Horace Merrill was my paternal great grandfather. Little is know of his early life other than he left Plymouth County, Mass., about 1800 to live at Amherst, Mass. He next showed up at Bolton, Ct., where he married Deborah Paine, daughter of Stephen Paine IV (1700–97). They had 5 children of whom the third, Frederic Henry I was my grandfather, therefore of direct lineage of the Greenbush and Avon, Ill., and Airdrie, Alta., Merrills and Switzers.
He was born in Amherst, Mass., July 25, 1819 and grew up there. As a young man he went to Orwell, Vt., and worked in a large store at what is now known as Chipman’s Point, a few miles from Orwell and near the south end of Lake Champlain. In 1836 his parents moved to Chardon, Geauga County, O., and Frederic joined them there and went into business for himself. He sold out 3 years later and embarked on a river boat at East Liverpool, O., on which he must have spent most of one summer as he travelled from near the south side of Lake Erie, near the Pennsylvania state line, to the confluence of the Ohio river with the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill., then up that river nearly the full length of Illinois to the town of Oquawka. I do not know why he disembarked there, having passed much larger towns and having seen many beautiful spots on his voyage, but I am glad he did for I might never have met my husband, nor the Avon people.
Grandfather taught school in Warren and Henderson counties before associating himself with Alfred Osborn in Greenbush, Ill., once a thriving inland town, but now only a corner sore with post office. He married Lucretia Paine of Freedom, O., Aug. 27, 1847 and they became the parents of 11 children of whom 8 survived infancy. My father, Frederic Horace II, was the fourth child, being Born April 20, 1860 and living until October 25, 1943.
Grandfather sold his interests in Green bush in 1863 and established the Merrill store in Avon, which he conducted until his retirement. My father and Uncle Giles Merrill, both of whom had clerked for their father Avon bought it and ran it until 1913, when it was sold to Al Sundberg of Avon. Grandfather died in Avon, August 14, 1892, but grandmother lived until April 28, 1897. They are buried in the Avon cemetery.
Those children of my grandparents, who survived infancy, were: Mary Emily Johnston, married April 26, 1868 to Albro Johnson. Her date of birth was July 4, 1848; Chas Henry Merrill, born January 11, 1850 and Effie Maria Merrill, born Nov., 19, 1853, neither of whom married, but who lived together in the old home in Avon for many years; Frederic Horace II, my father, married Mary Alice Belding, June 2, 1892, died October 25, 1943; Giles Edward Merrill, born December 13, 1862, married Pearl Meachem December 14, 1893; Arthur, born November 20, 1860, married Elizabeth bliss July 18, 1894, divorced her and married Catharine Robey October 12, 1898; Cora Elizabeth, born April 17, 1865, died May 10, 1879. They have all passed away, so have my Belding aunts and uncles. I have only one living first cousin on the Belding side, Chas. Stevens of Short Hills, N.Y. and 3 Merrill cousins.
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