William Borah state of Idaho in 1947, stands in the National Statuary Hall Collection. William Edgar Borah was born in Jasper Township, Illinois, near Fairfield in Wayne County. His parents were farmers Elizabeth (West) and William Nathan Borah. Borah was distantly related to Katharina von Bora, the Catholic nun who left her convent in the 16th century and married reformer Martin Luther. His Borah ancestors came to America in about 1760, fought in the Revolutionary War, and moved west with the frontier. The young William E. Borah was the seventh of ten children, and the third son. Although Borah was not a
Catharine Merrill and served in the Indiana General Assembly (1819–22) and as Indiana's first state treasurer (1822–34). Samuel was responsible for moving the state treasury to the new state capital at Indianapolis in 1824; his young family, which included nine-month-old Catharine, joined him on the journey. Catharine, nicknamed Kate, was the third of ten children. Merrill's mother died in 1847 and an older sister died two years later. Merrill's father married Elizabeth Young of Madison, Indiana, in 1849; he died in 1855. During this period, Catharine helped care for her younger siblings. Other members of the extended family also lived with the