The Press., 1911-03-15
WrLLTNaroN

eSGNAAA of his daughter, Mrs. F. O. Taber, in Addison, N. r., Sept. IA. 1910, aged 95 years. 4 months and 15 days
 Rev Samuel Dunton Merrick was born in Wilmington, April 29. 1915, the son of Dea. Joseph and Lodieca Dunton Merrick. He was 8 lineal descendant of the seventh generation from Thomas Merriok, the youngest of four Merrick brothers, who came from Wales and landed in Salem. Mass in 1636. the three older broth. CTS settling in eastern Massachusetts. but Thomas Merrick early in 1637 jlined the early settlers of Spring field, Mass. where the records show that in January, 1888. he was one of six men appointed to lay out the plan. tation on both sides of the river, and was a man of influence in the c1m munity. Samuel D. Merrick was the oldest of seven children and at the age of eleven years he, with father, was stricken with 8 malignant form of typhus fever from which they barely recovered, and three others of the family had it in mild form Al fourteen he was converted and united with the Baptist church in Willing. ton.
 At the age of IT, when he began to consider the future of his life, he as ked the consent of his father to leave home for the purpose of SC. curing an education to fit himself for active Christian work The obst ,oles to such 8 course seemed so great both to him and his father, owing to oir- cumstar oes beyond their control, that he felt 1t was best to st fls his con- victious and as once told the writer try to make himself as useful as he could as a private member of the church. So, inssead of leaving home to secure an education, he was ap. prenticed for year to learn the trade of a shoemaker at forty dollars for g year and his board After his one years apprentio sship the following three years. till he was of full age, he willingly devoted u assist his father in the kuTplrt of the family. At 21 he decided to take up another branch of the trade and went for g year to work for James Lyon of East. ford, to learn the making of f1ne st wed boots, then very popular. After a year with MT. Lyon he returned to his fathers, and in the new shop that father had bui t they took work from Hartford, and emI loyed two young men in the bottoming of fine, sewed b,c ts for some two years. getting and IT. turning the work esc'l two or three weeks W tn the horse kept on the home farm Alter two yeaN. in March. 1889, hs was married tc EveliDa Lyon, the second daught o1 James Lyon of Eastford, and with his W fe began their married life in the house on Willington Hill that for the past fifty years has been known as the Baptist parsonage, where two o1 his chilli were born. He fitted up good shop for his shoemaking and deepened the we'll to give h,m a more permanent supply of water The fine sewed boots bsing popular. he added OODsfderable to his trade by the mak- ing of custom boots, so that for time he employed several young men tc learn the bottoming of boots and keep. ing up his trade with his Hartford firm. Among the young men that he employed was his brother, the late Timothy Merrick, and the late John B Carpenter, who for several winters taught the school in the Glassfactory district, and where the writer and hit brother, Timothy, were his pupils.
 About 1S43 4 he sold his place or Wilmington Hill and bought small farm just above the Wm. Holman place, then known as the Carpenter place. to add light farming to his means of earning living, and where three more ohildreon were borg to him. The third one, a daughter, died in infancy. The increasing ex- penses of 8 growing family made the most rigid economy necessary lest 8 deficit should appear at the end of the year. After a few more years ot struggle he began to look about to find a way in which he could add to his income. The new railroad station at West Wilmington seemed to be an opening to add small grocery busi- ness to his trade as 8 shoemaker, and the venture was made in the early fifties, he, with his family, moving into the house vacated by the late l.. Phelps. The grocery business did not prove 8 success and in the fall of 1855 he closed ont the business, and with the advice and help of friends bought farm in Ontario, N. Y and in the spring of 1856, with his fami | ly, moved there and made his final venture in farming Right in the midst of this sketch the writer wishes to emphasize the truth as recorded in ter. 10: 23, ''It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" The farm was a very desirable one, with buildings in fair condition, and a fine supply of wood, and to him and his friends it seemed good opening but what followed? First, the scourge of grasshoppers, to which the writer was an eye witness, in the summer of 1858. and the financial panic of 1858-8 which ruined many business men, and with these, and over them, the intense excitement that preceded the civil war. It was a time that tried mems souls. It proved the last straw and the ship was not staunch enough to weather the storm, and with the advice of his friends his last farm venture was abandoned. In 1858. 9 came the news of the death in Burma