School History

William Brown Miller 

William Brown Miller was born in Madison County, Kentucky in 1807. He was the second of seven children born to John and Mary (Brown) Miller, natives of Kentucky. In 1834, he began a dry goods business in New Market, Alabama. After that business venture failed, Miller moved to Tennessee where he cultivated a farming business that thrived for 10 years. In 1847, he and his family moved to Dallas County and purchased numerous acres of land located on the Van Cleave Survey. The land was located on present-day Bonnie View Road near Kiest. Upon this land, Miller and a group of his slaves built the Millermore Manor, which is now the only remaining antebellum house still in existence in Dallas. It is presently the showcase building at Old City Park near Downtown Dallas. It should be noted that Slavery was a common practice that represented a dark period in American History but was only a small portion of William Brown Miller’s story.  

William Brown Miller is also credited with owning and operating a successful ferry company on the Trinity River called Miller's Ferry. As an early pioneer, the Oak Cliff area, and the city of Dallas as a whole, experienced exponential growth, thanks in large part to the ingenuity and philanthropic efforts of William Brown Miller. Before his death in 1899, William Brown Miller, owned, developed, and ultimately donated large portions of his 7500 acres of land in what is now the Millermore Neighborhood in Oak Cliff. In fact, in 1955, William Brown Miller Elementary School was built on the land that Mr. Miller donated.

Millermore Mansion