John L. Merriam was a Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 banker, politician and Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, representing St. Paul. He was instrumental in helping to organize First National Bank of Minnesota

U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp is a diversified financial services holding company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States based on $330 billion in assets. U.S. Bank ranks as the sixth largest bank in the U.S. based on...

, and he served as vice president of Merchants National Bank

Merchants National Bank (Saint Paul)

The Merchants National Bank or Brooks Building is a commercial building in Saint Paul, Minnesota built in 1892 as a financial center.The structure, designed by Edward P. Bassford, uses sandstone in a Richardsonian Romanesque style. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places....

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He began service in the Minnesota House of Representatives

Minnesota House of Representatives

The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house in the Minnesota State Legislature. There are 134 members elected to two-year terms, twice the number of members in the Minnesota Senate. Each senate district is divided in half and given the suffix A or B...

 in 1870, and was elected speaker that year, serving in the position until 1871. His son, William R. Merriam, later served as speaker of the house in 1887, and was elected governor in 1888.