E. B. Miller

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Elizabeth Brown Archer was born on 28 May 1846 in Dundee, Scotland – the first child of William Brown Archer and Janet Donald. Shortly after her birth the family emigrated to Australia where at least three more children were born in Australia before the family came to New Zealand in the 1870s. William Archer and his wife ran an accommodation house and store at Boatmans, near Reefton on the West Coast.

Elizabeth married James Miller in 1868, they had four children. Elizabeth was a member of the Dunedin Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1885 when Leavitt House, previously the Star and Garter Hotel, was established to provide educational work for the poorer classes. Mrs Miller was superintendent of the girls and organised the publishing  of the Economic Cookery Book which contained all the lessons in cooking delivered at the classes. The book had reached it’s 2^nd edition by 1887.

In 1889 – 1890 the New Zealand & South Seas Exhibition was held in Dunedin. The exhibition featured a cooking class from Leavitt House in the charge of Mrs Miller. This was at the back of one of Mr Shacklock’s exhibits and he had placed one of his stoves at the disposal of the class.

In 1891 Elizabeth gave cooking classes for the Technical Classes Association, later named the Technical School.

By 1895 the classes at Leavitt House had ceased and Elizabeth Miller worked as superintendent of the YWCA giving cooking lessons during the afternoon and evenings.

In 1896 Elizabeth gave a series of lesson at the Lawrence District High School, assisted by Mr Shacklock who had 'kindly sent along one of his Orion ranges free of cost.'

Elizabeth also taught 'Cooking & Domestic Economy' at the Girls High School in Dunedin on Friday afternoons while continuing to teach cooking and laundry lessons at the YWCA.

In November of 1896 when Elizabeth was 50 her 72 year old husband James died suddenly. Elizabeth carried on teaching around the country including the Gore Temperance Hall and Naseby.

Elizabeth’s oldest daughter Isabella died in 1899, aged 29, at her mother’s residence 'Bonnie Bank', London St.

Elizabeth continued to teach at the Technical School in Dunedin, her son Andrew was admitted the bar as a barrister and solicitor in 1902, the same year Elizabeth and her youngest daughter Janet Archer Miller, who had trained as a teacher,  published The New Zealand School Cookery Book.

In 1910 Andrew died while on a visit to Auckland, the same year Elizabeth’s daughter Janet married and Elizabeth moved to Auckland with Janet and her husband.

Janet died in 1914, leaving a young daughter and in 1917 an article appeared in the Evening Star in Dunedin appealing for help for Elizabeth 'who is now enfeebled, and just kept from acute distress by the statutory pittance from the Old Age Pension department.' Her circumstances 'were the subject of a petition to Parliament last year for a compassionate allowance, but no grant was made'.

Another appeal was made in 1925 and Elizabeth moved to Dunedin where she ended her days in Ross Home where she died on 2 December 1928. She is buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.

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