“When you go driving, whether on business or pleasure bent, you should have the best rig obtainable. That’s ours,” reads an ad for Jerry Miller’s livery stable. “Nothing sent out but what is first class. I have recently moved to the W.N. Adams barn on East Baker Street, a more central and convenient location where I will be pleased to serve you. Jerry Miller,” the ad goes on to say. Published in 1908 in the Daily Bulletin, the livery stable, run by said Jerry Miller, was active for at least 3 years in Brownwood.
Jerry’s stable was basically the taxi service before there was one. I figure back then just about everyone who came into town had to stop by Jerry’s, or another similar establishment, in order to feed and water the horses. If you didn’t have a horse, you’re still likely to end a journey with Jerry because your stagecoach driver had to care for the horses as well. Miller’s establishment must have been a social hub of sorts, with all the coming and going and no doubt gossip that accompanied the trade. He seems to have had at least three locations, the East Baker, one on Center Avenue and one at North Broadway, whether consecutively or not it’s hard to tell.
Jerry appears to have been a no nonsense type of man. Perhaps he was hardened by a constant flow of argumentative customers through his stable, or it might have been just his personality. In several ads running around the same time period as the 1908 ad, and in the same publication, he sets his customers straight about what he will and won’t do. “We have nothing but single drivers in our barn, but they are the best there are in town without any exception,” one ad reads. “When you want the best our barn is the place to visit. We give fair warning however that there will no buggy and horse go from this stable without the cash is first in hands. This applies to all alike. Don’t ask for credit,” Miller warns. In another installment of Miller’s struggles with an unruly public, disguised as advertisements, he warns, “Slight Advance. There has been a sharp advance in the price of all feed stuff, wages have advanced and all other expenses increased until I have been forced to raise the price of board for horses at my stable to $18 per month. I can’t afford to send out poor horses and I can’t keep them in good condition at $15 so there you are. However, I’ll do my best to make it worth the added cost.”
We don’t know why Jerry quit, but he sold out his business a few months after running the ad explaining the new charges. It feels like he was trying to preempt arguing with customers over horse boarding prices in the last ad. He seemed pretty fed up, but maybe he simply moved on to another location or perhaps retired happily to farm a plot outside of town. I have a mental image of him as a tall, wiry man because his attitude reminds me of a world-weary cab driver I once encountered in my 20s. That man had a sharp chin, was not particularly clean, and chain-smoked cigarettes while you took your ride. He seemed to take a dim view of humanity, and didn’t have much to say. Of course, Jerry might have been completely different, that’s just the mental picture I got while reading his ads. Nevertheless, his business must have flourished at one time, judging from the photo that shows a lively scene in front of Miller’s. Many comings and goings must have taken place, and no doubt many stories were told out in front of that stable.
I could not find any biographical information on Miller. Other than his ads and a short notice about how the sidewalk out in front of his house .on Mewood Ave was made of tarpaper, the name doesn’t turn up with certainty anywhere I checked. Miller sold his livery to a competitor in June 1907. A notice posted again in the Daily Bulletin tells us about the change in ownership for the livery. “The Jerry Miller stable has been sold to Chas. Bolt and Sullivan Bros. who will continue to take boarders and have rigs for hire, giving at all times the best service and attention.”
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com
