Aaron John Miller

(December 31, 1749 – November 4, 1838) 

Claims of Aaron John Miller’s participation in the Boston Tea Party were written in local histories of Ludlow, Massachusetts, claiming that since he was a student at Harvard, he had reason to be in Boston during the tea crisis.  

Not much else is known about Aaron John Miller’s life prior to the Revolutionary War. However, during the war, he enlisted in April 1775, immediately after the Battle of Lexington, and served in Col. Danielson’s regiment for 10 months as a surgeon’s mate. In his pension, it is stated that he served until August of 1775, but then became ill, and being unable to perform his duties, was furloughed. He tried to make it back to his home, and was waylaid in Worcester briefly, unable to continue due to this illness. When his strength returned, he was able to make it to his father’s house in Ludlow, where he was bed-ridden for almost 30 days from what is described in the pension record as a “bilious malignant fever.” When his health returned, he was able to return to Roxbury, where his regiment was stationed in December of 1775 or January of 1776. He was discharged, but instead of returning home, he stayed and offered his services to the army right up until the evacuation of Boston by British troops. 

Aaron John Miller became the first physician for the town of Ludlow, Massachusetts, and in the History of the Town of Ludlow (1875), he is described as “a very tidy sort of man, distinguished for wearing the highest-priced black broadcloth he could find, and always eating molasses instead of butter on his bread, drinking clear tea, and never any water.” Further description of the man says that he was a “rapid talker, made his fever powders [as a physician] of camphor-gum and loaf-sugar, and was never known to hurt his patients with his medicines. He usually walked on his visits to his patients, always accompanied by his little yellow dog. He was intolerant of others’ opinions, and emphasized his own with frequent thrusts of his cane.” 

Aaron John Miller died on November 4, 1838, and is buried in Fuller Cemetery in Ludlow, Massachusetts.