Bio for this early pioneer of Porter Co. From the History of Porter Co
ELIAS MERRIMAN. With the happy reflections consequent upon a well-spent life, Elias Merriman, of Porter county, Indiana, has in his sunset years opportunity to review the great changes which have come upon that neighborhood since he became a citizen therein, almost three-quarters of a century ago. Indiana, whose fair and smiling fields now invite the efforts of the husbandmen, with every promise of a bounteous reward, was then a rugged and unconquered region much of it a veritable wilderness where residence was accompanied with hazard and which bowed to the slow advance of civilization only after the stubborn resistance that the forces of Nature put forth.
In those days forests clothed the hills and a jungle of undergrowth the lowlands. The "hoop-pole country" was not a joking allusion but an actuality and the hardy pioneer had to put forth superhuman efforts not only to make but to maintain every step that was taken forward. The railroad was unheard of and the telephone undreamed of. The luxury of the mail service was almost as unknown as the luxury of the automobile, still half a century from its inception. Strong hands and courageous hearts won the wilderness and brought to submissiveness and usefulness the broad acres of the great commonwealth.
The hurrying host of the present day give only occasional heed to the past, for they knew it not intimately, but to Elias Merriman it is an open book, and his mind contains a wonderful history of Porter county, dating back to the earlier days. His reminiscences are most interesting and his friends never tire of the stories that he relates for their delectation.
Holmes county, Ohio, was the birthplace of Mr. Merriman, and January 30, 1835, his natal day. He was the second in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to David and Mary Ann (Axe) Merriman.
Elias Merriman was about five years of age when he became a resident of Porter county, his original home being about sixteen feet square and constructed entirely of logs. Of equally primitive construction was the school house, which had the desks ranged around the walls. The benches were wooden slabs with pegs driven into them on a slant for legs. They had no backs and were uncomfortable to a degree. The school was maintained entirely by subscription. It was nothing uncommon to see a herd of deer flit past -- Mr. Merriman has seen as many as thirty in a single drove. There was also a great abundance of prairie chicken and the water fowl included huge flocks of wild ducks, brant and geese. His father cut the ripened grain with a sickle and Elias threshed it out on the barn floor with sturdy blows of his flail. There was not a railroad in the county and the produce was all hauled in wagons to Michigan City. Mr. Merriman remembers hauling pork to Michigan City and receiving $1.75 per 100 pounds. He remained with his parents until twenty-one, when he took up land for himself, and in that time broke up many acres of raw prairie with oxen, and also plowed with one ox, using a single-shovel plow to cultivate the corn. He, like other boys of the time, received only a rudimentary education in the crude schools of the time.
On March 20, 1856, he was married to Miss Eliza Dye, and their union was blessed with three children, a son and two daughters. America F. is a resident of Valparaiso, and is a practical farmer. He was educated in the Valparaiso high school and the Normal College, and successfully followed teaching in Porter county for a number of years. He married Miss May M. Quinn and has two living children, Hale and Hazel. Mr. Merriman is Republican in politics and his religious affiliation is with the Christian church. His farm is a fine sweep of 200 fertile acres. Arabella, the second child, is the wife of Delos Cornell, a resident of Valparaiso, who is a mechanic. Wilhelmina is at home with her father. She is the wife of Carroll Jewell, a salesman in Valparaiso, Indiana. Both of the girls were educated in the country and city schools and they and their husbands also are members of the Christian church.
DL McLain 47237064
ELIAS MERRIMAN. With the happy reflections consequent upon a well-spent life, Elias Merriman, of Porter county, Indiana, has in his sunset years opportunity to review the great changes which have come upon that neighborhood since he became a citizen therein, almost three-quarters of a century ago. Indiana, whose fair and smiling fields now invite the efforts of the husbandmen, with every promise of a bounteous reward, was then a rugged and unconquered region much of it a veritable wilderness where residence was accompanied with hazard and which bowed to the slow advance of civilization only after the stubborn resistance that the forces of Nature put forth.
In those days forests clothed the hills and a jungle of undergrowth the lowlands. The "hoop-pole country" was not a joking allusion but an actuality and the hardy pioneer had to put forth superhuman efforts not only to make but to maintain every step that was taken forward. The railroad was unheard of and the telephone undreamed of. The luxury of the mail service was almost as unknown as the luxury of the automobile, still half a century from its inception. Strong hands and courageous hearts won the wilderness and brought to submissiveness and usefulness the broad acres of the great commonwealth.
