The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1893-07-01
THE I" WIZARD" OF The SOUTH
Sketch of a Young Writer, a De-
scendent of Kentucky Pho
neers, Just Coming Into
Prominence.
The "Mystic Marriage Bell'' and
Others of Ills Stories Briefly
Criticized.

To many Of the readers. that is
old people, of the ROUNDABOUT the
name of the subject of my little
sketch is well-known, for it is linked
with the history of Kentucky from
the time of Boone.
A. M. Merrill comes from pioneer
blood on both sides Of the house and
as his great great grandfathers, Mr..
William Bush and Mr.. Simpson
Merrill, were adventurous spirits even
among the hardy pioneers Of the
Ozark and Bloody Ground" so is
young Merrill pioneer in the rich
and UNEMPLOYED festility Of fiction.
But to return to the sketch He
was born In Carroll county, Mis-
'sissippi, in 1869. His father is Mr.. B.
N. Merrill. He is the grandson of
the Hon. j. w. s. Merrill. who was
for years political leader in Missis-
sippi, and who came from Estill
county, Kentucky. Young Merrill
is a nephew of Cassius L. Merrill,
the brilliant journalist, who is so we'll
known around Frankfort as the
bright and versatile correspondent of
the Courier-Journal. He is also a
cousin of Mr. Charles F. Exum and
Mrs. Mary Stivers. of Frankfort; was
a cousin of the late Judge BENJAMIN
F. Trimble, who was widely known
over the district Of Central Ken
lucky, who was grand nephew Of
Mr.. Justice Robert Trimble, of the
Court of Appeals bench the first
quarter of this Century and one of
the associate Justices Of the Supreme
Court of the United States at the
time of his death in 1925, and for
whom Trimble county was named.
Young Merrill was cousin of the
late Mrs. Julia Tevis, who founded
Science Hip Academy, of Shelby
vile, KY, one OF the oldest and most
noted schools Of the South and West.
Another of his relatives was the
late Hon. Samuel Bush, the talented
lawyer, of Louisville. But Merrill
is but a bright link in bright chain
of famous Kentuckians, famous in
war, in peace, in politics, in law and
in letters. The Morrows, the Quisen-
berries, the Bushes, the Berkleys,
the Hieronymuses the Williams, of
Clark, Montgomery, Fayette and
Mercer are branches of his anastOrs.
Now, as have told who young
Merrill is, and from whence he comes,
l shall say something OF his own life.
At the age of sixteen he quit the
little New Hope" school-house, on
his grandfather's place in Carroll
county, Mississippi-a common coun-
try school it was. The building was
used for a school during the week.
and OIL the Sabbath such noted and
eloquent Christian Elders as B. +.
Wilson, James Sharpe and Mr..
Bishop preached the simple, beauti-
full faith Of Christianity as under
stood and taught by Alexander
Campbell, Barton w. Stone and
Raccoon Smith, imortalized every
stone in the old stone meeting house.
Young Merrill grew up under
this teaching and at fifteen he was
familiar with Campbelps side of the
Rice debate. About this time he
entered the Office of the Carrollton
Conservative, where he learned the
printers tradein the day time and
read Shakespeare, Milton, Hume,
Byron, Macaulay, Dickens and many
other useful works Of English and
American history, biography and
fiction at night, always displaying
most excellent judgment in his Sc
lections of reading matter. He was
an inveterate reader of wise method.
He evinced a strong taste for books at
quite an early age and his boyish
composition flashed the dawn Of his
genius. At twenty-one we find him
well equipped to pursue the practice
of the law. A profession he studied