We have been searching for information on ANY Merrill residing in Iowa in 1870, with parents who were born in Pennsylvania. My Grandfather, William Hood Merrill, was born in Iowa in October of 1870, after the census was taken in June & July. This information was taken from the Dewey County, Oklahoma Census of 1900.It also stated he was a widower at census time, had been married 3 years. His first wife is unknown. He married Grandmother, Mary Dolcenia Knox, in Sept. 1900 and they had three children, Clayton Hood Merrill, Florence Ila Merrill and William Leo Merrill who was my father. When my father was approximately 8 months old (1904) his father left with two brothers, names unknown to us, and two friends, a Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, to go to Odessa, Texas to start a cattle ranch. W.H. corresponded with Grandmother and wrote her that "the cabin is nearly done and I will send for you and the children and meet you in Amarillo". That was the last letter she had from him, date unknown to us and he never returned. Her parents convinced her that he had abandoned she and the children and no effort was made to locate him. I believe my father was one of the bitterest as he resented it that they had been "abandoned". When Grandmother died at age 92, my father took her camel back trunk that still contained the letters that W.H. had written to her, and burned trunk and all saying "it was nobody’s business what was in the letters." Everyone is deceased in that family but my sister and I so no information can be obtained.
When we returned from a trip to Arizona in 1992, we stopped at the Ector County Courthouse in Odessa, Texas to see if we could find any information and the first book we looked in we found where he had homesteaded 656 acres and 509 acres and received title to them in March of 1905.We also found where he sold this same land to an S.R. McLean in June of 1906 and purchased 2 lots in Odessa from a W.A. Massey in June of 1906 and sold them in December 1906.
No more records were found of land purchases or sales by W.H. Merrill, so we were back to square one.
We were given the name of a man in Lubbock, Texas who was married to a Merrill and said he had lots of Merrill information in his computer. I wrote him the story and he called us one night and said he thought he had a clue as to what happened. He had been researching old court records and came across an application for title of land on grounds of desertion. The lady’s husband and two sons had gone on a large cattle drive from San Angelo, Texas up through the edge of New Mexico, following the Pecos River, headed for Amarillo, and never returned. This man who called us said he went to Frank McNatt at the Dark Canyon Ranch near Carlsbad, N.M. who was 90 at that time, and asked him if he had ever heard of such a drive. The old man said he had and could take him to a burial site. Evidently he had been on the drive or knew someone who had. They traced the drive from San Angelo to somewhere in New Mexico, Mr. Krouse wasn't sure where, and found 21 names scratched on the side of a canyon wall with 21 stones in a semicircle on top with names scratched on them. It said, "These were my friends. The Cook" The old man told him there had been a renegade Indian raid. Mr. Krouse said he recorded the names and one was a W.H. Merrill and another was a Leo C. Merrill. (First we had heard of any of the brothers names) but it ties in with the family names as my father was William LEO and his brother was Clayton Hood Merrill. The C could account for Clayton . We asked the man to locate the site again and he has tried several times but says nothing is familiar and cannot locate it. It had been in 1972 when he was there. So we are still looking for clues and information. We do not know what his parents' names were or possibly we could trace them through earlier census. We don't know whether W. H. was the oldest, middle or youngest child.
My feeling is that he had sold the land and was on his way back to Lenora, Okla. and his family.
If anyone knows of the Merrill family in Iowa or the circumstances of
the disappearance of W.H. Merrill, or cattle drives, please notify Kenneth
& Eleanor Merrill---1336 State Hwy FF, Galena, MO 65656 emerrill@tri-lakes.net
