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Muskingum County, Ohio

MOSES MERCER

a native of Muskingum County, Ohio, was born September 5, 1827, and is the eldest son of Aaron and Mahala (Oliver) Mercer, natives of Rockingham and Tiger's Valley, Va., and who are of English origin. The father moved from Virginia in 1815 to Muskingum County, Ohio, and moved to Peru in 1845, and is now a resident of Newton County, Indiana. He was born in 1802, and is still living and enjoying a reasonable share of nature's blessing. The subject was reared in Muskingum and Putnam Counties, Ohio, on a farm, until at the age of twelve he commenced to learn the trade of mill-wrighting, which he completed at eighteen and soon after abandoning it, adopted the occupation of carpentering, at which he worked until 1866. In 1845 he was located in the town of Peru. He was engaged by the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago Railway Company in 1865, to work in their shops, and then went with the Wabash Company, where he worked in the wood department. He married Miss Ann J. Long on March 9, 1886. Miss Long was an accomplished daughter of Mr. John Long, a Cass County pioneer, who resided in the city of Logansport. Mr. and Mrs. Mercer are the parents of five children, Ada J., May, William S., Georgie (girl), and Robert E., deceased. Her death occurred in March, 1886. Our subject is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and politically clings to the faith of the Republican party. The family are members of the Baptist church, and are regular attendants at public worship. GEORGE C. MILLER, of the mercantile firm of Shirk & Miller, was born in Cass County, Indiana, January 2, 1845, and is the eldest son of John L. and Mary (Long) Miller, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Delaware. John L. Miller was one of the pioneers of Cass County, and for some years carried on the mercantile business in Logansport, having been one of the first merchants of that city. He was a man widely and favorably known and departed this life about the year 1851. George C. Miller was raised in Cass and Miami Counties, received a practical education in the common schools, and began life for himself as salesman in the mercantile house of Kilgore & Shirk, in Peru. He continued in the capacity of clerk until 1873, at which time he become a partner, and subsequently, 1880, when Mr. Kilgore retired he purchased that gentleman's interests, thus changing the style of the firm to that of Shirk & Miller, by which title it has since been known. To describe in detail the vast amount of business transacted by this house would far transcend the limits of this sketch, but suffice it to say, that in dry goods, hardware, agricultural implements, and, in fact, all kinds of general merchandise, it is one of the largest and most successful mercantile firms in Northern Indiana, affording employment throughout the entire year to about twenty clerks and salesmen. Mr. Miller, as manager of the immense business, displays ability of a high order and a merchant thoroughly conversant with all the details of the trade, and, as a successful financier, he is, perhaps, without a peer in the city of Peru. He is withal a very popular citizen, and his success in addition to his thorough knowledge of the business, is largely due to his industry and fidelity and that courtesy which marks the well bred gentleman. He was married March, 1870, to Miss Ella Leebrick, of Wayne County, Indiana, who has borne him the following children, viz: Harry L., Charles W., Elbert S. and George C. Miller.

(Submitted by Barb Zigenmeyer)

DANIEL WILKINSON was born in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, July 26, 1830. He migrated to this county in the year 1861. His father and mother, John and Hannah (Sharp) Wilkinson, natives of Yorkshire, England, emigrated to this country in 1819 and located in Ohio. Our subject was reared in Zanesville. At sixteen years of age he began to learn the machinists trade, at which he worked in all about seventeen years, when he engaged in saw-milling, following this business for about seven years. In 1868 he opened a planing mill in Peru, and was burned out in 1872, but which was immediately rebuilt. The enterprise was converted into the use of manufacturing doors, sash, blinds, and everything of that order in first-class style, and which gave employment to from ten to twelve workmen. In 1882 Mr. Walter Wilkinson came into the establishment as a partner. Our subject is a member of the F. & A. M., and I. O. O. F. fraternities, and in politics i» a Republican.

(Submitted by Barb Zigenmeyer)