Meharry, James

Born: 1801-09-18 Ohio

Died: 1864-04-21 Montgomery County, Indiana

Flourished: Montgomery County, Indiana

Born in Adams County, Ohio, James Meharry was a farmer, real estate investor, and Methodist. He grew up on the family farm and, after his father’s death in 1813, helped keep the farm afloat. In the spring of 1826, he and a brother traveled west, bound for Texas, but after their ship wrecked in Galveston Bay they were forced to return to Ohio. The next year, he traveled to Indiana and located land in Fountain County that he deemed suitable for a home. He returned to Ohio and, in December 1827, married Margaret I. Francis. They eventually had five children together, although one died in infancy. In the spring of 1828, he and his new wife relocated to Indiana. They lived first in Fountain County but moved to a farm in Montgomery County in 1831, where James remained and farmed until his death. He also purchased land in McLean County, Illinois and in Champaign County, Illinois. By 1850, he owned $7,200 in real estate. Margaret died in April 1853. In May 1855, he married Nancy Wood. They did not have any children together. He died after suffering for more than a month with a disease of the bowels.

Alexander Meharry, III, History of the Meharry Family in America: Descendants of Alexander Meharry I (Lafayette, IN: Lafayette Printing, 1925), 211-15; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Montgomery County, IN, 468; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Montgomery County, IN, 10.