Son of Samuel Merrick and Margaret Eunice Hull
Married Elizabeth T
Daughter - Elizabeth Merrick
Married Sophia Duffin, 1 March 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Eunice Sophia Merrick, Amelia Merrick, Ida Margaret Merrick, L. Nellie Merrick, Devalson Marcus Merrick, Sean Leander Merrick
History - Nothing is known of his early life in New York. He had been married before and had a daughter, Elizabeth, whom he kept with him. There is no record of the first wife's name or what happened to her.
According to Hancock County Deeds, on 31 October 1848 Marcus bought a plot of land on block 141 in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. We know he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 28 March, 1854 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In General Conference, held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Saturday, April 8, 1854, Marcus was called on a mission to "To the Pacific Isles" along with 5 other brethren. We also learn from Elder Parley P. Pratt, who wrote in a letter dated Wednesday, Oct. 25 1854, from Santa Clara, California and addressed to Brigham Young: "We have sent brother Merrick to Sacramento to preach; he has baptized one man, a Baptist student."
Elder Marcus D. Merrick traveled to San Francisco to return to Salt Lake City on June 20, 1855 with the Parley P. Pratt Company of the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Company, arriving in Salt Lake City 18 August 1855. He is listed several times in Parley P. Pratt's journal of that trip.
It was in 1856 when he married Sophia Duffin. She was 11 years younger than him. The Duffin family had come to Utah in 1852 as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Marcus was a well-educated man, and a school teacher by profession. He took his new wife to Ogden, Weber County, to make a home for her.
On page 129 of Vol. 2, Heart Throbs of the West, we find an article about the Early Public Schools of Ogden City and the following notation. "A gentle man named Marcus Devolston Merrick taught in the winter of 1856-1857."
Soon after the birth of Devalson Marcus, Marcus moved his family to Franklin, Oneida County, Idaho. This settlement had just been started permanently 3 years before. The log house that Marcus built for his family was among the first ones in town. The early settlers of this little community had a difficult time to make a living. The soil was fertile enough, but the growing season was so short, owing to the extremely cold climate, that it was difficult for the crops to mature.
He took his wife Sofia [Sophia] to the Salt Lake Endowment House where they were sealed for time and all eternity on Feb. 4th, 1865.
The descendants of this generation (Marcus' grandchildren) are not prepared to say what caused Marcus D. Merrick to desert his wife and family, but this was the case. The story goes that one wintery day he announced that he was going to Ogden. He took his daughter Elizabeth (from a previous marriage) with him in his sleigh and was never heard of again.
Sophia and the children waited in vain for his return or some word of him, but he did not come back. Later, she married Leonidas Clinton Meacham in polygamy, but she didn't live with him long, as the marriage was not satisfactory.
So she raised her children alone and made a happy home for them. They all assumed their share of the responsibility of the home. She encouraged them in their educational pursuits and 2 of them went into the teaching profession.
Years after Marcus's disappearance word came to his family in Idaho that he had died in Portland Oregon, from someone by the name of Merrick, so he could have married again and had another family; that is not proven.
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Parley P. Pratt Company (1855); Age at Departure: 30
Married Elizabeth T
Daughter - Elizabeth Merrick
Married Sophia Duffin, 1 March 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Eunice Sophia Merrick, Amelia Merrick, Ida Margaret Merrick, L. Nellie Merrick, Devalson Marcus Merrick, Sean Leander Merrick
History - Nothing is known of his early life in New York. He had been married before and had a daughter, Elizabeth, whom he kept with him. There is no record of the first wife's name or what happened to her.
According to Hancock County Deeds, on 31 October 1848 Marcus bought a plot of land on block 141 in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. We know he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 28 March, 1854 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In General Conference, held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Saturday, April 8, 1854, Marcus was called on a mission to "To the Pacific Isles" along with 5 other brethren. We also learn from Elder Parley P. Pratt, who wrote in a letter dated Wednesday, Oct. 25 1854, from Santa Clara, California and addressed to Brigham Young: "We have sent brother Merrick to Sacramento to preach; he has baptized one man, a Baptist student."
