J. Ralston Miller

He joined the Prohibition Party in 1940 as a protest against FDR seeking a third term.

Miller was Chairman of the Indiana state committee in 1962 and 1963. Miller was 54 in 1960.  He lived in Hammond.  He joined the Prohibition Party in 1940, as a protest against FDR seeking a third term.   

Hammond, Indiana boasts one hard-working Prohibitionist who, in the election just ended, ran for the office to which his uncle was elected in 1860 – lieutenant governor.  J. Ralston Miller’s uncle, Abraham Hammond, then became the 12th governor of the state of Indiana, when the office was vacated by death.  Not certain which ticket his uncle was on, Ralston Miller says, “I’m sure he must have been a Prohibitionist.”  Mr. Miller’s first name is John, but he says that his mother refused to call him John because there were too many John Millers who were saloon keepers.
     Mr. Miller has been a control-room engineer and supervisor for the National broadcasting Company in Chicago for almost 25 years.  A long-time radio fan, Ralston says that old timers of Hammond remember the radio towers at 5722 Calumet which his father, Dr. J.A. Miller, erected for him when he was a budding radio careerist.  When George Palmer Putnam, husband of Amelia Earhart, floundered with his schooner off the coast of Greenland on the Field Museum expedition, Miller was the only one who was able to keep in contact with him by air.  Now a long ivory tusk hangs in Mr. Miller’s living room, given him by Mr. Putnam in appreciation.
     Mr. Miller was the Prohibition Party candidate for Congress in 1944 and 1949 and for Secretary of State in 1950.  He has been a Presbyterian Church elder since 1937 and a member of Gideons since 1939.  Mrs. Miller, who is a Latin teacher, maintains a keen interest in young people.  Their daughter, Mrs. Robert M. Henry, is wife of the clarinetist in the Great Lakes Navy Band. She was valedictorian of her Hammond, Indiana high school class.  Their son, Charles, is president of his high school Bible class and a leader in Youth for Christ activities.
     Mr. Miller, in the recent election, secured the services of 95 high school students – future Prohibitionists – as watchers at the polls.

-- unsigned article, December 1952 National Prohibitionist.

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