Joseph B. Merrell was born June 27, 1863, in Salem County, Missouri, the eldest son of Asa C. Merrell, a leading farmer raised in Georgia, and claiming the rights of a Cherokee citizenship. His mother was a Miss Akers, of Kentucky. After attending public school until his seventeenth year, Joseph entered the Marshall Academy, Marshall, Missouri, and there remained two years. In 1885 he studied law for one year at Lexington, Missouri, and from there went to Carrollton, Georgia, where he read law with his uncle, W. W. Merrell, ex-senator of the State; remaining with him until 1888, Joseph was admitted to the bar, after which he returned home, where he remained awhile before deciding upon a good location for the practice of his profession. Finally he decided upon the Indian Territory, and located at Vinita, where he is now practicing, having moved there in January 1891. On his arrival, he identified himself with Farmers’ Alliance, and was chosen as public lecturer of that order. Mr. Merrell is six feet in height, and weighs 160 pounds. He is a gentlemanly looking young man of good address, and considering his youth, has been very successful, and in a few years will, very probably, be upon an equal footing with the most prominent among the profession. His office is located on the north side of the main street, in front of the Peoples’ Drug Store, while he resides with his mother, a widowed lady, at her home in Vinita.
