|
3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Engineer, Peace Dale, R.I. Papers, 1898-1926 Size: 1 linear foot Catalog number: MSS 483 sg 50 Processed by: Steve Dalpe and Rick Stattler, June 1996 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
No good biographical sources could be found on engineer and inventor George Spencer Merrill, but the following facts can be ascertained. He was the son of Sereno T. Merrill, probably of Wisconsin; was born circa 1857; and held a commission as a colonel (perhaps from the Spanish-American War). He invented a process for working steel that was patented in several countries, and incorporated as the Merrill Process Steel Company in St. Louis, Missouri in 1898. By 1907, he was living in Peace Dale, R.I. and working as an assistant to his brother-in-law Rowland G. Hazard II (1855-1918). In Peace Dale, he filed several patents for explosive charges and fuel refining, in conjunction with fellow Hazard employee Edmond Jandrier (d.1926), a French chemist. Merrill died after 1930.
In 1882, he married Eliza S. Bushnell (b.1857), daughter of the Rev. George and Mary E. (Blake) Bushnell, then of Beloit, Wisconsin. They had three children: Robert T. Merrill (b.1888), George B. Merrill (b.1890) and Dotha B. Merrill (b.1893). Eliza S. (Bushnell) Merrill's sister Mary was the wife of Rowland G. Hazard II.
Bibliography:
Bushnell, George E. Bushnell Family Genealogy... (Nashville, Tenn.: Published by author, 1945), 436-437.
South Kingstown directories, 1910-1930.
Scope and content:
This collection includes patent letters, subject files and financial records. A single account book relating to Merrill's sister Mary I. "Minnie" Merrill is also included.
Provenance:
These papers were donated by the Hazard family as part of the Hazard Family Papers in 1985. They had been deposited in 1975.
Processing note:
This collection is part of the Hazard Family Papers, which were processed with support from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, the Beinecke Foundation, and the extended Hazard Family.
Inventory:
Box 1, folder 1. Argentina 1899
Box 1, folder 2. Austria 1902
Box 1, folder 3. Australia, South 1899
Box 1, folder 4. Australia, West 1899
Box 1, folder 5. Brazil 1902
Box 1, folder 6. Canada 1900, 1906
Box 1, folder 7. China 1899
Box 1, folder 8. France 1899
Box 1, folder 9. Germany 1899
Box 1, folder 10. Great Britain 1899
Box 1, folder 11. Hungary 1899
Box 1, folder 12. India 1899
Box 1, folder 13. Italy 1899, 1901
Box 1, folder 14. Japan 1900
Box 1, folder 15. Mexico 1891
Box 1, folder 16. Queensland 1899
Box 1, folder 17. Russia 1902
Box 1, folder 18. South Wales 1899
Box 1, folder 19. Sweden 1899
Box 1, folder 20. United States 1899
Series 2: Subject files
Box 1, folder 21. Coal conversion and submarine lights
Box 1, folder 22. Improvements to coke oven
Box 1, folder 23. “Watergas” and explosive charges
Series 3: Financial records
Box 1, folder 24. Bank books, 1911, 1915-1917
Box 1, folder 25. Financial memos and receipts, 1898-1921
Box 1, folder 26. Investment book, 1910-1920
Box 1, folder 27. Memorandum books, 1902-1903; 1903-1905
Box 1, folder 28. Mary I. "Minnie" Merrill accounts with R.G. Hazard, 1900-1926
Subjects:
Hazard, Rowland G. II (1855-1918)
Jandrier, Edmond (1866-1928)
Merrill, Mary I. (1854-1933)
Merrill Process Steel Company
Patents - Rhode Island
Solvay Process Company
Steelwork - Patents
End of finding aid - return to top
RIHS1822