Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-07-08

1orlties for the safety of. American n RESI-
Sents. the revolution being substantially
Ever, IN testimony of their apprectat ton
III tyr TINS service an elegantly chased sword
WIS presented to General Merriam by the
HsrateIul residents of the place.
july l0s lS76. he was promoted to the
lieutenant colonelcy of the second infan-
stry, and served in the department of the
Columbia .s9 during the Nez Perces war in
iSft, after which he was transferred to
the command Of the depot of supplies and
communications at Lewiston. Idaho re-
iieving General Alfred Sully.
ESTABLISHED SEVERAL FORTS.
General Merriam planned and estab-
llshed Fort Sherman, Idaho, and Camp
Chelan. Washington territory, and Fort
Spokane. Washington territory, which
duties occupied his time until 1880, after
which he was assigned In 1881 to the COM
mand of Fort Colville, WASHINGTON ter
rltory resuning command of Fort Spo-
kane in 1882, at which point he planned
and built a permanent post during the
years 1SS3-4-5
He received his appointments as colonel
of the Seventh United States Infantry,
July 10. 1885. from which time until Octo-
Der. 1889 he was in command at Fort
Laramie, Wyo., when the regiment was
transferred to Fort Logan, Colo, where
It has since been stationed. In the win
ter campaign of 1891 and 1892 he COM
manded not only his own regiment but
also all the troops on the line of the
Cheyenne river of South Dakota during
| the Sioux campaign, intercepting and
successfully disarming the Sitting Bull
Indians. nearly 300 in number, in their
stampede toward the hostile camp after
their chief was killed in the action on
Grand river.
General Merriam is himself not only a
remarkable rifle and pistol shot, and an
excellent drill officer, but his regiment
has during the ten years it has been I'M
Il nS.tl lNIi hhd hi
| satisfactory record in the inspector gen.
erals Office for its drill and general eff
cheney. and during this period of ten
years has six times won the Nevada
the entire army of forty regiments.
General Merriam is the inventor of the
infantry pack which bears his name
| and to which he has given much study
and experiment This equipment has al
ready won most flatterng success in Eu-
rope, having been adopted for the armies
Of Austria and France and in the United
States has been approved by the United
| States army and adopted by the national
guards of several states. The inventor
| has been awarded the great goiu medal
| by The French academy of inventors and
has been made a member of honor with
| the first class diploma His recently
| prepared manual for pitching camp will
be of great service to forces in the field
General Merriam has two elegant
| swords, one presented by his first COM
Ililu, AOIlIEiIly Il. L WpHlleUn Maine VOL
unteers. and one presented by the Ameri-
can merchants of Nuevo Laredo in recog-
milton of his services in the protection of
their lives and property in 1876.
GENERAL MERRIAMS FAMILY.
General Merriam's first wife was a Miss
Getchell of Waterville, Me-, whose death
was most tragic. In 1870, while the gen.
eral was making trip of 800 miles from
Mexico to the gulf. accompanied by his
wifi np ND nnlx hnn uir
of two years, and an escort of ten SOL
diers. the party was overtaken by one
of the terrible Texas cloudbursts in
which all the party but two soldiers, the
driver of the ambulance and the general
| himself were drowned in the onrushing
waters. This disaster occurred at mid
night April a. 1870. on the eastern slope
| of the staked plain of Texas.
General Merriam'S second wife was an
| English lady, a Miss Macpherson-Ma Mac
neil, a descendant of Captain John Mac
pherson, who was an aide-de-camp on the
staff of General Montgomery. who was
| cember 81. 1775. General Merriam has
| from his second marriage a family of
three sons and two daughters.
General Merriam represents the eighth
generation Of the family in the country.
| His ancestors from Kent. Eng. immi-
grated to Massachusetts and settled in
Concord in 1886. The oldest grave recog-
nizable in the cemetery at Concord bears
| lHc IiiIe VI JoSepu htliiftiIi, tit SUI VI
| the first settler of the name, who was
buried in 1871.
The family name was represented in
! the revolution by Lieutenant Jonathan
| Merriam and others. Lieutenant Mer-
RAM was an officer in Colonel Whit
| combs Massachusetts regiments and served
at the battles of Lexington and Con-
| cord Lewis the father of General Mer-
ram. now at Fort Logan. removed from
New Salem and settled ut Houlton in 1882,
and was of course one of the earliest set
tiers in Houlton. the town having been
st titled only Il few years previous by the
HoultonS. who also We're natives of New
Salem. 1t will be remembered that the first
United States post at Houlton was estab-
lishcd in 1928, the famous ArOostuok war.
so-called, not occurring until 1912. the
boundary difficulties between the United
States and Great Britain having been set
tied in 1913.