The hurrying host of the present day give only occasional heed to the past, for they knew it not intimately, but to Elias Merriman it is an open book, and his mind contains a wonderful history of Porter county, dating back to the earlier days. His reminiscences are most interesting and his friends never tire of the stories that he relates for their delectation.
Holmes county, Ohio, was the birthplace of Mr. Merriman, and January 30, 1835, his natal day. He was the second in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to David and Mary Ann (Axe) Merriman.
Elias Merriman was about five years of age when he became a resident of Porter county, his original home being about sixteen feet square and constructed entirely of logs. Of equally primitive construction was the school house, which had the desks ranged around the walls. The benches were wooden slabs with pegs driven into them on a slant for legs. They had no backs and were uncomfortable to a degree. The school was maintained entirely by subscription. It was nothing uncommon to see a herd of deer flit past -- Mr. Merriman has seen as many as thirty in a single drove. There was also a great abundance of prairie chicken and the water fowl included huge flocks of wild ducks, brant and geese. His father cut the ripened grain with a sickle and Elias threshed it out on the barn floor with sturdy blows of his flail. There was not a railroad in the county and the produce was all hauled in wagons to Michigan City. Mr. Merriman remembers hauling pork to Michigan City and receiving $1.75 per 100 pounds. He remained with his parents until twenty-one, when he took up land for himself, and in that time broke up many acres of raw prairie with oxen, and also plowed with one ox, using a single-shovel plow to cultivate the corn. He, like other boys of the time, received only a rudimentary education in the crude schools of the time.
On March 20, 1856, he was married to Miss Eliza Dye, and their union was blessed with three children, a son and two daughters. America F. is a resident of Valparaiso, and is a practical farmer. He was educated in the Valparaiso high school and the Normal College, and successfully followed teaching in Porter county for a number of years. He married Miss May M. Quinn and has two living children, Hale and Hazel. Mr. Merriman is Republican in politics and his religious affiliation is with the Christian church. His farm is a fine sweep of 200 fertile acres. Arabella, the second child, is the wife of Delos Cornell, a resident of Valparaiso, who is a mechanic. Wilhelmina is at home with her father. She is the wife of Carroll Jewell, a salesman in Valparaiso, Indiana. Both of the girls were educated in the country and city schools and they and their husbands also are members of the Christian church.
DL McLain 47237064
Bio for this early pioneer of Porter Co. From the History of Porter Co
ELIAS MERRIMAN. With the happy reflections consequent upon a well-spent life, Elias Merriman, of Porter county, Indiana, has in his sunset years opportunity to review the great changes which have come upon that neighborhood since he became a citizen therein, almost three-quarters of a century ago. Indiana, whose fair and smiling fields now invite the efforts of the husbandmen, with every promise of a bounteous reward, was then a rugged and unconquered region much of it a veritable wilderness where residence was accompanied with hazard and which bowed to the slow advance of civilization only after the stubborn resistance that the forces of Nature put forth.
In those days forests clothed the hills and a jungle of undergrowth the lowlands. The "hoop-pole country" was not a joking allusion but an actuality and the hardy pioneer had to put forth superhuman efforts not only to make but to maintain every step that was taken forward. The railroad was unheard of and the telephone undreamed of. The luxury of the mail service was almost as unknown as the luxury of the automobile, still half a century from its inception. Strong hands and courageous hearts won the wilderness and brought to submissiveness and usefulness the broad acres of the great commonwealth.
The hurrying host of the present day give only occasional heed to the past, for they knew it not intimately, but to Elias Merriman it is an open book, and his mind contains a wonderful history of Porter county, dating back to the earlier days. His reminiscences are most interesting and his friends never tire of the stories that he relates for their delectation.
Holmes county, Ohio, was the birthplace of Mr. Merriman, and January 30, 1835, his natal day. He was the second in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to David and Mary Ann (Axe) Merriman.
Elias Merriman was about five years of age when he became a resident of Porter county, his original home being about sixteen feet square and constructed entirely of logs. Of equally primitive construction was the school house, which had the desks ranged around the walls. The benches were wooden slabs with pegs driven into them on a slant for legs. They had no backs and were uncomfortable to a degree. The school was maintained entirely by subscription. It was nothing uncommon to see a herd of deer flit past -- Mr. Merriman has seen as many as thirty in a single drove. There was also a great abundance of prairie chicken and the water fowl included huge flocks of wild ducks, brant and geese. His father cut the ripened grain with a sickle and Elias threshed it out on the barn floor with sturdy blows of his flail. There was not a railroad in the county and the produce was all hauled in wagons to Michigan City. Mr. Merriman remembers hauling pork to Michigan City and receiving $1.75 per 100 pounds. He remained with his parents until twenty-one, when he took up land for himself, and in that time broke up many acres of raw prairie with oxen, and also plowed with one ox, using a single-shovel plow to cultivate the corn. He, like other boys of the time, received only a rudimentary education in the crude schools of the time.
