Samuel Merrill

Samuel Merrill (October 29, 1792 – August 24, 1855), a native of Peacham, Vermont, was an early lawyer and leading citizen of Indiana, who served as state treasurer from 1822 to 1834. Merrill attended Dartmouth College, and in 1816 settled in Vevay, Indiana, where he established a law practice and served in the Indiana General Assembly as a representative from Switzerland County (1821–22). Merrill resigned his position as state treasurer in 1834 to become the president of the State Bank of Indiana (1834–44); he also served as the president of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company (1844–48) and head of the Merrill Publishing Company, which later became the Bobbs-Merrill Company. In addition to his government service and business ventures, Merrill was the second president of the Indiana Historical Society (1835–48), a founder and trustee of Wabash College, and an elder in the Second Presbyterian and Fourth Presbyterian churches in Indianapolis. Early life and education Merrill was born on October 29, 1792, in Peacham, Vermont, the second son of Jesse and Priscilla (Kimball) Merrill. Jesse Merrill was a farmer and town officer who also served for years as a member of the Vermont legislature; his wife, Priscilla, was a homemaker and the mother of seven children (six boys and one girl). Merrill received his early education at Peacham Academy and attended Dartmouth College, but left before graduating. In 1813 Merrill followed his older brother, James, to York, Pennsylvania, where he spent three years studying law and teaching school. In 1816, at the age of twenty-four, Merrill settled in Vevay, Switzerland County, Indiana. After his admission to the bar in 1817, Merrell established a law practice in Vevay. Marriage and family In 1818 Merrill married Lydia Jane Anderson, the daughter of Robert and Catherine (Dumont) Anderson of Vevay. Samuel and Lydia Jane Merrill had ten children: Jane (1819–1911, mother of William A. Ketcham), Pricilla, Catharine "Kate" (1824–1900), Julia Dumont, Samuel Jr., Mary, Anna Maria "Mina", and three others (Sophia, "Jimmie," and Elizabeth) who died young. Merrill's wife, Lydia Jane, died in 1847. In 1849 he married Elizabeth Young of Madison, Indiana.