Selah Merrill Selah Merrill , ( May 2 , 1837 – January 22 , 1909 ) was an American Congregationalist clergyman . He served as the American consul in Jerusalem . Biography . Selah Merrill was born in Canton Centre , Connecticut on May 2 , 1837 and died on January 22 , 1909 at Fruitvale , California . He was the son of Lydia Richards and Daniel Merrill and was a member of the fifth generation of the Merrill family in America . The Merrills were descended from an old and esteemed Massachusetts family and his original immigrant ancestor was Nathaniel Merrill from Wherstead , County Suffolk , England and was one of the earliest settlers in Newbury , Massachusetts . After graduating from Williston Seminary in Easthampton , Massachusetts , he studied at Yale College , but did not graduate . He studied theology at the New Haven Theological Seminary , graduating in 1863 , and was ordained in the Congregational Church , at Feeding Mills , Massachusetts in 1864 . He then spent two years ( 1868 – 1870 ) in Germany at the Berlin where he studied the ancient Hebrew language . He received the degree of A . M . from Yale College ; D . D . from Grinnell College in 1875 ; and a LL . D . from Union College in 1884 . He served as a chaplain of the 49th U . S . Colored Infantry , also known as the 11th Louisiana Regiment Infantry , at Vicksburg , Mississippi from 1864 until the close of the War . In 1866 , he married Fanny Lucinda Cooke , who died the following year . In 1868 , he married Mrs . Phila ( Wilkin ) Fargo , who died only two years later . On April 26 , 1875 , at Andover , Massachusetts , he married Adelaide Brewster Taylor . She was born on January 14 , 1845 at Rochester , Monroe County , New York ; and died on January 24 , 1929 in Piedmont , Alameda County , California . She was the daughter of Dr . Oliver Brewster Taylor , an 1848 graduate of Harvard University , and Sophia Hale Hubbard . She was the great granddaughter of Dr . Oliver Wadsworth Brewster , who served in Col . John Brown ' s regiment in the American Revolutionary War and was the first physician in Becket , Massachusetts . His home , built in 1786 , is still standing and is currently occupied by the Becket - Chimney Corners YMCA . In 1915 , his wife donated his Josephus collection to Yale University and promoted the posthumous publication of his " New Comprehensive Dictionary of the Bible " . Career . During the last year of the American Civil War Merrill served as chaplain of the Forty - ninth United States colored infantry . In 1868 , he went to Germany , where he studied for two years . In 1874 – 1877 , he traveled to Palestine where he worked as an archæologist for the American Palestine Exploration Society , excavating the second wall of Jerusalem and trying to determine the site of Calvary . Merrill served as United States Consul in Jerusalem in 1882 – 1885 , 1891 – 1893 , and 1898 – 1907 . He was a staunch opponent of the commune at the American Colony , Jerusalem and sought every opportunity to dismantle it . He also opposed Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine and shaped the views of the U . S . State Department on this matter . In 1872 and 1879 , he taught at Andover Theological Seminary and became curator of the Biblical Museum there . In 1907 he served as American Consul at Georgetown , Guiana .