Merrill, Joseph A

Merrill, Joseph A.

a noted Methodist Episcopal minister, was born at Newbury, Mass.; Nov. 22,1785; was-converted in 1804; entered the New England Conference in 1807; was stationed in Boston in 1813-14; in 1815-18 was presiding elder on Vermont District; in 1819 was agent of the Wesleyan Academy at New Market, and the first missionary of the first missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was formed by the Lynn Common Church, and his field was New Hampshire. In 1826-27 he was stationed in Boston; 1830-33 was presiding elder on Providence District; 1834-38 was on Springfield District; 1843-47, in Salem, Boston, and Cambridge; and died at Wilbraham, Mass., July 22,1849. "Mr. Merrill was an able and useful minister, and greatly devoted to the interests of the Church. He was one of the original trustees of the Wesleyan University, and remarkably successful as an agent for the academy, of which he secured the removal to Wilbraham. He was one of the earliest and most devoted friends of the anti-slavery cause, and his name is honorably identified with the rise and progress of' that important movement." His administrative and practical talents were of the highest order, and his firm integrity made him trusted and respected by all. See Minutes of Conferences, 4:536; Steven's Memorials of Methodism, ii, ch. 32:(G. L. T.)