Harvey Monroe Miller (Solly Hulsbuck), was born September 27, 1871, in Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania; he died in 1939. A noted poet and prose writer in Pennsylvania German, he worked for the Lykens Valley Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the oldest insurance company in central Pennsylvania, and also promoted trade and business in Elizabethville. Many of these industries provided employment for the families of Civil War veterans, and although none in his immediate family had served in the war, his writings often honored the former soldiers.
His prose and poetry, written in the Pennsylvania German dialect (“Pennsylfawnish Deitch”), first appeared in The Elizabethville Echo (which at the time was published by his brother, Milton) under the pseudonym Solly Hulsbuck; later he contributed to many other papers across the state.
Miller received letters from many writers of his time, including James Whitcomb Riley, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Eugene Field, and William Jennings Bryan.
Additional information: Boyer, Walter E. “Solly Hulsbuck, the People’s Poet.” The Pennsylvania Dutchman, vol. 4, no. 5, Sept. 1952.