Joseph G. Merriam, proprietor of the Merriam Pattern and Model Works of Meriden, has developed a business whose constant expansion has made it one of the important productive industries of that city. He started out in business life at an early age and has constantly worked his way upward.
     Joseph Merriam was born in Meriden, January 18, 1859, a son of Joseph B. and Caroline Amelia (Talmage) Merriam, whose ancestry is traced back to Joseph Merriam, who came from England in 1694. Joseph G. Merriam was a pupil in the public schools of Meriden for a short period, also attended school at Wallingford and Durham, and again entered the Meriden schools, in which he completed his studies. He went to work at an early age, securing employment in a small lock shop, and later he was employed in a match factory. He afterward learned the pattern making trade in Meriden and at a later period was employed by the Meriden Bronze Company. For eleven years he was with the Bradley-Hubbard Company, previous to which time he had much and varied experience in a number of shops, his training making him an expert pattern maker by reason of his close application and indefatigable energy.
     In 1902 Mr. Merriam established his present factory and at the outset employed only his brother. The plant has twenty-one hundred and sixty square feet of floor space. It is supplied with the most modern equipment and plans are now under way for the expansion of the business under the name of the J. G. Merriam Company, Incorporated. It is the purpose to double the capacity of the plant, which for the past few years has been engaged in making patterns and graphophone turntables. The business has long since reached gratifying and profitable proportions and has become an important industry of Meriden.
     On the 4th of January, 1903, Mr. Merriam was united in marriage to Miss Hattie C. Ives, who died in 1915, leaving one child, Dorrance Ives, who was born in 1907. In his political views Mr. Merriam is a stalwart republican, having supported the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World and he attends the Methodist church. He is widely known in Meriden, where almost his entire life has been passed, and his substantial qualities as a man and as a citizen are widely acknowledged. There have been no spectacular phases in his career but his record has been marked by a steady progression that has brought him from humble surroundings to a most creditable place among the manufacturers of his native city.