Thomas Jefferson Merrill
Thomas Jefferson Merrill was born on May 15, 1842, in Ashtabula County, Ohio, to Judson Merrill and Adaline Halstead. His father was a farmer who owned $1,650 of real estate and $161 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Plymouth, Ohio. According to one writer, these “schools were for short terms as the demand for children’s service in the farm work kept them close to home.”
He enlisted in the Union army on August 26, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 29th Ohio Infantry on September 7. The regiment took part in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battle of Gettysburg. He was wounded in the foot at Gettysburg and reportedly “spent a long time in the hospital.” Army officials transferred him to the 1st Veteran Reserve Corps on December 1, 1863.
He married Gertrude C. Coe on December 31, 1866, and they had six children, including Eva, who was born around 1868. Three of their children reportedly “died in early infancy.” By 1870, Merrill was working as a farm laborer in Lenox, Ohio, and he owned $250 of real estate. They moved to Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, before settling in Sumner County, Kansas, in 1878. According to one writer, he was a “man of strong domestic ties. He was closely attached to his home, where he abided and took his greatest pleasure.”
He applied for a federal pension in June 1888 and eventually secured one. By 1900, he was working as a carpenter. A decade later, he was working as a well driller. He died in Wellington, Kansas, on March 21, 1914.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (2421) | Merrill, Thomas Jefferson | 1842-05-15 | 1914-03-21 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 5
- (7127) [writer] ~ Thomas J. Merrill to William W. Root, 31 May 1863
- (7128) [writer] ~ Thomas J. Merrill to William W. Root, 16 March 1863
- (7129) [writer] ~ Thomas J. Merrill to William W. Root, 24 February 1863
- (7130) [writer] ~ Thomas J. Merrill to William W. Root, 5 November 1862
- (7131) [writer] ~ Thomas J. Merrill to William W. Root, 29 September 1862
People - Records: 1
- (2422) Root, William W. is the [friend of] (2421) Merrill, Thomas Jefferson
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 2
Groups - Records: 1
- (6) [member/supporter] ~ Grand Army of the Republic
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1900, and 1910 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; Indiana Select Marriages Index, 1748-1993, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; Kansas Enrollment of Civil War Veterans, 1889, available from Ancestry.com; People’s Voice, 26 March 1914.
