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Note: N5716 New Democrat (Jeffersonville, Indiana), 30 November 1905
Waller L. Meriwether Passed Away at 10:30 Friday Night At 322 West Market
Was son of Pioneer of City and Identified All of His Life With Jeffersonville
Death From Paralysis
Brief Illness Fatal
The expected end came to Waller Meriwether, one of Jeffersonville's most venerable citizens, at 10:30 o'clock last night at his home at 322 West Market street. It resulted from a paralytic stroke which he sustained on Thursday, November 2, and for several days the end had been recognized as imminent. Up to the time he was stricken he had good health and within the past year he has made a trip to California and back. He was on the street the very day he received the fatal stroke.
Mr. Meriwether was a native of this city and was born in a house at Market and Pearl, on the site now occupied by the residence of George Pfau, Jr., on April 23, 1824. He was a son of Dr. Samuel Meriwether, a pioneer business man of Jeffersonville and for long one of its most prominent citizens. Waller Meriwether engaged in the drug business and conducted a store from 1846 to 1859, moving to Louisville and conducting a store in that city at Market and Shelby. Twenty-five years ago he retired and from that time to his death, with one brief exception, he remained in Jeffersonville. For a time he occupied a house he erected on his property overlooking the falls below the city but then moved back to the residence on Market and Ohio avenue where he had been married and where he has now passed away. A year ago Mr. Meriwether and his wife decided to move to Los Angeles, Cal., where their daughter, Mrs. John Glass, resided but after purchasing property there they decided to return to Jeffersonville for a time and arrived last spring. It was their intention to dispose of their property but the idea was never put into action before the illness of Mr. Meriwether.
Mrs. Meriwether was Miss Rebecca Keigwin before her marriage, a sister of Col. James Keigwin and Magistrate Ephriam Keigwin, both of whom died in recent years. She was a daughter of James Keigwin, an early business man and one of the early lessees of the Prison South, now the Indiana Reformatory. The marriage took place in the house were Mr. Meriwether died and on December 10, 1896 the venerable couple celebrated their golden wedding. Judge John F. Read and a sister of Mrs. Meriwether were married at the same time but these have both passed away and the only survivor of the brilliant assemblage of guests on that occasion is Mrs. Sarah Ransom of this city. Mrs. Meriwether was three years younger than her husband and is now 78 years of age, Mr. Meriwether having been in his 82 year when he died.
Two children survive their father, Henry Meriwether, of Olney, Ill., and Mrs. Nora Glass, wife of John W. Glass of Los Angeles, Cal. Both of them were with their father when he passed away. Mr. Meriwether was a lifelong Presbyterian and his father, Dr. Samuel Meriwether was an early pillar of the church in Jeffersonville. He donated the lot on which the first church was erected and was the first and for many years the only elder of the church, a fact that is borne witness to in a memorial tablet that adorns the walls of the building in which the church now worships. The first building is on lot adjacent to the old Meriwether property on West Market street where Waller Meriwether was born. That building is now occupied by St. Lucas German Reformed church.
The funeral will take place at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon for the First Presbyterian church and will be conducted by the Rev. Dr. J.S. Howk. Burial will be at Walnut Ridge cemetery.
Note: There appears to be a burial record for Waller at Evergreen Cemetery as well, those this is in conflict with the obituary and headstone at Walnut Ridge.
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