Glendale, California Biographies

        N. Maxwell Miller, who is the owner and proprietor of Thornycroft Farm and Sanitarium, is a native daughter of California and was born and reared in San Bernardino, a daughter of Horace and Susan (Cole) Clark. Her father was a native of New York and her mother of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her father came west as a young man and became interested in mining at Daggett, California, and later became the owner of a wagon train, which hauled ore from the Daggett and Calico mines to Wilmington. He was one of the largest operators in that line of business in California until the railheads were built. He then lived retired in San Bernardino, where his death occurred in 1904. He was a Mason of high standing and was a charter member of the lodge at San Bernardino.

        The subject of this review was the youngest of a family of nine children. After graduating from the public schools of San Bernardino she attended the University of Southern California for one year and then entered the University of California at Berkeley, taking a course in English and graduating the third year. Then she passed a civil service examination and was a government employee in the post office at San Bernardino for a year. For two years she was employed in an abstract office. Her natural inclination from early girlhood was to render aid to the sick and suffering, and upon coming to Glendale she purchased a six acre tract on East Windsor Road at Adams Street and decided to put into effect a plan whereby she could help suffering humanity. The result of her ambition is that from the very beginning “Thornycroft” has been successful, in fact the name has become synonymous with the best to be had in sanitariums. An article covering the institution appears in the historical section of this volume.