San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIS N. MERRILL
A native son of California who
fittingly represents the agricultural interests of San Joaquin County, Willis
N. Merrill was born in Woodfords, Alpine County, May 5, 1869, a son of Willis
Perry Merrill, a native of Westport, New York.
The mother passed away when Willis N. was a young lad and his father
subsequently married Miss Mary O’Neil.
During the gold excitement in
California, Willis P. Merrill came west and settled at Dogtown
where he engaged in mining for a number of years; then he owned a train of pack
mules which carried provisions across the mountains from California to Nevada.
He finally settled in Alpine County where he opened a general merchandise store
at Woodfords, which he conducted until his death at the age of sixty-three
years, survived by his widow, who conducts the store left her by her
husband. Willis N. is the eldest in a
family of four children. Edith died in
New York State in 1918; Frank died in infancy; Ruby is Mrs. George Hays and
resides at Stockton. Two children were
born to the second marriage: Grant and
Bernice.
Willis N. Merrill attended the
district school at Woodfords and later went to Placerville where he was
graduated from the high school, after which he assisted his father in the
store. His marriage united him with Miss
Jessie Wilkerson, a native of Colusa, California, a daughter of R. T. and Charlotte
Wilkerson, natives of Missouri and Indiana, respectively; the father coming to
California from Missouri in boyhood.
After his marriage Mr. Merrill removed to Reno, Nevada, where he and Mr.
Wilkerson purchased 400 acres of land, which he successfully farmed for nine
years. He then sold out and came back to
California and settled on a quarter section of land in the Henderson district
of San Joaquin County, southwest of Lodi, on the Stockton-Woodbridge Road,
where he engaged in general farming. A
year ago forty acres was sold, which leaves 120 acres of land. He has a fine stand of alfalfa on twenty-five
acres and has thirteen acres in young vineyard, his ranch being irrigated from
the Stockton-Mokelumne River irrigation ditch.
Mr. and Mrs. Merrill are the parents of eight children: Roy makes his home with his parents; Verla is in training to be a nurse in San Francisco; Rita
and Shirley are in high school in Lodi; Mildred; Winifred; Harold and
Harriet. In politics Mr. Merrill votes
with the Republican Party and fraternally is affiliated with the I. O. O. F.
Lodge at Lodi and he has served for three years on the board of school trustees
of Henderson district.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
775. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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