Husband Charles C. Merritt 1 2
Born: 3 Apr 1837 - Hanover Twp, Chautauqua Co, NY 3
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Thomas Merritt (1790-1874) 1
Mother: Elizabeth Jewett ( -1847) 3
Marriage: 17 Jul 1856 4 5
Wife Esther L. Hunter 2 6
Born: 14 Feb 1838 2
Christened:
Died: 30 May 1888 5
Buried:
Father: Robert Hunter (1800-1845) 7 8
Mother: Lovisa Manross ( -1872) 9
Children
1 F Loretta M. N. Merritt 5
Born: 31 Mar 1858 5
Christened:
Died: 17 Apr 1862 5
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Lovisa Merritt 5 10
Born: 4 Aug 1859 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Robert Meabon ( - ) 11
Marr: 2 Sep 1877 5
3 F Lorinda Merritt 12
AKA: Lovinda A. Merritt 5
Born: 13 Nov 1860 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: S. S. Harrison ( - ) 5
Marr: 18 Apr 1888 5
4 F Grace E. Merritt 5 10
Born: 29 Aug 1872 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Rev. Guy S. Brown ( - ) 5
Marr: 22 Dec 1893 5
5 F Esther S. Merritt 5
Born: 8 Aug 1875 5
Christened:
Died: 5 Dec 1883 5
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
General Notes: Husband - Charles C. Merritt
He was born near the village of Forestville, New York. He passed his boyhood, until his thirteenth year, at the place of his birth in attendance upon the common schools, and in 1850 accompanied his father's family to Deerfield township, in Warren County, Pennsylvania. There he continued his attendance at school for six months each year, including several terms at the school at Tidioute, until he reached the age of twenty years. From 1857 to 1860 he engaged in farming and lumbering on his own account, and during the oil excitement, until 1862, he operated in oil. In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company F, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, from which he was promoted in the following January to the office of orderly sergeant, and was afterward commissioned captain. He was wounded at the first battle of Fredericksburg, and again at Gettysburg. He participated in the battles of Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Antietam. On the 16th of June, 1864, he was captured at Petersburg, from which time he was for ten months and seven days a prisoner at Andersonville and at Florence, South Carolina. He was exchanged in the latter part of March, 1865, after suffering the indescribable horrors of starvation and prison life, which could be sustained only by "muscles of iron and a heart of steel." Immediately after his exchange he returned to Warren county and engaged in farming and lumbering in Southwest township. This occupation he continued with uninterrupted success until the spring of 1886, when he began to operate in oil.
Judge Merritt always took a very active interest in politics, his sincerity and disinterestedness having been abundantly manifested by the part he bore in the war for the preservation of the Union. He was an uncompromising member of the Republican party. His fellow townsmen honored him with repeated elections to nearly every office within their gift. He served fifteen years as justice of the peace, nine years as road commissioner, and nine years as school commissioner. In the fall of 1885 he ran for his first term in a county office, and was elected associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas for a term of five years, beginning with January 1, 1886. For this position he had been particularly well trained by his long experience as justice of the peace.
Judge Merritt was a member of the church of the United Brethren in Grand Valley, and was for twenty years one of its trustees. He was always a liberal contributor to the support of all churches, believing that the influence of a sincere religion is the most elevating and ennobling that can be shed upon any community. He was not sparing, either, in his practical aid to those who were more unfortunate than himself, especially when he believed them to be deserving. One most remarkable fact should not be omitted, viz., that neither he nor any member of the Merritt family, within the memory of living man, ever used intoxicating liquors in any form, and only one member, a boy, used tobacco for a short time. This was remarkable in view of the general and respectable use of these intoxicants and narcotics, and undoubtedly explains, in part at least, the rugged health of the family. In the face of all these facts, Judge Merritt's success was not in opposition to any natural law, but strictly in conformity to nature. It was the reward of continuous and well directed industry, probity, and intelligence. Moreover, Judge Merritt was never known to desert a friend. This was one secret of his popularity and of his political success. He was prominent for the one fact that when he espoused the cause of a friend he "stayed by him." He was at the same time fair toward his opponents, and consistent in his own position.