Henry Merrill
- For the comic book writer, see Dick Merrill
Henry Merrill (also spelled Henry Merrell) (August 7, 1804–May 5, 1874) was an American businessman and politician.
Merrill was born in Utica, New York in 1804, and moved with his family to Sackett's Harbor in 1819.
In 1834 he was appointed sutler and postmaster of Fort Winnebago; he remained in the area for the rest of his life.[1] Merrill served as a superintendent of the Bank of Wisconsin, which was established in 1835.
Merrill witnessed the effects of Winnebago Treaty of 1837, signed November 1, 1837, in which members of the Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) nation were defrauded into handing over there lands by 1845. He helped conduct the 1840 United States Census within the Wisconsin Territory, and was clerk of court in Portage County in 1842.
Merrill was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate as a Whig, serving in 1848 and 1849.
Merrill died in 1874. He was a member of the Episcopal Church in Portage. His house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
Notes
- ↑ 'History of the Territory of Wisconsin p. 103-04 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030998698
References
- Henry Merrell, "Pioneer Life in Wisconsin" in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Volume 7 https://books.google.com/books?id=JCQLAAAAIAAJ