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    HON. JOHN L. MERRILL—The present County treasurer of this county, John L. Merrill, of Columbus City, was born on the eleventh day of March, 1831, in Grafton County, N. H. He was the fifth of ten children, whose parents were Peter Merrill and Anna L. Locke. His father followed through life laborious pursuits, and died in 1866 in this county. The early education of the subject of this sketch was merely in the elementary branches acquired at the common school.

    He worked with his father till 1853, and in this year began life for himself as a farmer in Vermont – his father’ family having moved from New Hampshire to Vermont when John was eight years of age. Having remained in Vermont for two years engaged in agricultural pursuits, he left that state in May, 1855, and came direct to this county, settling on section 28, Columbus City Township, where he has since resided.

    On the 15th day of October, 1855, Mr. Merrill was married in Vermont to Alice M. Hight, a native of Vermont, and a daughter of John N. Hight, a prominent farmer of Vermont, and for some years a representative in the Legislature of that state. He is the father of five children, four of whom are living.

    Politically, Mr. Merrill is a strong republican; has always been remarkable for the enthusiasm with which he supports the correct tenets of the great Republican Party. Religiously, his sympathies and prejudices are rather with the Congregational Church. Socially, he is very pleasant and affable is a man entirely devoid of ostentation or sinister motives. His education and experience in life eminently adapt him for the office of Treasurer of Louisa County.