Eliphalet Steele Miner (March 20, 1818 – February 9, 1890) was an American merchant, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer.
[3] Just a few months after their arrival, before their home had been finished, the family was stricken with Dysentery, which killed Miner's father and infant sister.
[4] Eliphalet and his siblings were also sick at the time, and his mother brought the children back to New York, where they remained until 1834.
[5] In 1847, Governor Henry Dodge appointed him public administrator for Portage County, and the Territorial Assembly authorized him and an associate to build dams along the Wisconsin River in the vicinity of Grand Rapids to improve the navigability, and to collect tolls from cargo rafts floating through their improvements.
[5] During the 1860s, Miner was associated with the National Union Party—the branding of the Republican Party during the American Civil War.
[10] During the 1871 session, he was one of a number of legislators appointed to a special committee to investigate the state penal and charitable institutions.
Miner was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor that year, but received only minor support at the Republican state convention, with most of the delegates split between the eventual winner, Civil War general Cadwallader C. Washburn, and William E. Smith, the former State Treasurer.