Old Families of Woodstock
History of Windsor County Vermont
Lewis Cass Aldrich published in 1891
Merrill, Prosper, was born in Burlington, Conn., September 25, 1812, the second son and seventh child in a family of ten children of Bissell and Polly (Johnson) Merrill. His father was a native of New Hartford, Conn., and was killed by an accident in October, 1830, at the age of thirty-four. He was the son of Enos Merrill, who was a native of New Hartford, Conn., and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The subject of this sketch received the benefit of only a district school education. At the age of thirteen he became an employee in a woolen-mill at Torrington, Conn., afterwards at Spencer and Leicester, Mass., and at the time of the panic in 1837 was superintendent of a mill at Oxford, Mass. In February of the following year he first came to Vermont and accepted the superintendence of the finishing department of the Felchville Woolen Company's Mills. Remaining with them but a short time, he was employed by Earl & Campbell to superintend their mills at Cambridgeport, Vt., and remained there till 1840. After leaving their employ, he hired and operated mills at Drewsville, Saxton's River and Springfield. Finall3^ in 1850, he located at Felchville, purchasing of the Felchville Woolen Company their buildings and water privileges. He continued successfully to run this mill until the spring of 1858, when it was destroyed by fire. In the fall of that year he moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where he engaged in the monumental business, but becoming dissatisfied he sold his interest and returned to Vermont. A new mill was that year built at Felchville, which he stocked and re-engaged in the manufacture of woolens. This mill was burned February, 1867, at which time Mr. Merrill retired from active business on the advice of his physician, on account of his health. While carrying on this factory his monthly pay roll averaged $2,000. Upon his retirement from active business Mr. Merrill removed to Woodstock, where he built his present house and where he has since resided. He has been identified with the Republican party since its organization and has taken an active part in the political affairs of the State. He represented Reading in the Legislature, and was State Senator from Windsor county in 1861-62. Mr. Merrill is pre-eminently a self-made man ; temperate in his habits, energetic and industrious, he ranks among the successful business men of the State. While at the head of the mills in Felchville the town enjoyed the greatest prosperity ever known in its history. While he is well known to be liberal to the poor, he is wholly unostentatious in his charities. He married, first, Almira Cummings of Milford, Conn. Of their three children, two died in infancy; Frederick B. resides in Woodstock. He married, second, Hannah Boles, of Rockingham, Vt. Their only child, John B., died in 1866, aged twenty-five. Frederick B., born in Wolcottville, Conn., October 29, 1831, married, first, Esther R. Dunlap, and had two children : Martha, wife of 0. T. White, of Easthampton, Mass, who has three children, Merrill, Mabel and Charlotte; and Carrie L., died aged twenty-two years, nine months. He married, second, Calista White. They have four children, John P., Edwin L., May and George.
Myrick, Samuel, the son of Jonathan and Abigail (Brown) Myrick, was born in Newton, Mass., in February, 1757. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, being only eighteen years of age, he joined the army and served his country faithfully until peace was declared. He was commissioned first lieutenant, and also was. during a part of the time, quartermaster. He was present at the surrender of Burgoyne's and Cornwallis's armies. In January, 1787, he married Martha, daughter of Col. Jonathan and Frances (Buckminster) Brewer, and came to Woodstock, Vt., in 1790, settled upon the farm on which he died December 13, 1839, and which by his labor alone was cleared and became one of the best farms in town. His widow survived him, but died February 26, 1850, aged eighty-five years. Of their family of twelve children, only two are living, viz.: Mrs. Stephen Farnsworth, whose home is at West Lebanon, N. H., and Miss Julia D. Myrick, who resides at Springfield, is the only one of Samuel Myrick's descendants living in Windsor county who retains her surname.
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