On March 20, 1856, he was married to Miss Eliza Dye, and their union was blessed with three children, a son and two daughters. America F. is a resident of Valparaiso, and is a practical farmer. He was educated in the Valparaiso high school and the Normal College, and successfully followed teaching in Porter county for a number of years. He married Miss May M. Quinn and has two living children, Hale and Hazel. Mr. Merriman is Republican in politics and his religious affiliation is with the Christian church. His farm is a fine sweep of 200 fertile acres. Arabella, the second child, is the wife of Delos Cornell, a resident of Valparaiso, who is a mechanic. Wilhelmina is at home with her father. She is the wife of Carroll Jewell, a salesman in Valparaiso, Indiana. Both of the girls were educated in the country and city schools and they and their husbands also are members of the Christian church.
DL McLain 47237064
ELIAS MERRIMAN. With the happy reflections consequent upon a well-spent life, Elias Merriman, of Porter county, Indiana, has in his sunset years opportunity to review the great changes which have come upon that neighborhood since he became a citizen therein, almost three-quarters of a century ago. Indiana, whose fair and smiling fields now invite the efforts of the husbandmen, with every promise of a bounteous reward, was then a rugged and unconquered region much of it a veritable wilderness where residence was accompanied with hazard and which bowed to the slow advance of civilization only after the stubborn resistance that the forces of Nature put forth.
In those days forests clothed the hills and a jungle of undergrowth the lowlands. The "hoop-pole country" was not a joking allusion but an actuality and the hardy pioneer had to put forth superhuman efforts not only to make but to maintain every step that was taken forward. The railroad was unheard of and the telephone undreamed of. The luxury of the mail service was almost as unknown as the luxury of the automobile, still half a century from its inception. Strong hands and courageous hearts won the wilderness and brought to submissiveness and usefulness the broad acres of the great commonwealth.
The hurrying host of the present day give only occasional heed to the past, for they knew it not intimately, but to Elias Merriman it is an open book, and his mind contains a wonderful history of Porter county, dating back to the earlier days. His reminiscences are most interesting and his friends never tire of the stories that he relates for their delectation.
Holmes county, Ohio, was the birthplace of Mr. Merriman, and January 30, 1835, his natal day. He was the second in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to David and Mary Ann (Axe) Merriman.
Elias Merriman was about five years of age when he became a resident of Porter county, his original home being about sixteen feet square and constructed entirely of logs. Of equally primitive construction was the school house, which had the desks ranged around the walls. The benches were wooden slabs with pegs driven into them on a slant for legs. They had no backs and were uncomfortable to a degree. The school was maintained entirely by subscription. It was nothing uncommon to see a herd of deer flit past -- Mr. Merriman has seen as many as thirty in a single drove. There was also a great abundance of prairie chicken and the water fowl included huge flocks of wild ducks, brant and geese. His father cut the ripened grain with a sickle and Elias threshed it out on the barn floor with sturdy blows of his flail. There was not a railroad in the county and the produce was all hauled in wagons to Michigan City. Mr. Merriman remembers hauling pork to Michigan City and receiving $1.75 per 100 pounds. He remained with his parents until twenty-one, when he took up land for himself, and in that time broke up many acres of raw prairie with oxen, and also plowed with one ox, using a single-shovel plow to cultivate the corn. He, like other boys of the time, received only a rudimentary education in the crude schools of the time.
On March 20, 1856, he was married to Miss Eliza Dye, and their union was blessed with three children, a son and two daughters. America F. is a resident of Valparaiso, and is a practical farmer. He was educated in the Valparaiso high school and the Normal College, and successfully followed teaching in Porter county for a number of years. He married Miss May M. Quinn and has two living children, Hale and Hazel. Mr. Merriman is Republican in politics and his religious affiliation is with the Christian church. His farm is a fine sweep of 200 fertile acres. Arabella, the second child, is the wife of Delos Cornell, a resident of Valparaiso, who is a mechanic. Wilhelmina is at home with her father. She is the wife of Carroll Jewell, a salesman in Valparaiso, Indiana. Both of the girls were educated in the country and city schools and they and their husbands also are members of the Christian church.
DL McLain 47237064
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