Emily Huntington Miller

Emily Huntington Miller (October 22, 1833 – November 2, 1913) was an American author, poet, and educator.

Miller was the Assistant Editor of The Little Corporal, a children's magazine; Associate Editor of The Ladies Home Journal; and co-founder of St. Nicholas, a publication for children. She was appointed Dean of Women at Northwestern University in Illinois, September 1891. Miller and Jennie Fowler Willing were involved with organizing a convention in Cleveland in 1874,at which the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed.

Emily Huntington was born in Brooklyn, Connecticut, October 22, 1833. She was the daughter of the Methodist pastor, Thomas Huntington. She received a liberal education and was graduated from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio in 1857.

Miller showed her literary ability in her school-days. While yet a girl, she published a number of sketches and stories, which attracted general attention. Thereafter, she was a constant and prolific contributor of sketches, short stories, serials, poems and miscellaneous articles to newspapers and magazines. She earned a reputation by her work on the Little Corporal. She gave much time and work to Sunday-school and missionary interests. She was connected with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle from its commencement, and served as president of the Chautauqua Woman's Club for four years. She was appointed Dean of Women at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, where she subsequently resided. Her published literary work included 15 volumes, some of which were republished in England, and all of which found wide circles of readers. Her poetical productions werenumerous. Over 100 of her poems were set to music, including her 1865 poem Lilly's Secret, which became the basis for the lyrics to the popular Christmas song Jolly Old Saint Nicholas. In her varied career, she was equally successful as writer, educator, temperance-worker, and journalist.

Besides her literary work, Miller prepared and gavelectures on temperance, also on missionary and educational subjects. She was prominently connected with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a Trustee ofNorthwestern University at Evanston, Illinois.

In 1860, she married John E. Miller. Of their children, three sons survived, including George A. Miller; their only daughter died in infancy. She was a grandmother to Emily Huntington Miller Witherow, and great-grandmother to Robert Huntington Witherow. Lewis Miller (philanthropist) was a relation. Mr. and Mrs. Miller moved from Evanston, Illinois, to St. Paul, Minnesota, where the husband died in 1882.