Biographical sketch extracted from:

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana.
Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887. p. 980.

WILLIAM B. MERRIMAN, a prosperous citizen of Lancaster Township, residing on section 21, has been identified with Wells County since 1851, in which year he settled on the land he still occupies, buying at that time forty acres from James Daily, a pioneer of Wells County. He owned before that an adjoining eighty acres, purchased by him in 1844, and has since added another forty acres, his home farm now consisting of 160 acres of well improved and cultivated land. Mr. Merriman is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne County, November 22, 1816. His parents, Elijah and Mary (McCoy) Merriman, made their home in Wayne County only nine days before his birth, they coming from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where they were born, reared and married. They spent the rest of their lives in Wayne County, the father dying at the age of forty-five years, and the mother in her seventy-ninth year. Of the eleven children our subject was the fourth child and second son. Nine of them are yet living, their average age in 1887 being over sixty-seven years. James lives at Liberty Center, Wells County, where he settled in 1838; Thomas and Elijah live in Whitley County; John lives in Wayne County, Ohio; Mrs. Mahala Johnson is also a resident of Wayne County; Mrs. Sarah Griffith lives in Iowa; Mrs. Eliza Muncy resides at Liberty Center; Mrs. Huldah Wire lives in Huntington County, and the two youngest children died in childhood. William B. Merriman, the subject of this sketch, spent his youth on his father's farm. At the age of nineteen years he began learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed over thirty years, working at his trade in Wells County over thirty years. He was united in marriage, November 12, 1838, to Miss Elizabeth Knight, who was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1820, a daughter of Daniel Knight. Her parents subsequently removed to Wayne County, Ohio, and in 1854 came to Wells County, both dying in Lancaster Township. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Merriman--Mrs. Lucinda Daily, residing in Arkansas; Mrs. Mary Ann Patte, of Jefferson Township, Wells County; Ezra, living at Murray; Mason, living in Arkansas; Mrs. Almira Davis, deceased, and William Henry, a resident of Bluffton. Mr. Merriman came to Wells County comparatively poor, but is now in good circumstances, surrounded by all the necessary comforts of life. He is a Democrat in his political views, having voted that ticket since casting his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren in 1836.