Miller's Store

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll add nothing but the road beneath the wheels. Out on the Gonzales County landscape, there's a store with a story carved right into its bones, and I do mean carved. The Miller's Store marker takes us back to 1866, when the first store was established on this ground.

That's just after the war, when Texas was still finding its footing, and somebody named Miller decided this was the place to plant a flag and open for business. That original store was just the beginning. Come 1900 and into 1901, R.

L. Miller and Sons erected the building that still stands today. The family put it up, and the family kept it.

By the time this marker was recorded, the store had passed down to the fourth generation of that same family. Four generations. Same name, same ground, same store.

Now that alone is a story worth telling around a fire. But here's where it gets interesting. The contractor on that building went by the name Cap Smith, and Cap was not just a builder.

Cap was an artist. He carved wooden balls right into the bannister, a detail so particular, so unnecessary, so exactly the kind of thing a craftsman does when he's proud of his work, that the marker calls it out by name. Unique, it says.

And that word is doing real work. You don't call something unique in a county full of old buildings unless you mean it. Now, about those bullet holes in the awning.

The marker doesn't name names, doesn't point fingers, just says the holes testify to a rowdy early era. That's one way to put it. The building itself is the witness, and it's been keepin that testimony right out in the open for anyone with eyes to see.

Some evidence just doesn't need explaining. A store built by a family in 1900 and 1901, rooted in a tradition going back to 1866, carved with artistry, ventilated by history, and still standing in Gonzales County. The Millers built something that outlasted the rowdy era and then some.

What the marker says

Erected 1900-1901 by R. L. Miller and Sons. Now owned by 4th generation of family. First store established 1866. Unique bannister features wooden balls carved by the contractor "Cap" Smith. Bullet holes in awning testify to rowdy early era. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968.