George Douglas Miller was born in Rochester, New York to Samuel and Mary Ann Miller. Prior to enrolling at Yale University, he studied at General Russell’s Collegiate Institute and Williston Seminary. He graduated from Yale University with his undergraduate degree in 1870. While at Yale University he was a member of the Skull and Bones secret student society, to whom he later gave Deer Island, which he had inherited from his father.
After graduating, Miller worked for a short time at Linonia Library and a publishing house in New York before beginning work at the New England Car Spring Company in 1872. In 1879, he left this position to work as a general manager for the New York and Straitsville Coal and Iron Company. After leaving the company he went on to work for various coal and paper companies, including New Haven Electric Light Company, New Haven Heat Supply Company and Thompson Paper and Pulp Company.
Miller was married in 1877 to Anna de Peyster Douw. He had four children: Mary, Helen, Samuel and Margaret. Unfortunately the latter two died in infancy.
In 1911, he began construction on what would become Yale University’s Weir Hall, on land he owned. The project was continued when Yale University purchased the land from Miller in 1912.
Miller traveled extensively during his life. He was a member of the Albany Institute and an honorary member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Robert E. Seyfarth was born in Blue Island, Illinois to Clara and Edward Seyfarth. Seyfarth studied architecture at the Chicago Manual Training School and graduated in 1895. For the next three years, Seyfarth worked for August Fiedler in the Architect’s Department of the Chicago School Board. In 1898, Seyfarth took a job with architect George W. Maher.
In 1903, Seyfarth married Nellie Martin. The couple had three sons, Robert Jr., Hugh and John.
In 1909 Seyfarth opened his own practice. He moved to Highland Park, Illinois in 1911, where he built more than 70 homes. Seyfarth is mostly known for his residential architecture along the North Shore.
Seyfarth was a member of the Chicago Architectural Club.
Harry Thomas Lindeberg was an architect who designed residences throughout the United States, including on the North Shore. Lindeberg was born in Bergen Point, New Jersey. He obtained his degree in architecture from the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1901.
After graduating, Lindeberg took a job as an assistant draftsman at the firm of McKim, Mead & White in New York City. He worked there until 1906 when he decided to start a practice of his own with fellow draftsman at the firm, Lewis Colt Albro. The two worked together until 1914. At this point, Lindeberg began to practice independently.
Lindeberg was married to Lucia Hall. The couple had two children, Linda and Lytle. The pair divorced in 1925. Lindeberg went on to remarry a woman named Angeline Kretch James.
Jean Rumsey was born in Lake Forest, Illinois to Henry and Marion Rumsey. She was a genealogist and expert on her own family history. This includes writing extensively about her family, specifically her grandfather, Captain Israel Parson Rumsey.
Captain Rumsey was a Civil war veteran, a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and a noted Lake Forest resident, helping in the early development of the town. Of his five children, daughter Juliet and son Henry (Jean’s father) attended Lake Forest College and the latter would go on to be the mayor of Lake Forest from 1919-1925.
The well-known tennis player George Jennings formed the George Jennings Tennis School at Lake Forest College in the mid 1950s. Jennings not only won a number of tennis titles himself, including the United States Lawn Tennis Association National Public Park Championships multiple years in both singles and doubles, but taught tennis lessons and served as varsity head tennis coach for Lake Forest College from the late 1950s to 1966.
The George Jennings Tennis School was largely a summer school and drew students from all over Illinois, though most were from the Chicago area.
Richard Robert Donnelley founded the R.R. Donnelley & Sons Publishing Company in 1864. In 1870, the company was renamed Lakeside Printing and Publishing. After the Great Chicago Fire the company closed and opened under a new name, Lakeside Press, in 1902.
Lakeside Press produced a number of publications, including books, magazines, and mail order catalogs. Of note, the company published collectible books for the Chicago Caxton Club, as well as Lakeside Classics.
In 1903, Lakeside Classics began production, the brainchild of then company president Thomas E. Donnelley. The series was created in an effort to republish rare literary classics. The books were not sold to the general public, but instead given as gifts annually near Christmas to company employees, customers and suppliers. The classics often focused on American history.