George C Miller

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

I was watching "Unwrapped" over the weekend and they had a piece on Mary Jane candies. At the end they mentioned the Charles N Miller Company of Boston as the original manufacturer. I got to thinking this sounds very close to George C Miller Company of Boston and went to Google. Well, Mary Jane's are now made by Necco and their website states:

"
Mary Jane®
In 1884, Charles H. Miller and his three sons founded a small business manufacturing and selling homemade candy. The building where they began making their candy had a notable past -- it was the Paul Revere House in Boston's Faneuil Hall/North End area. (Revere, who in 1775 made the ride from Boston to Lexington alerting the countryside that the British were coming, lived in the house with his family until 1800.)

After their father’s death, the Miller boys split the responsibilities of the family business. Charles N. Miller took charge of the manufacturing and wholesale operations while his brothers ran the retail store. In 1914, after a fairly successful business was established and the Charles N. Miller Company was one of some reputation, they began manufacturing Mary Janes. The molasses and peanut butter candy was named for their favorite aunt, Mary Jane.

The Miller Company tried several variations of the legendary Mary Jane mixture, but none could compare with the original. Over the years, Miller introduced several other candies, but none enjoyed the success of Mary Jane. Eventually, Mary Jane came to be the only candy produced by the Miller Company."


Is George C Miller a relative? It seems possible he could be a nephew/son/grandson of Charles N Miller given the candy connection. I tried following some threads but got nowhere further, although I did find out there seems to be a trade publication called "Confectioner's Journal" that started publishing in the 1880's and lasted at least until 1919 that a lot of candy companies adverstised in. Might be an interesting project to find editions of this magazine sometime.

Dave