Elder Marcus D. Merrick traveled to San Francisco to return to Salt Lake City on June 20, 1855 with the Parley P. Pratt Company of the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Company, arriving in Salt Lake City 18 August 1855. He is listed several times in Parley P. Pratt's journal of that trip.
It was in 1856 when he married Sophia Duffin. She was 11 years younger than him. The Duffin family had come to Utah in 1852 as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Marcus was a well-educated man, and a school teacher by profession. He took his new wife to Ogden, Weber County, to make a home for her.
On page 129 of Vol. 2, Heart Throbs of the West, we find an article about the Early Public Schools of Ogden City and the following notation. "A gentle man named Marcus Devolston Merrick taught in the winter of 1856-1857."
Soon after the birth of Devalson Marcus, Marcus moved his family to Franklin, Oneida County, Idaho. This settlement had just been started permanently 3 years before. The log house that Marcus built for his family was among the first ones in town. The early settlers of this little community had a difficult time to make a living. The soil was fertile enough, but the growing season was so short, owing to the extremely cold climate, that it was difficult for the crops to mature.
He took his wife Sofia [Sophia] to the Salt Lake Endowment House where they were sealed for time and all eternity on Feb. 4th, 1865.
The descendants of this generation (Marcus' grandchildren) are not prepared to say what caused Marcus D. Merrick to desert his wife and family, but this was the case. The story goes that one wintery day he announced that he was going to Ogden. He took his daughter Elizabeth (from a previous marriage) with him in his sleigh and was never heard of again.
Sophia and the children waited in vain for his return or some word of him, but he did not come back. Later, she married Leonidas Clinton Meacham in polygamy, but she didn't live with him long, as the marriage was not satisfactory.
So she raised her children alone and made a happy home for them. They all assumed their share of the responsibility of the home. She encouraged them in their educational pursuits and 2 of them went into the teaching profession.
Years after Marcus's disappearance word came to his family in Idaho that he had died in Portland Oregon, from someone by the name of Merrick, so he could have married again and had another family; that is not proven.
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Parley P. Pratt Company (1855); Age at Departure: 30
Son of Samuel Merrick and Margaret Eunice Hull
Married Elizabeth T
Daughter - Elizabeth Merrick
Married Sophia Duffin, 1 March 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Eunice Sophia Merrick, Amelia Merrick, Ida Margaret Merrick, L. Nellie Merrick, Devalson Marcus Merrick, Sean Leander Merrick
History - Nothing is known of his early life in New York. He had been married before and had a daughter, Elizabeth, whom he kept with him. There is no record of the first wife's name or what happened to her.
According to Hancock County Deeds, on 31 October 1848 Marcus bought a plot of land on block 141 in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. We know he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 28 March, 1854 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In General Conference, held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Saturday, April 8, 1854, Marcus was called on a mission to "To the Pacific Isles" along with 5 other brethren. We also learn from Elder Parley P. Pratt, who wrote in a letter dated Wednesday, Oct. 25 1854, from Santa Clara, California and addressed to Brigham Young: "We have sent brother Merrick to Sacramento to preach; he has baptized one man, a Baptist student."
Elder Marcus D. Merrick traveled to San Francisco to return to Salt Lake City on June 20, 1855 with the Parley P. Pratt Company of the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Company, arriving in Salt Lake City 18 August 1855. He is listed several times in Parley P. Pratt's journal of that trip.
It was in 1856 when he married Sophia Duffin. She was 11 years younger than him. The Duffin family had come to Utah in 1852 as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Marcus was a well-educated man, and a school teacher by profession. He took his new wife to Ogden, Weber County, to make a home for her.
On page 129 of Vol. 2, Heart Throbs of the West, we find an article about the Early Public Schools of Ogden City and the following notation. "A gentle man named Marcus Devolston Merrick taught in the winter of 1856-1857."
Soon after the birth of Devalson Marcus, Marcus moved his family to Franklin, Oneida County, Idaho. This settlement had just been started permanently 3 years before. The log house that Marcus built for his family was among the first ones in town. The early settlers of this little community had a difficult time to make a living. The soil was fertile enough, but the growing season was so short, owing to the extremely cold climate, that it was difficult for the crops to mature.
