He hired four members of the Klickitat First Nation as crew and poled and rowed the boat up the Yamhill River to Dayton and Lafayette.

Returning from there in December, 1861, Miller bought the Unio from Captain Apperson, and, not caring what his Southern-inclined customers might think, quickly added the final "n" to her name.

[1] Except for a short time in 1862, when he was on the Mountain Buck and Julia Barclay,[5] Miller ran Union on the Willamette River until 1866 when the vessel was acquired by the People's Transportation Company.

Cooke Miller was a passenger on Senator when she was blown up in 1875 near the Alder Street dock in Portland, Oregon.

Miller then took command of the City of Salem, and ran her until 1881 for William Reid, carrying railroad material to Ray's Landing and Dayton, Oregon.

From there Miller went to Sand Point, Idaho and ran the Henry Villard on Lake Pend Oreille.

In 1886, he retired to a farm, returning to the river again in 1889, again running the City of Salem, this time between Fulquartz and Ray's landings until 1890.

[2] Miller then went to Huntington, Oregon and superintended the building of the Norma, making the first trip with her into the Seven Devils' Country.

He remained there until August 1894, when he went to Puget Sound, purchased the steamer Halys, and had her shipped inland to be placed on the lower Kootenai River, running out of Bonner's Ferry, Idaho.

Completion of the British Columbia Southern Railway in October 1898 had the effect of idling the three major steamboats on the upper Kootenay River, all of which Miller had commanded at various times: J.D.

Miller had the idea of moving Gwendoline by rail to the Lardeau River and Kootenay Lake which appeared to be a route where she could generate revenue.

The rail line tracked along the canyon face, and at one point there appeared to be not enough room for the steamer to squeeze past.

The rail crew shifted the steamer over away from the cliff face and a bit closer to the canyon rim.

Unfortunately the steamer was shifted too far, and tipped over off the flat cars and tumbled down into the canyon, landing bottom up, a total loss.

[2] Over the course of his career, Miller commanded 36 steamboats, on the Tualatin, Willamette, Columbia and Kootenay rivers, among which were the vessels already named as well as Elwood, Multnomah, Undine, and Chelan.