Friends and Neighbors: Thomas Merriam

Thomas Merriam, known simply as Tom to his friends, grew up in Banner County and attended school in Harrisburg. His family still have a ranch in the area and he fondly remembers his younger years growing up running along the rocky hilltops and chasing white tail deer down through the canyons. Of his favorite childhood memories, he shared a long kept secret that he enjoyed tricking his buddies by sitting camouflaged in the pine trees during hide and seek.

One autumn, when he was young, he was nearly shot by a neighbor. He and his friends had been playing hide and seek along a ridge, as that...