He took his wife Sofia [Sophia] to the Salt Lake Endowment House where they were sealed for time and all eternity on Feb. 4th, 1865.
The descendants of this generation (Marcus' grandchildren) are not prepared to say what caused Marcus D. Merrick to desert his wife and family, but this was the case. The story goes that one wintery day he announced that he was going to Ogden. He took his daughter Elizabeth (from a previous marriage) with him in his sleigh and was never heard of again.
Sophia and the children waited in vain for his return or some word of him, but he did not come back. Later, she married Leonidas Clinton Meacham in polygamy, but she didn't live with him long, as the marriage was not satisfactory.
So she raised her children alone and made a happy home for them. They all assumed their share of the responsibility of the home. She encouraged them in their educational pursuits and 2 of them went into the teaching profession.
Years after Marcus's disappearance word came to his family in Idaho that he had died in Portland Oregon, from someone by the name of Merrick, so he could have married again and had another family; that is not proven.
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Parley P. Pratt Company (1855); Age at Departure: 30
Married Elizabeth T
Daughter - Elizabeth Merrick
Married Sophia Duffin, 1 March 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Children - Eunice Sophia Merrick, Amelia Merrick, Ida Margaret Merrick, L. Nellie Merrick, Devalson Marcus Merrick, Sean Leander Merrick
History - Nothing is known of his early life in New York. He had been married before and had a daughter, Elizabeth, whom he kept with him. There is no record of the first wife's name or what happened to her.
According to Hancock County Deeds, on 31 October 1848 Marcus bought a plot of land on block 141 in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. We know he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 28 March, 1854 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In General Conference, held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Saturday, April 8, 1854, Marcus was called on a mission to "To the Pacific Isles" along with 5 other brethren. We also learn from Elder Parley P. Pratt, who wrote in a letter dated Wednesday, Oct. 25 1854, from Santa Clara, California and addressed to Brigham Young: "We have sent brother Merrick to Sacramento to preach; he has baptized one man, a Baptist student."
Elder Marcus D. Merrick traveled to San Francisco to return to Salt Lake City on June 20, 1855 with the Parley P. Pratt Company of the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Company, arriving in Salt Lake City 18 August 1855. He is listed several times in Parley P. Pratt's journal of that trip.
It was in 1856 when he married Sophia Duffin. She was 11 years younger than him. The Duffin family had come to Utah in 1852 as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Marcus was a well-educated man, and a school teacher by profession. He took his new wife to Ogden, Weber County, to make a home for her.
On page 129 of Vol. 2, Heart Throbs of the West, we find an article about the Early Public Schools of Ogden City and the following notation. "A gentle man named Marcus Devolston Merrick taught in the winter of 1856-1857."
Soon after the birth of Devalson Marcus, Marcus moved his family to Franklin, Oneida County, Idaho. This settlement had just been started permanently 3 years before. The log house that Marcus built for his family was among the first ones in town. The early settlers of this little community had a difficult time to make a living. The soil was fertile enough, but the growing season was so short, owing to the extremely cold climate, that it was difficult for the crops to mature.
He took his wife Sofia [Sophia] to the Salt Lake Endowment House where they were sealed for time and all eternity on Feb. 4th, 1865.
The descendants of this generation (Marcus' grandchildren) are not prepared to say what caused Marcus D. Merrick to desert his wife and family, but this was the case. The story goes that one wintery day he announced that he was going to Ogden. He took his daughter Elizabeth (from a previous marriage) with him in his sleigh and was never heard of again.
Sophia and the children waited in vain for his return or some word of him, but he did not come back. Later, she married Leonidas Clinton Meacham in polygamy, but she didn't live with him long, as the marriage was not satisfactory.
So she raised her children alone and made a happy home for them. They all assumed their share of the responsibility of the home. She encouraged them in their educational pursuits and 2 of them went into the teaching profession.
Years after Marcus's disappearance word came to his family in Idaho that he had died in Portland Oregon, from someone by the name of Merrick, so he could have married again and had another family; that is not proven.
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Parley P. Pratt Company (1855); Age at Departure: 30
Family Members
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