Life span: 11/17/1837 to 11/28/1865TabsLife SummaryFull name: Francis Jackson MerriamPlace of Birth: Framingham, MABirth Date Certainty: ExactDeath Date Certainty: ExactGender: MaleRace: WhiteSectional choice: NorthOrigins: Free StateNo. of Spouses: 1Family: Minerva Caldwell (wife)Occupation: MilitaryRelation to Slavery: White non-slaveholderOther Affiliations: Abolitionists (Anti-Slavery Society)Military: Union Army Note Cards Francis Jackson Meriam (Villard, 1910) ScholarshipFrancis Jackson Meriam was born November 17, 1837, at Framingham, Massachusetts, and died suddenly November 28, 1865, in New York City, after having served in the army as a captain in the Third South Carolina Colored Infantry. Erratic and unbalanced, he was forever urging wild schemes upon his superiors, and often attempting them. In an engagement under Grant he was severely wounded in the leg. Early in the war he married Minerva Caldwell, of Galena, Illinois. He was in Boston, coming from Canada, on the day of John Brown’s execution, but was finally induced by friends to go back to Canada. Mr. Sanborn has characterized Meriam as of “little judgment and in feeble health,” but “generous, brave, and devoted.” Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1910), 685. Events Date span begin Life span End Event 03/05/1860 03/05/1860 Governor of Virginia requests Ohio for the extradition of two Harpers Ferry Raiders 03/08/1860 03/08/1860 Governor of Ohio refuses the extradition of two Harpers Ferry Raiders to Virginia Major TopicsHarpers Ferry Raid Documents Subject Docs Date Title 11/17/1859 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Reward for Fugitive Insurgents," November 17, 1859 01/05/1860 New York Herald, “The Runaway Slaves,” January 5, 1860 03/10/1860 Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Gov. Dennison Refuses to Surrender Them,” March 10, 1860 03/15/1860 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “The Harper’s Ferry Insurgents,” March 15, 1860 Images Francis Jackson Merriam, 1859, detail Francis Jackson Merriam Francis Jackson Merriam, detail Bibliography
Francis Jackson Meriam (Villard, 1910) ScholarshipFrancis Jackson Meriam was born November 17, 1837, at Framingham, Massachusetts, and died suddenly November 28, 1865, in New York City, after having served in the army as a captain in the Third South Carolina Colored Infantry. Erratic and unbalanced, he was forever urging wild schemes upon his superiors, and often attempting them. In an engagement under Grant he was severely wounded in the leg. Early in the war he married Minerva Caldwell, of Galena, Illinois. He was in Boston, coming from Canada, on the day of John Brown’s execution, but was finally induced by friends to go back to Canada. Mr. Sanborn has characterized Meriam as of “little judgment and in feeble health,” but “generous, brave, and devoted.” Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1910), 685.
