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 ARWOOD, ROGER M 200 E JACKSON ST MUNCIE, IN 47305 USA 2. Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year) March 1, 2000 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) ( ) Director ( ) 10% Owner (X) Officer (give title below) ( ) Other (specify below) EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT 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 |0 | | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Employee Stock Option (R|09-01-00 |02-28-10 |Common Stock |5,000 |24.6875 |D | | ight to Buy) | | | | | | | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Explanation of Responses: SIGNATURE OF REPORTING PERSON Roger M. Arwood (Confirming Statement on File) DATE March 3, 2000