The improvements, house, barn, shedding, granaries, fences, etc. are of the very best, and are put up with an eye to convenience and
comfort. An orchard of several hundred trees, many of bearing size, together with a large vineyard of grapes, currents, gooseberries, and
raspberries, besides a large patch of strawberries; a splendid grove of cottonwood and other shade trees surround the dwelling. The most
noticeable thing on this place is the absence of weeds in the garden and orchard, the cleanliness of the barnyard, and the place for
everything and everything-in-its-place; in fact, prosperity is visible in every nook and corner of this farm. Considering the size of this
farm, there is not a better managed large farm in Colorado than that of Mrs. Mary Miller.
Coal had been mined in nearby Marshall, Colorado since 1859, was rightly believed to lie in veins throughout the area, and Mrs. Miller
became interested in mining on her property. Coal was discovered on the Miller farm in 1884, and the first shaft on the farm (heralding
the beginning of the local coal industry) was sunk in 1887 by John Simpson.
The following year, Mrs. Miller platted 158 acres for the town of Lafayette, which of course she named after her late husband. By that
July, the first houses of the town had been built and a second mine, the Cannon Mine, had been opened. By the beginning of 1889, Lafayette
was a boom town with two general stores, a livery stable, and several boarding houses. And in 1890, Mrs. Miller founded the Lafayette Bank
and was elected the only female bank president in the world at that time.
