Samuel Merrill (Indiana)

Samuel Merrill (October 29, 1792 – August 24, 1855) was an early leading citizen of the U.S. state of Indiana.

Samuel was born in 1792 in Peacham, Vermont. He attended Dartmouth College for one year before moving to Pennsylvania to study law. In 1816 he moved to Vevay, Indiana. He was soon elected to the Indiana General Assembly, where he served three consecutive terms. In 1822 he was elected as State Treasurer of Indiana, a position he held until 1834.

Samuel married Lydia Jane Anderson in 1818 and had 10 children, including Catharine Merrill. In 1849 he married Elizabeth Young.

In 1824 he moved to Indianapolis. He was an early president of the Temperance Society, a manager of the State Colonization Society, a trustee of Wabash College, active in the Second Presbyterian Church, and the second President of the Indiana Historical Society (from 1835-48).

In 1834 the State Bank of Indiana was founded and the General Assembly choose Samuel Merrill to be its first President. "His honesty and splendid record made him a man to inspire confidence in the bank," wrote the Indianapolis News in a July 15, 1911 historical feature. President Merrill visited all thirteen branches twice each year, traveling on horseback. He would personally examine the branches' accounts and ledgers, and was said to be able to run over columns of figures with machine-like rapidity and accuracy. The One Dollar Bill issued by the Bank featured his picture on the front.

From 1844 to 1848 Samuel served as president of the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. In 1850 he bought one of the four bookstores in Indianapolis and started a book publishing firm. Over the years this firm became known as Merrill, Meigs, and Company, followed by the Bowen-Merrill Company, and finally the Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Samuel Merrill died in 1855 in Indianapolis, at the age of 62.