[2] After four years in Detroit, he traveled through the Mississippi Valley, including to Louisville, Kentucky, New Albany, Indiana.
[2][3] Mery was married March 14, 1874, to Sarah Seaward, a native of New York, who grew up in Marysville.
[2] He did almost all of the iron work to be done in Northern California at the time, including work for the ten saw mills which became the Sierra Lumber Company, and he continued to serve the mills after they were absorbed by the Diamond Match Company.
[3] He was also the inventor of the Mery double-acting gas engine, which was awarded first prize at the California State Fair.
All this was packed with definite directions as to where it was to be unloaded; but the crew disobeyed orders and went on to the mouth of the Yukon River with the machinery in the hold.
At length the entire consignment was landed; but when it was set up and put in operation, it developed that too much of the earth and gravel would have to be disposed of, and that the yield of gold was not enough to make it pay.