Tehama-Calaveras-San Joaquin County CA Archives Biographies.....Merrill, Nathaniel 1823 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 18, 2007, 7:12 pm Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891) NATHANIEL MERRILL, a Forty-niner, was born among the White Hills of New Hampshire, in Conway, Carroll County, April 23, 1823. His father, Samuel Merrill, and his ancestors for two generations before him, were natives of the State of Maine. Samuel Merrill was born at Brownfield, and was a blacksmith by trade. He married Miss Dorcas Eastman, a native of Conway, New Hampshire. They were members of the Congregational Church. Her father, Richard Eastman, was a pioneer of Conway, and had many fights with the Indians. He had to go to Concord, seventy-live miles distant, on snow-shoes, drawing a sled to bring provisions to his family. Mr. Merrill had eight brothers and sisters, but only four of them are now living. He received his education at his native place, and learned the wheelwright trade with his brother, in Littleton, New Hampshire. After working at it two years, he traveled in Canada and New York, in the employ of the celebrated scale company, Fairbanks, putting up scales. In 1848 Mr. Merrill was employed at his trade in Lowell, Massachusetts, and during that winter he was one of a party of thirty-five young men who formed a company to go to California. They went to New York by rail, and there chartered the schooner Florida to take them to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. From that place they took teams to Fort Brown, following the Rio Grande, on the Texas side, to Romeo, where they crossed the river on a ferryboat, and thence made their way to Monterey, California. The party there divided, and Mr. Merrill and his part of the company came on the old Graham trail and arrived at the mines on the Merced River in August, 1849. He mined there with good success until the rainy season set in. The first day he worked Mr. Merrill washed two ounces of gold, and he presumes that two ounces more went down the River. The most he ever got in one day was $200, but he says he never met with any big find. In December of that year he went to San Francisco where he spent the winter, and in the spring he went to Murphy's camp and mined two months. From there he went to Stockton and purchased four mules and a wagon and engaged in freighting, which was then a very paying business and which he followed until the rainy season. About this time he learned that his cousin, Captain Ford, whom he had supposed was dead, was at Moon's ranch in Tehama County. Mr. Merrill would have traveled any distance to see him, as they had been like brothers; so he came to this county, found him and formed a partnership with him. Each of them took their pre-emptions and secured a section with school land warrants. Mr. Merrill has since added to his property until he is now the owner of 1,500 acres of land in one body, located on the Sacramento River, opposite the Stanford ranch. There he built his home and reared his family, and there he has been engaged in general farming, raising grain and stock. He also purchased lots in Red Bluff, and, in 1886, built a fine city residence. In 1857 he was united in marriage with Miss Harriet Thomas, a native of New Hampshire. They have a family of four children, two sons and two daughters, all born on their ranch in Tehama County. They are as follows: Frank P.; Alice, now the wife of Dr. W. F. Maggard; Catharine A., wife of James R. Tapscott, an attorney of Yreka; and Nathaniel Edward. Mr. Merrill is a prominent Knight Templar Mason, and has held all the offices of his lodge, and is High Priest of the Chapter and Captain General of the Commandery. Politically he is a Republican. Nat Merrill, as he is familiarly called, is one of the well-known pioneers of California, and justly deserves his pleasant home in this sunny clime. Long may he live to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Additional Comments: Extracted from Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California. Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of Prominent Citizens of To-day. "A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendents." – Macauley. CHICAGO THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1891. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/tehama/bios/merrill732gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb