Bio of MELENDY, Samuel W. (b.1841 d.1916), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol. II, pg 498-502
SAMUEL W. MELENDY (Samuel Wheelock Melendy)
Samuel W. Melendy, deceased, who for many years ranked as the leading
phar­macist of Minneapolis, conducting business as senior partner of the firm of
Melendy & Lyman, was widely known in pharmaceutical circles also as the most
active of the founders of the Minnesota State Pharmaceutical Association and as
one of the stanchest friends and promoters of the College of Pharmacy in
connection with the State University. Moreover, while he contributed in large
measure to the estab­lishment of advanced standards for the profession, he was
endeared to his fellow pharmacists and to all who knew him by a most kindly
spirit and many admirable qualities. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts,
August 8, 1841, his parents being Elbridge Gerry and Clarissa Downer (Trescott)
Melendy, the former a native of Grantham, New Hampshire, and the latter of
Thetford, Vermont. The ancestral line can be traced back to a very early period
in the settlement of the new world. The family resided at Lowell, Massachusetts,
and at Seneca Falls, New York, also at Woodstock, Vermont, and finally removed
to Stoughton, Wisconsin.
Samuel W. Melendy obtained a common school education and then entered the drug
business at the age of fifteen years. It was through the assistance of a
phy­sician who was one of the proprietors of the drug store in which he worked
at Stoughton, Wisconsin, that he obtained his first knowledge concerning the
pharma­ceutical profession. He remained with his original employers for eleven
years as clerk-a fact indicative of his capability, faithfulness and loyalty,
and then bought out one of the partners in the business. This was in 1868, and
in the same year he was married to Adelle Caroline Duncan, daughter of Henry
Duncan and Caroline Boynton Duncan, both of Windsor county, Vermont. Mr. Duncan,
with his family, removed from Vermont to Rock county, Wisconsin, in 1849.
After three years of successful trade in Stoughton, a business opportunity
offered in Minneapolis, and realizing the advantages of a larger and more
rapidly growing place, Mr. Melendy sold his interest in the store and moved to
Minneapolis in 1871. where he entered the employ of Lyman & Williams,
representing the interest of Mr. Williams in the firm. This position he retained
for three years, when he bought out Mr. Williams, the firm name becoming Melendy
& Lyman, with Mr. Melendy as managing partner, as Mr. George R. Lyman, while
retaining an interest, gave his personal attention to his wholesale business. He
remained at the head of the enterprise for many years, or until the business was
closed out and he retired from active mercantile pursuits. He long held an
enviable position as the leading pharmacist of Minneapolis and his store was one
of the notable commercial features of the city. He also dealt in real estate to
a considerable extent. His activity and interest, however, centered in the
pharmaceutical profession, and he was instrumental in organizing the State
Pharmaceutical Association of Minnesota, of which he served as the second
president, and he was also a member of its legislative committee, which was
active in bringing about the adoption of various laws beneficial to the
profession and of great worth in protecting the public against the use of
adulterated or harmful drugs.
Mr. Melendy was very active in politics and gave stalwart support to the
repub­lican party, yet he never aspired to office. His interest was that of a
progressive citizen, who recognizes his duties in relation to the government and
he exerted his aid and influence in every possible way to uphold those interests
which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. Because of the close
attention he gave to his business he never became a club man, but the social
qualities of his nature gained for him many friends and all who knew him
entertained for him the highest respect and confidence. He left the impress of
his individuality in large measure upon the commercial history of Minneapolis
and no man did more to maintain and promote the standards of the pharmacy in the
city than he.
One of the most important features in the activity of Mr. Melendy was his strong
friendship for and support of the pharmaceutical college of the University of
Min­nesota. In this connection Frederick J. Wulling, in an article which
appeared in the Northwestern Druggist in December, 1916, wrote: "He was among
the com­paratively few who in the earliest days of the College became its stanch
and per­manent friends. Mr. Melendy's active interest in the College, however,
exceeded that of any other, except myself. Because of his modesty I did not
learn through him of the paramount part he took in the organization of the state
association and later of the College, but I soon learned by my association with
him that back of his modesty and reserve was a most kind, generous and
sympathetic nature, with a distinct leaning to the idealistic, as well as to the
practical. Only few supported me at the time in the standards I advocated, and
so far as my power went, also set, and in the many days of discouragement and
obstacles Samuel W. Melendy always had a word of good cheer and encouragement.
In those early days he often visited the College and showed the most sympathetic
and understanding interest in the difficult work of the faculty. Not only was he
interested in the College, he was also proud of it and often expressed his
pleasure at the important part he had the privilege of taking in bringing it
into life. He early realized with me that the success of the College depended in
a large measure upon financial support and a number of times he strengthened and
qualified from the practicing pharmacists' standpoint my requests for funds, by
conferences with his good friend, ex-Governor John Pillsbury, who through Mr.
Melendy grew to be, next to him and President Northrop, the best friend of the
College, and without whose sympathetic help and substantial support the College
might have died a slow death soon after it was born, for the College was not a
wholly welcome addition to the University family and was reared in a practically
hostile atmosphere. The three men who helped me most in my persistence in those
times were President Northrop, Mr. Melendy and ex-Gov­ernor Pillsbury. A number
of times Mr. Melendy arranged on his own initiative, conferences for me with
those good friends, always with affirmative results for the College. Mr. Melendy
was then and ever since has been in the fullest confidence of the College and
the College has always had his confidence. His greatest support I had in my
unwillingness to listen to those who persistently, though without avail,
advocated low entrance and graduation requirements. In the same forceful way in
which he advocated high and ethical standards for the practice of pharmacy, he
stimulated and supported all efforts on the part of the faculty to establish
higher stand­ards for pharmaceutical education, for he realized that a sound and
sufficient train­ing, both academically and professionally, of entrants upon the
calling were essen­tial and fundamental in establishing and maintaining a high
level of pharmaceutical practice.
"Samuel W. Melendy lived a useful life. Among his many achievements three stand
out prominently: first, his prominence and success in behalf of ethical
phar­macy; second, in the organization of the state association and in its
legislation in the interests of higher and better pharmacy; and last but not
least, in the establishment and maintenance of the College. For these things,
especially, is posterity indebted to him. While his body is interred in
beautiful, peaceful Lakewood, his spirit still lives and his influence for
better things in pharmacy will ever continue.” Samuel W. Melendy died October
29, 1916