UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 FORM 3 INITIAL STATEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES 1. Name and Address of Reporting Person WICKERSHAM, MICHAEL D. 217 GREENVILLE AVENUE WINCHESTER, IN 47394 USA 2. Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year) November 12, 1996 3. IRS or Social Security Number of Reporting Person (Voluntary) ###-##-#### 4. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol FIRST MERCHANTS CORPORATION FRME 5. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable) (X) Director ( ) 10% Owner ( ) Officer (give title below) ( ) Other (specify below) 6. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Day/Year) 7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line) (X) Form filed by One Reporting Person ( ) Form filed by More than One Reporting Person ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table I -- Non-Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1. Title of Security |2. Amount of |3. Ownership |4. Nature of Indirect | | Securities | Form: | Beneficial Ownership | | Beneficially | Direct(D) or | | | Owned | Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Common Stock |615 |D | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table II -- Derivative Securitites Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1.Title of Derivative |2.Date Exer- |3.Title and Amount | |4. Conver-|5. Owner- |6. Nature of Indirect | Security | cisable and | of Underlying | |sion or |ship | Beneficial Ownership | | Expiration | Securities | |exercise |Form of | | | Date(Month/ |-----------------------|---------|price of |Deriv- | | | Day/Year) | |Amount |deri- |ative | | | Date | Expira- | |or |vative |Security: | | | Exer- | tion | Title |Number of|Security |Direct(D) or | | | cisable | Date | |Shares | |Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Explanation of Responses: SIGNATURE OF REPORTING PERSON Michael D. Wickersham DATE November 13, 1996