Samuel Vaughan Merrick

{{Infobox person

| name = Samuel Vaughan Merrick

| image = Samuel Vaughan Merrick.png

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1801|05|04}}

| birth_place = Hallowell, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1870|08|18|1801|05|04}}

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| resting_place = Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| occupation = Businessman

| employer =

| spouse = {{Marriage|Sarah Thomas|December 25, 1823}}

| children = 1

| relatives =

| awards =

| education =

| party =

| signature = Signature of Samuel Vaughan Merrick.png

}}

Samuel Vaughan Merrick (1801–1870) was a 19th-century American manufacturer, and the first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Biography

File:Coat of Arms of Samuel Vaughan Merrick.svg

Born near Hallowell, Massachusetts (it became part of Maine in 1820) on May 4, 1801,{{sfnp|Burgess|Kennedy|1949|p=44}} Merrick left school in 1816 and moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for his merchant uncle John Vaughan.{{sfnp|Burgess|Kennedy|1949|p=44}} He subsequently studied engineering, and in 1824 founded, with scientist William Keating, The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, of which he was President from 1832 until 1854.{{sfnp|Burgess|Kennedy|1949|p=44}} He also established the firm of Merrick and Agnew, which manufactured fire engines.{{sfnp|Goodwin|1870}}

He married Sarah Thomas on December 25, 1823 and they had one son.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THRMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA333 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=XIII |publisher=James T. White & Company |pages=333–334 |year=1906 |access-date=2020-08-21 |via=Google Books}}

In 1836, Merrick established the Southwark Iron Foundry,{{sfnp|Burgess|Kennedy|1949|p=44}} which became one of the most advanced manufacturing plants of its kind in this country. Operated by the firm of Merrick & Towne (later renamed Merrick & Sons), the foundry built the engines for the USS Mississippi.{{sfnp|Goodwin|1870}}

Merrick took a deep interest in public affairs and was instrumental to the introduction of illuminating gas into Philadelphia, being the chairman of a Committee of the Common Council that reported on the benefits of gaslighting. He also served as the first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which he had advocated as a means to connect Philadelphia to the west,{{sfnp|Goodwin|1870}}{{sfnp|Burgess|Kennedy|1949|p=43}} and was also president of the Sunbury and Erie Railroad{{sfnp|Churella|2013|page=229}} (later part of the PRR) and the Catawissa Railroad (later part of the Reading Railroad). Merrick was a member of the American Philosophical Society from 1833 until his death.

Merrick maintained a residence in Haddon Township, New Jersey.{{cite web |last=White-Grear |first=Sandra |url=http://www.haddontwphistoricalsociety.org/presentations--Whitall-VanSciverPaper.pdf |title=The Whitall-Van Sciver House |publisher=Haddon Township Historical Society |access-date=2011-03-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321141654/http://www.haddontwphistoricalsociety.org/presentations--Whitall-VanSciverPaper.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-21 }} He died in Philadelphia on August 18, 1870, and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.{{cite web |title=Samuel V Merrick |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/samuel-v-merrick?id=2wxQlbK0 |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=4 January 2025}}

Footnotes

References

{{cite book |last1=Burgess |first1=George H. |last2=Kennedy |first2=Miles C. |title=Centennial History of The Pennsylvania Railroad Company |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Pennsylvania Railroad Co. |date=1949 |oclc=499299}}
{{Churella-PRR-1}}
{{cite journal |last=Goodwin |first=Daniel R. |title=Obituary Notice of Samuel Vaughan Merrick, Esq. |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=December 16, 1870 |volume=11 |pages=584–596 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZL8AAAAAYAAJ&q=%22samuel+vaughan+merrick%22&pg=PA584 |access-date=2016-08-05 }}
{{cite book |title=Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary |date = January 1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0HqhGvQF4CQC&pg=RA1-PA150 |access-date=18 May 2013 |publisher=North American Book Dist LLC |isbn=978-0-403-09950-4 |pages=150}}

{{succession box

| before=

| title=President of the Pennsylvania Railroad

| years=1847–1849

| after=William C. Patterson}}

Category:1801 births

Category:1870 deaths

Category:Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)

Category:People from Haddon Township, New Jersey

Category:People from Hallowell, Maine

Category:Pennsylvania Railroad people

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society