August Henry Miller and Agnes Augusta Blaney

Agnes Augusta² Blaney (James D.¹)Blaney was born in Buffalo on 1 January 1853, although no record of her baptism has been found. Aggie began working as a schoolteacher in 1870 at age 17, employed at Public School Number 3 for an annual salary of $400. When she first walked into the classroom, the pupils mistook her for a new student and the girls all wanted her to sit with them!

She married August Henry Miller on 23 June 1891 at Holy Angels Church. She was 38 and Gus was 31. Gus's business partner, William Sweitzer, and Aggie's niece, Blanche McGowan served as witnesses. Gus had recently lost his wife, Emma Lorenze after the birth of their son, Emmet George Lorenze Miller on 25 August 1890. Family legend relates that the dying Emma asked her best friend Aggie to marry her husband, presumably to provide a good mother for her newborn son.

August Henry Miller was born in Buffalo on 4 August 1860, the son of Henry Louis Miller, a Bavarian-born engineer, and Maria Anna Huck, of German Alsatian ancestry. He ws baptized at St. Louis Church. At the time of their marriage he and William Schweitzer had a tailor's shop at 194 Main Street.

The marriage was not a success. Sometime after the birth of their child in 1893, Gus fled to Chicago with another woman. The two lived there as "man and wife" for the rest of their lives. Gus died on 20 November 1943 and was buried with Carrie. A devout Catholic, Aggie never divorced him, despite the pleadings of several beaux. "Divorce him and I'll show Gus Miller how you should be treated!" said one besotted railroad engineer.

After her husband left her, Aggie was obliged to board her daughter with strangers when she took a job in Rochester as housekeeper at the State Industrial School, Western New York's reformatory for boys. In 1904 she was one of the first police matrons hired by the Rochester Police Department. She wore a badge, carried a small pearl-handled revolver, and looked after the female prisoners. A kind-hearted woman, she sometimes took pity on the some of the unfortunate girls she met at the jail and brought them home to spend the night.

After her retirement from the Police Department, she returned to Buffalo in 1932, living in the Blaney family home at 145 14th Street. She died there on 3 September 1933 of heart problems. Her body was returned to Rochester for burial in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery. In Buffalo, her casket was carried by former students; in Rochester, by members of the Police Force.

August Henry Miller and Agnes Augusta Blaney had the following child:
 

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Mary Lofland Carlisle Miller was born in Buffalo on 4 August 1893.

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