Merriman, Halsey O.

Born: 1815-XX-XX New York

Died: 1854-03-23 Peoria, Illinois

Flourished: Peoria, Illinois

Halsey O. Merriman was an attorney who, along with his brother, Amos L. Merriman, was an early member of the bar of Peoria, Illinois. In December 1839, he married Sarah H. Kinney (Kinny) in Bureau County. A Whig in politics, Merriman represented Peoria County at the Whig state convention in 1840. He served as president of the village/town of Peoria in 1844 and 1845 and was town attorney until it received its city charter, which was mostly his handiwork. In 1852, Merriman was an unsuccessful candidate for judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit. He maintained a law partnership with his brother until his death. They had a law office adjacent to the Peoria County Courthouse.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Bureau County, 4 December 1839, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Peoria, Peoria County, IL, 164; James M. Rice, Peoria City and County Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1912), 1:329, 368, 371; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:293-94; Edith Packard Kelly, “Northern Illinois in the Great Whig Convention of 1840,” Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society 20 (1914), 148; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 2 May 1844, 2:1; James M. Cunningham, The City Charter and Revised Ordinances of the City of Peoria, Illinois (Peoria, IL: Nason & Hill, 1869), xx; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 29 September 1852, 3:1; 28 March 1854, 3:1; Peoria Weekly Republican (IL), 31 March 1854, 1:1; S. DeWitt Drown, Drown’s Record and Historical View of Peoria, Almanac for 1851 (Peoria, IL: E. O. Woodcock, 1850), advertisements; Ernest E. East to Benjamin Thomas, 7 January 1938, Abraham Lincoln Association Copy Files, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.