
In 1911, three pioneering associates including Harry A. (Ham)
Miller founded the Overturf, Davis, Miller Company. But
it wasn’t two years before the entrepreneurial
Wisconsinite Ham bought out his partners and laid the first
bricks of the multi-store lumber retailer that in the 1960s was
Central Oregon’s largest building supplier and in 2006
garnered the Bend Chamber of Commerce Business Of The Year
award.
The Bend headquarters has seen five different locations,
including a 1930s post on then-unpaved Wall Street and 30 years
later a Division Street site that in 1995 was leveled in the
name of pavement —a parkway. The company
essentially has witnessed Central Oregon accumulate almost all
of its current population.
William E. (Bill) Miller, Ham’s son, assumed company
presidency in 1966. Bill grew up through the company
rungs, as his first job as a child was feeding the wagon horses
at the barn across the Deschutes River from what is now
“Clyde” McKay Park. He served as a Navy
fighter pilot in WW2 and earned both a Bachelor of Arts and an
M.B.A. from Stanford University before returning to work
alongside his father.
In its earliest years, Miller Lumber contracted the entire cut
of a mill — located four miles southeast of Bend —
and hauled the lumber back to town with horses to be planed and
stored for local retail or shipped for wholesale throughout the
country. In 1915, the company sold the planing mill and
established a yard-style setup that has stuck.
In the late 1930s, Prineville became host to the first branch
outside Bend, foreshadowing openings in Redmond, Madras and,
for a short time, Burns. Before landing solely on the
retail side of the business, Miller Lumber became versed in the
volatile Central Oregon economy and accumulated veteran
experience across the lumber gamut, including logging, milling,
planing and building. In fact, in 1941 Miller Lumber was
not only offering to build your house, but also to finance
it.
Bill’s eight children without much choice became company employees, starting out dusting and emptying ashtrays before working up to positions in the store, yard or office. Now there are only three left. In the 1980s, the middle child, Charles C. (Charley) Miller, became general manager after graduating from Oregon State University with degrees in engineering and business. He now is company president. Siblings Harry C. Miller (computer science, University of Oregon and U.S. Navy) and Constance M. (Connie) Marshall (computer science, Oregon State University) and brother-in-law John F. (Jack) Crowell (business, University of Northern Florida and U.S. Navy) join him in ownership.
