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 23, 1860 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.
