John Merrill (Merrell)
John Merrill (or Merrell) was born July 24, 1757, near Hopewell, New Jersey. He was the youngest of three sons born to William Merrill and Mary Cornell.
John was three years old when his family left New Jersey for North Carolina. They settled in what was then Rowan County. (The area later became part of Guilford County and then Randolph County.) The old Merrill homeplace was located where present-day Davidson, Guilford, and Randolph Counties come together near Thomasville.
John enlisted in the American Army in 1778. He served in Captain Enoch Davis’s Company in Colonel Frank Locke’s North Carolina Regiment. He was at the Battle of Brier Creek in Georgia. He was discharged in 1779 after five months’ service. In 1781 he enlisted again and served in Captain Thomas Dougan’s Company in Colonel John Collier’s North Carolina Regiment. During a battle in Guilford County, he was wounded on the head with a sword, which caused him to lose an eye. He was discharged in July of that year but served in scouting parties against the British and Tories for the remainder of the War.
In late 1782 or early 1783 British soldiers raided the Merrill farm. John and his older brother Benjamin were not home at the time; they were out hunting nearby. The British plundered the farm, helping themselves to anything they wanted. John’s mother, Mary, told them exactly what she thought of them. For this, the British soldiers split the old woman’s tongue. They then picked up John’s father, William, and carried the old man off.
As John and Benjamin returned from hunting, they saw the soldiers’ lantern and heard their father’s voice. They were afraid to fire on the British for fear they might hit their father. He was never seen again and was presumed killed by the soldiers. John Merrill hated the British and their supporters for the rest of his life.
John Merrill married Catherine Rhodes about 1783. She had been born on October 20, 1760. They lived near the old Merrill homeplace until shortly after the birth of their eighth child in 1798. Then they moved their family to Fairview to be with John’s brother Benjamin and other relatives and friends who had already moved to the area.
In August 1800, Merrill bought three tracts of land from his brother Benjamin: 115-acre and 156-acre tracts on Cane Creek, as well as a piece of property in Asheville. John settled on the Brush Creek section of Cane Creek. He later bought 60 acres from the State of North Carolina in 1804, 148 acres from Thomas Kelley, Jr., in 1815, 65 acres from Mosby Owen in 1816, and 130 acres from Robert Pinkerton in 1821. Merrill’s farm on Brush and Cane Creeks came to total at least 674 acres.
Merrill became a relatively well-to-do farmer. He owned several slaves and played a major role in the early Fairview community.
In the early 1830s, John Merrill’s health began to fail. He wrote his last will and testament in April 1833. He listed eleven children in his will, ten of whom were still living. (Only the oldest son, William, was dead.) The will was probated in January 1834; thus Merrill died in November or December 1833.
Catherine Rhodes Merrill died sometime between 1834 and 1840. Both John and Catherine were buried in the Merrill-Patton Cemetery on Brush Creek.
John and Catherine Merrill had eleven children:
1. Sarah, born in 1784 in Randolph County. She married Joseph Garren. She died between 1840 and 1848 in what is now Henderson County.
2. William, born in 1785 in Randolph County. He died in Fairview in 1809. He married Nancy McCrary, who later married Eli Merrill (a first cousin to William) and moved to Missouri.
3. Jacob, born in 1785 in Randolph County. He married Jennie McCarson. He died in 1847 or 1857, and both he and his wife are buried in the Merrill-Patton Cemetery.
4. Andrew, born in 1788 in Randolph County. He moved to Alabama around 1830.
5. Susannah, born in 1791 in Randolph County. She married a man named Owens, most likely a son of Mosbey Owens.
6. John, born in 1793 in Randolph County. He married Elizabeth Garren. She died in 1868, and he died in Fairview in 1876. Both are buried in Cane Creek Cemetery.
7. Mary, born in 1796 in Randolph County. She married James Maxwell. She died between 1860 and 1870. She and her husband are buried in the Edney Cemetery in Edneyville.
8. Elizabeth, born in 1798 in Randolph County. She married Richard Roberts.
9. Catherine, born in 1800 in Fairview. She married Ambrose J. Edney. She died in 1871 in Henderson County. She and her husband are buried in the Edney Cemetery in Edneyville.
10. Nancy, born in Fairview in either 1802 or 1803 (Patton and Merrill Bibles give different dates). She married Matthew Patton. She died in 1880. She and her husband are buried in the Merrill-Patton Cemetery.
11. Joseph, born in 1807 in Fairview. He married Jane Byers. They moved to Georgia in the early 1840s, where he died sometime after 1880.
Source:
Days gone by...in Fairview
by Bruce Whitaker
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