History of Canton Center, (Hartford County) Connecticut United States of America

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Selah Merrill, diplomatist, was born in Canton Centre, Conn., May 2, 1837; son of Daniel and Lydia (Richards) Merrill; grandson of Daniel and Diadama (Mills) Merrill and a descendant of Nathaniel Merrill, an original proprietor of Newbury, Mass., 1635. He matriculated at Yale in the class of 1863, but left before graduation, entered the New Haven theological seminary, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1864. He served as chaplain of the 49th U.S. Colored infantry at Vicksburg, Miss., 1864-65; preached successively at Chester, Mass., Le Roy, N.Y., San Francisco, Cal., and Salmon Falls, N.H., 1865-68, and studied in German universities, 1868-70. He was married, April 27, 1875, to Adelaide Brewster, daughter of Oliver B. Taylor, M.D., of Manchester, Conn., a lineal descendant of Elder Brewster of Plymouth. He was archaeologist of the American Palestine Exploration society in the Holy Land, 1874-77, was U.S. consul at Jerusalem, 1882-86, and 1891-94, and was reappointed in 1898, his term of appointment to end in 1906. While in Jerusalem he discovered and excavated the second wall of Jerusalem, outside of which Christ was crucified, and thus he secured evidence of great value as to the disputed site of Calvary. He made a large collection of Palestinian coins, utensils, birds, mammals and various natural objects while in the Holy Land and became curator of the Biblical Museum of Andover Theological seminary in 1889. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale in 1880 "for special services in biblical learning;" D.D. from Iowa college in 1875, and LL.D. from Union college in 1884. He was a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis and of the British Society of Biblical Archaeology. He contributed numerous articles to the Bibliotheca Sacra and other periodicals, also to various cyclop?dias, English and American, and several reports to the consular monthly reports published by the U.S. government. He is the author of: East of the Jordan (1881); Galilee in the Time of Christ (1881); parts of Picturesque Palestine (1882-83); Greek Inscriptions Collected in the Years 1875-77 in the Country East of the Jordan (1885); The Site of Calvary (1886); and Reports of the Country East of the Jordan, in the Fourth Statement of the American Palestine Exploration Society (1887).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Canton Center, (Hartford County) Connecticut

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