GEORGE PERKINS ^[EKKU.L (1854-1029)' 



By Chaklks Schucuert 



[Willi 1 plaU'l 



Georn^e Perkins Merrill was born May 31, 1854, at Auburn, Me., 

 and died there suddenly on the niorninj; of August 15, rJiii). He 

 was spending; his vacation at his summer home on the Isle of Springs 

 off the coast of Maine. On the afternoon of the 14th he left the 

 island to look up a reported find of large beryl crystals at Albany, 

 Me. That night he spent with his brother, Horace, at Auburn. 

 Starting early the next morning for Albany, he was stricken with 

 ajwplexy in the railway station at Auburn Avhile waiting for the 

 train. As Miss Moodey writes: 



It seemed quite strange tlmt he should have Kono back to his birthplace nnd 

 died there ; it is also there that he is burietl. The funeral services were h»'ld 

 on Sunday the 18th in the Minot Church, where his grandfather preached. 



Merrill's father, Lucius Merrill, a carpenter and cabinetmaker, was 

 a descendant of Nathaniel Merrill, who settled in Newbury, Mass., in 

 1633, and who is stated to have been one of the Huguenot de Merles 

 who were driven out of France at the time of the massacre of St. 

 Bartholomew, the name ''Merrill " being a corruption. His mother, 

 Anne, was the daughter of the Rev. Elijah Jones, of the First Con- 

 gregational Church at Minot, Me. There were seven children. He 

 writes : 



The home being somewhat crowded, I lived for several summers with my 

 grandfather in Minot, and after I had bocoine of sufficient age to be of value, 

 worke<l for tliree summers on the neighboring farm of my uncle. I was edu- 

 cated in the t<j\vn schools of Aul)urn and the Lewiston Falls Academy, situated 

 in Auburn, afterwards icnown as the Edward Little High School. I early 

 became quite independent, at first doing small chores for the neighbors, then 



' In the propnrntlon of this mt'tnorial. tho wrltor has hnd tho ,idvanfHj;o, through the 

 kindness of Mrn. Mprrill. of seolng an autobiofrniphlcal sketch prepared hy Doctor Merrill 

 at the request of the .National Academy of Sciences in .\prll. 191'4 : and he is indebte<l 

 for other information to Miss Margaret W. Moodey, assistant In the department of 

 geology, Inited States National Museum. The writer's personal a(<|Ualntance with Doc- 

 tor Merrill began in 189;{ and covered 10 years of association with him In the I'nlted 

 States National Museum and three years spent as a member of his family. It was kept 

 alive after their paths fllveiged by < orre.spoudeuce and occasional conta<ts. Hence, the 

 present trihutf is not only to a sclentlllc colleague, but to a highly valued friend. .\ 

 more detailed sketch of Doctor Merrill, accompanied by a complete bibliography, will be 

 found in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of .\merlca. vol. 42, in.'H. 



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