It was a normal day at the Ellsworth County Clerk’s office late last summer when a letter arrived from Colorado asking for help. The body of the letter read:
“My son will be 40 in November. His middle name is Ellsworth, after my father. He has not been very “flattered” with the name. So, as he approaches this milestone, I would like to show him how popular this name is throughout the country. Would you be able to send us any tourist or historical information relating to the city and county of Ellsworth?”
It was signed by Carol Miller of Littleton, Colo.
“Each year, we receive requests for information about our county, often from students in other states working on historical projects. This particular request stood out,” Ellsworth County Deputy Clerk Julie Miles said. “His mother explained he was named after an important member of her family and she wanted to share with him Ellsworths from all over.
“We felt it deserved more than our standard response. It naturally grew into a group project that we all genuinely enjoyed, involving other departments of the county, and even the city fire department.
“We assembled a package that included a copy of the local newspaper, a fire department hat, an EMS patch, historical information and photos and a variety of Ellsworth-themed items, such as pens, pencils, magnets and beef sticks. The treasurer’s office even designed a card that everyone signed.
“Receiving photos of the recipients with the items, along with their thank-you message, made the experience even more rewarding and even more personal.
“They went to the museum and we hit up some areas of the county and found some stuff. We had a good time with it. Just the whole idea of his mom trying to make his 40th birthday special and showing him the significance of his name, and she went through the time to find the places linked to Ellsworth. We just thought it was neat.”
Carol, the mom behind the request, said she’d been planning the birthday surprise for some time.
“My son is Robert (Bob) Ellsworth Miller. It was my father’s name. He is named after both his grandfathers — Robert on my husband’s side and Ellsworth on my side,” she said. “I do not know how the name got into the family. No one in his line that we traced has that particular name, although there are a handful of his surnames in the area, but no Ellsworth name at all, so I’m not sure where it came from.”
When he was younger, Bob didn’t really appreciate the unique middle name.
“He never really got into it very much until later in life. He finally started appreciating the non-vanilla part of his name because, you know, you look up a Robert Miller and there are only 4,000 of them at a glance,” she laughed. “It is unique.”
So Carol planned her quest to make his 40th birthday special.
“It started way, way, way back,” she said. “In Denver, you know how most cities are a grid system north, and south is separated by Ellsworth Avenue, and I kept telling him that one of these days I’m going to steal a sign from you or have the city make an Ellsworth Avenue sign for you for your 40th birthday. Of course, that never came to fruition. 
“Then, on business, I was passing through a little town called Ellsworth, Neb., which isn’t much more than a gift shop on the corner of County Road X and 4, or whatever it is, not sure of the coordinates. It’s a little tiny spot on the map. I wouldn’t even really call it a town, but it made me think, ‘I wonder how many other Ellsworths are out there.’
“I did a little Google searching and found that there are quite a handful of roughly 35-ish places. Antarctica is full of the Ellsworth Mountains and Ellsworth Station and Lake Ellsworth, but I didn’t think I’d get a response, so Antarctica was out.
“There are roughly 30 places in the United States with the name of Ellsworth, so I just decided ‘why not?’ I either sent a letter to whom I thought would be people in charge or people who would know, like librarians, county officials, or someone who might know something, so if I couldn’t find an address, I would send an email to the county representatives.”
She was pleased by the response.
“I sent out about 21 different correspondences and received back 12. I was kind of surprised,” she said. “It was a simple request: anything about the naming of your community. And some were very short and sweet, like it was named after a whistle stop on the train or this was supposed to be a train station. Some are thriving communities. Some are like Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. In Washington State, there is a land conservatorship area. They sent a lot of different information about their land conservancy. I had a fairly decent response, and I put all the letters and cards and whatnot in a folder for my son and presented it to him.”
For his birthday, they met at a Denver landmark, Casa Bonita, where she presented him with the folder and the box from Ellsworth, Kan.
“I gave him the folder first, and then the box from Kansas came. It was so fun. He was just awestruck. He just was,” she said. “First of all, he put the hat on his head. He just kept pulling things out from the box and the card that was signed by everyone was so special. That was just over the top. Ellsworth really has some amazing individuals there that we appreciate so much, and just for them to take that time out of their busy schedules. They all took time to say, ‘This is kind of cool,’ so we appreciate it so very much.”
And Carol was just as surprised as Bob, because she did not open the box before she presented it to him at Casa Bonita.
“I had not opened the box before I presented it. I had wrapped it in some birthday paper and said ‘This is not from me, this is from Kansas,’ and he gave me a look like, ‘What?’,” she said. “I said you have to open it because I have no idea what is in it. It was fun. It was the capper of the evening. We had a really good time with it, and ya’ll contributed so much to a really special day. It was just above and beyond. It wasn’t just a card. We were tickled, just tickled. We had so much fun.”
And how did her son, Robert Ellsworth Miller, react?
“It was very unexpected, I will say that,” he said. “I had my 40th birthday coming up, and it turns out my mom had been planning this unique little adventure — contacting various municipalities, counties and cities that go by the name Ellsworth and compiling them for me. It was really just a wonderful surprise. And specifically, from the folks in your lovely Ellsworth, Kan., there. They were very, very kind. It was a treasure chest for all of us that we got to open in the Casa Bonita parking lot.”
Bob said he was surprised, but his mom is known for being creative.
“She is definitely known for her quirky, fun things,” he said. “This one does make sense. She worked for the Census Bureau, so she has a lot of exposure to small-town America and a real fascination with the culture and the unique identities to be found around the country.
“I was in geography clubs in middle school and high school and competed in those geography bees between road trips. This gift of getting to know the unique cultures across this country with what Kansas sent me really scratched all my itches, so to speak. It was so edifying. So interesting. There was history in there. So much unique town identity, it was so fascinating.”
Bob, who works in human resources at the Community College of Denver, said his mom saved all of the correspondence from all of the communities for him.
“It really did highlight how incredible the folks in Ellsworth, Kan., were for just putting that together,” he said. “It’s a huge spectrum of collectibles and cool things that demonstrate what a strong community you guys have out there. It seems like a really special place. It was really fun to hear about the history of it being the most wicked town in the West.
“It was a birthday to remember. I’ll have a lot of keepsakes for a long time. You guys have all of my thanks and appreciation.”