MRS. J. MILLER WOULD HAVE MEMORIAL
Wife of Poet Gives Reasons for Wishing Oakland to Have Big Park.
"The Heights," Replete With Interest, Offered as Worthy Memento.
In the following letter, teeming with interesting facts about the personal life of the late Poet of the Sierras, Mrs. Joaquin Miller sets forth her reasons why she believes "The Hights" should be purchased by Oakland as a memorial park:
EDITOR TRIBUNE: I am grateful for your kindly and publicly expressed appreciation of the "Hights" and that you value the place through its association. In 1885 Emerson, Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes urged Mr. Miller to make his home near them and tried to interest him in property in Boston - financially considered most desirable but Mr. Miller was loyal to California and had a view for these hills indelibly impressed upon his mind. In all his travels he had seen nothing to equal it.
He saw it first in 1854 - a boy of 13 or 14 years - when he with Mountain Joe, one of Fremont's former men, drove a band of half-wild horses from Southern to Northern California, Mr. Miller riding a bell mule, in the lead, his duty to look out for water and grass to pitch camp. Again in 1863, just after Bierstadt had painted the Golden Gate from here, a commission from General Fremont, Mr. Miller again camped here for a week and his party and some sheep herders killed a California lion and two black bears and some smaller game. There was then a little steam saw mill and pines and redwoods were being cut down. In 1886 Mr. Miller returned and bought 70 acres. [Then, later - MF] The hills had been denuded of trees - sheep had been in possession and fire after fire had swept the country - but the view appealed with its old thrill to the heart and eye of the poet, and in the picturesque canyon here the redwoods were more statelier than ever and the rushing waters of the Palo Seco creek were music to his ear. He planted cypress trees in the shape of a cross on the highest ridge which is discernible, they tell me, in San Francisco on a clear day. When asked why the idea of the trees planted in a cross? He said: "To teach us all to look up to the cross and to never fret under the cross we bear-nor to forget Him.
PLANTED MANY FLOWERS.
He planted grass, roses and geraniums; dug out the stones and made walls and erected a pyramid to Moses the lawgiver, one to Browning, his friend and poet of the soul, and monument to Fremont who named the Golden Gate from here, and his own tomb where he wished to be cremated and his ashes to be scattered on the Hights. When asked why he desired to be cremated, he said:
"I, on a journey, choose to take the shortest road and it is the swiftest, cheapest and healthiest way. To go up in clouds and smoke, to blow away and become a part of the elements - the wind and the rain and the sun-white clouds - that, is best."
Mr. Miller lived at the Hights 27 years and made it a home for his mother. The altitude is, 1200 to 1400 feet and having heart trouble I could never remain but a few months at a time, so every two or three years he would join us in the east for a few months and he made many journeys to all parts of the world.
SUGGEST MEMORIAL PARK.
I would like Oakland to buy the Hights as a memorial park and that Mr. Miller's cottage and personal belongings and his tomb and the monuments he erected be preserved intact. Longfellow's home in Maine is kept open for the public. Whittier's place in Amesbury, Mass., has been bought by the Home Association Club and on his birthday memorial services are held there. The Olcott home in Concord, Mass., has been purchased. Henry Ward Beecher's home bought and given to Brooklyn. Chicago the Eugene Field memorial fund is accepting public subscriptions and a committee is in charge for raising funds. England showed her love for Dickens, and sold stamps to raise a fund for his grandchildren. Poe's home has been preserved. In 1915 tourists will want to see Joaquin Miller's home. They now come up here daily. Mr. Miller 43 years ago called Europe's attention and admiration to the western coast in his Songs of the Sierras and in his play of the Danites, successfully produced in London, and all of the eastern cities. One of the principal characters, "The Judge" interpolated so strikingly and frequently the phrase "the golden climate of California" that the press took it up and it became an accepted fact and household word. Shakespeare's home in Stratford - by special contribution was made the property of the nation and was restored as nearly as possible to its original condition and has been filled with Shakespeare mementoes of every kind and a fund set apart for keeping it in repair and open to the inspection of visitors. The Lake District in England is associated with the poets, Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge and admirers visit Scott, Burns and Byron home, etc.
75,000 TREES SET OUT.
Mr. Miller's living the simple life here and his example of prodigious labor in planting nearly 75,000 trees should be heeded by future generations, apart from his prose and poetical works. To make great men they must first enjoy health and vigor from climbing these hills on the outskirts of the town and must be permeated with great examples and noble ideas the mental and moral atmosphere for the mind as necessary as pure air to the body.
It has been said that "the Miller place was held at too high a price." Since Mr. Miller passed beyond - last spring - no one has approached me in the matter of buying it. It has not been placed in the real estate market and no price asked for it or valuation computed for its sale. I saw, in the Oakland Tribune, what the Park Commissioners said property was worth two miles beyond us. We would not demand as much as that is held for. I regret we were placed in such a wrong light as asking an excessive price. Thanking you again for the fair view you took of the situation, although you did not know of the injustice done us, yours very sincerely,
(Mrs. Joaquin Miller.)
The Hights, Nov. 7, 1913
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