In Memory of Ira Elias Merrill
First person buried in the Smithfield Cemetery, was born at Alder, Erie County, New York, in 1835, the son of Austin and Laura Wilder Harris Merrill, He was killed in an Indian attack July 29, 1880 as he and his brother Solyman were returning from the hills east of Smithfield with a load of brush to be used on the bowery for the community pioneer day celebration. Hostilities between the pioneers and the Indians began near the site of this marker. A settler from Franklin, Idaho, was also killed in the skirmish and several Smithfield pioneers were wounded.
Marker is on Main St., on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
