Senator Joseph Henry Merrill View All Years

JOSEPH H. MERRILL

MR. PRESIDENT — Your committee, appointed to prepare and submit resolutions in memory of Joseph H. Merrill of Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa, beg leave to report as follows:

It is but fitting tonight that we should pause for a moment to commemorate the life work and character of Senator Joseph H. Merrill of Ottumwa, who as one of the pioneer lawmakers of Iowa served his district in the State Senate during the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth General Assemblies with honor to himself and distinction to the state.

Senator Joseph H. Merrill was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, September 27th, 1827, and came to Ottumwa in 1862, where he entered the grocery business at a time when Ottumwa was but a thriving village. As a business man he was successful, and when he retired from business ten years ago he was at the head of the wholesale grocery house of J. H. Merrill & Co. of Ottumwa, with branch houses at Creston and Red Oak.

The name of J. H. Merrill was the synonym for conservative business methods and at the time of his death he was president of the Iowa National Bank of Ottumwa, the City Savings Bank of Ottumwa, and of the Agency Savings Bank of Agency, Iowa, and was one of the leading spirits in the Dain Manufacturing Company and the Ottumwa Brick and Construction Company.

He was senior warden in the Trinity Episcopal Church of Ottumwa, and was one of the foremost men of the church in Iowa. He had frequently represented the Iowa diocese at national meetings.

Senator Merrill was of sturdy New England stock, and as such won a place for himself in his adopted state, where he carved his name on our western civilization in a way that time can never efface.

To such as him we owe this splendid civilization we call Iowa.

He endeared himself to all who knew him, and the earnest prayer, “May his soul rest in peace,” rises in precious pleading from every heart.

A patriotic citizen, a loving husband and father, a successful business man, a loyal public servant; such was Senator Joseph H. Merrill, whom we mourn tonight; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Senate join with his neighbors and friends in sorow and hereby extend to his family its sincere sympathy in their bereavement; be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the records of the Senate and that a properly engrossed copy signed by the President and Secretary be sent to the bereaved family.

JOHN F. WEBBER,

LAMONTE COWLES,

F. A. HEALD,

Committee.