Included in a 320-acre land grant awarded to J.P. Whelin for his service in the Republic of Texas Army, this property passed soon afterward to Nathaniel C. Raymond and then, two years later, to John M. Gault. In the 1850s, Gault built a log cabin on the Whelin grant, and he and his family established a farm. In 1855, they bought adjoining land from Captain Nelson Merrill and soon built a larger home there. Gault died about 1865 and was buried in Merrilltown Cemetery. The homestead remained in his family until 1892, when William and Edna Graves bought it and kept it as tenant property for a number of years, during which the original cabin was enlarged with a board-and-batten addition. R.C. Cox acquired the property in 1929, and his family lived in the cabin through the following decade. After passing through a succession of owners, the homestead became part of a modern housing development in the 1980s, remaining a reminder of the Merrilltown community and the county’s early rural heritage.