Information from Lisa Rich West; 1993;
Source; Curtis, St. Lawrence County part II, Biographical Sketches.
BIOGRAPHICAL; Edwin A. Merritt; Edwin Atkins Merritt, the subject of this sketch traces his ancestry back to Henry Merritt, who was born in Kent County, England. Henry had a son, John, who was born in New England about the year 1635 and died in Scituate, Mass. after 1679, according to his father's estate. John had a son of the same name, who was born in Scituate in 1669 and died there June 5, 1749, leaving a son Jonathan born in 1702 ans died at Hebron, Tolland County, Conn., October 27, 1758. Noah was son of Jonathan, born at Scituate in 1739 and died March 24 1814, at Templeton, Worcester County, Mass. He settled there as early as 1753. He left a son Noah born in October 1758, at Templeton, who died August 21, 1843, at Sudbury, Rutland County, Vt. He married Eunice Metcalf, removing to Brandon, Vt.about 1787. He was father of Noadiah, the father of General Edwin Atkins Merritt. Noadiah was born in Templeton, December 3, 1782, and died at Pierrepont, N.Y., January 1, 1854. His wife, mother of the subject, was Relief Parker, daughter of Jeremiah and Relief Parker who came to Leicester from Roxbury, Mass. before the Revolutionary War.
Noah Merritt, the great-grandfather, was one of the minute men who went to
Lexington at the first call of arma. On the morning of the 19th of April 1775,
Mr. Merritt according to tradition, was harrowing the fields, when the courier
arrived soon after noon, with the new of the incursion of the British troops,
and before night a company of thirty-seven men started for Cambridge. A tablet
inscribed with the names of this company has recently been presented to the
town of Templeton, by Hon. C. C. Merritt, of Springfield, Mass. His
grandfather, Noah Merritt, Jr., served as a soldier during the Revolutionary
War, and participated in the battles of Bunker Hill and Saratoga; he was at one
time an orderly for General Washington and was present at the excution of Major
Andre, the British spy.
Taking up the life record of Edwin Atkins Merritt, who was born in
Sudsbury, Vt., February 26, 1828, we learn that he left Vermont when he was ten
years of age and went to live with a married sister who resided at Westport,
Essex County, N.Y. In 1841, with his father's family, he emigrated to St.
Lawrence County, where he has since resided. He taught school several years,
having resolved to become a surveyor and civil engineer, he qualified himself
for that buisness and pursued that profession for several years, mainly in the
Adirondack Wilderness. He published the first map to guide tourists to this
great resort. He also as engineer had charge of the location and construction
of the eastern part of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad.
In 1858, he married Miss Elisa Rich, and by her had five children, all of
whom died young except Edwin A Merritt, Jr., a graduate of Yale College of the
class of 1884, now of the firm of Merritt and Tappan Postdam Sandstone Company.
In 1854 General Merritt was unanimously elected superrvisor of the town of
Pierrepont, and re-elected the two following years. In 1857,58,59, and 60 he
was clerk of the Board of Supervisors, and in 1859 was elected a member of
assembly from the Second District of this county by 1302 majority, and
re-elected in 1860 by 2259 majority.
In that body his directness and honesty of purpose, his sound judgement
and practicability gave him a commanding place and large influence. At the
opening of the war General Merritt became actively interested in raising troops
and went to the field as quartermaster of the 60th N.Y. Vols. He was for some
time with the army of the Potomac, and after the battle of Gettysburg went west
and participated in the battles about Chattanooga and in Sherman's "march to
the sea," as far as the Altoona mountain, near Marietta, Ga. While in the
field at this point he recieved from President Lincoln a commission as
commissary of subsistence with rank of captain, and was ordered to Washington,
D.C. and stationed on the Potomac River, north of Washington, to supply
reinforcements proceeding to join Sherman's army. At the close of the campaign
he was stationed at Annapolis, Md., to pay commutation of rations to the
soldiers returning from rebel prisions. While on this service he was appointed
quartermaster-general on the staff of Governor Fenton, ad entered upon the
duties of the office January 1, 1865, and held the position during the
governor's two terms, until January, 1869.
In 1867, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, in
which body he held the important position of chairman of the Committee on
Organization of the Legislature. He was also a leading member of the
Republican State Committee for several years.
In March, 1869, he was appointed Naval officer of the port of New York, by
President Grant, and held that position sixteen months. He was removed to make
room for Moses H. Grinnell, who was previously a prominent merchant and was
collector at the time. In 1875 the Republican State Convention, without
solicitation, nominated him for state treasurer, with fredrick W. Seward for
secretary of state, General Spinner for comptroller, and Judge Danforth for
attorney-general. Though beaten at the election, it was indisputably one of
the strongest tickets ever made in the state.
In 1877, there being a vacancy in the office of surveyor of the port of
New York through the expiration of General Sharp's term, General Merritt was
nominated to that office by President Hayes and unanimously confirmed by the
Senate, Roscoe Conklin reporting favorably on the nomination and voting for
confirmation. At the same time the nominations of Messrs, Roosevelt, and
Prince for collector and naval officer, in place of Arthur and Cornell, were
rejected, principally for the reason that there was not a vacancy in those
offices as there was in the surveyorship.
General Merritt's administration of the surveyor's office was so
successful that the president determined to promote him to collectorship, which
was done July 11, 1878 and he was confirmed by the Senate February 3, 1879. It
may be noted that General Merritt is the only man who ever held the three
offices of surveyor, naval officer, and collector of the port of New York.
Among the first nominations made by President Garfield on assuming the duties
of his office in 1881 was that of General Merritt for consul-general at London.
The nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and the record made by
him was the same there as it had been in all the positions he had previously
held. He was superseded after the election of President Cleveland in 1885 by
Thomas M. Waller, ex-governor of Connecticut.
By his untiring industry, accessibility, impartiality, sound sense and
firmness of character, he earned not only in many cases gratitude of his
countrymen visiting the British metropolis, but also the approbation of the
United States government.
General Merritt is a man of great ability and possesses a large store of
practical sense. He rarely makes misakes, as he does not assume a position
until he thoroughly understands it, when in his mind there is but one course to
pursue, and that is to move onward.
General Merritt was for many years an intimate personal friend of Horace
Greeley, and earnestly supported his candidacy for the United States Senate in
1861, as well as for the presidency in 1872.
After his retirement from the Naval Office in 1871, he was offered the
position of United States Minister to Brazil; this was done through Hon.
William A. Wheeler, then a member of congress and afterwards vice-president of
the United States. The position thus tendered he felt constrained to decline.
His intimate association with Hon. John Sherman while the latter was secretary
of the treasury, made him a warm friend and supporter of that distinguished
statesman.
General Merritt has always taken an active interest in the cause of
education and especially was influential in the location and management of the
State Normal and Training School at Potsdam. He is at present (1891) president
of the Local Board, as well as president of the corporation of The St. Lawrence
University located at Canton, N.Y.
Since his retirement from public life he has led a quiet one at Potsdam
and enjoys the esteem of his fellowmen. His public career has been an
exceptionally active one and has no doubt been sharply antagonized by those who
did not agree with him as to men and measures. It has not, however interfered
with friendly and personal relations with those with whom hw has become
associated in the ordinary affairs of life. His record is one of which he may
be proud and his friends unqualifiedly approve.
