Born: 1866
Died: c. January 17, 1947
Married: Margaret Merrill (lived at 153 Park Avenue in 1948)
Children: Paul
Elmer Marcellus Merrill — called "Lem" — was a well-known civil engineer and surveyor from Merrillsville, which his family founded, near Loon Lake.
C. 1885-90: Lem Merrill purchased his Uncle Wesley’s house, and operated it, first as a tourist boarding facility and — by 1900 — as a tuberculosis curing facility.
Plattsburgh Sentinel, November 14, 1902
New Hotel at Bloomingdale.
Bloomingdale, Nov, 13,—The corner stone for the new hotel Mr. Adarjan is to build near Bloomingdale was laid Tuesday. Several people from here were down to witness it. Hon. J. H. Pierce made a few remarks and little Elsie DeTorrey broke a bottle of wine over the stone to ensure the enterprise a success.
This hotel will be located about one mile east of this village, on a high bluff overlooking a large flat or intervale, through which a cold brook runs. This brook will be dammed about eighty rods below the hotel, making a lake one and one half miles long and from one-half to three-fourths of a mile wide. Mr. Ardajan will own 800 acres of land, mostly all wooded, which he will convert into a park, stocking it with game. The lake will not need much stocking with fish is one of the best trout streams in this vicinity.
The hotel itself will have a frontage of 190 feet and will be six stories. There will also be an L part 127 feet long.
The work on the foundations and dam is well under way. Mr. B. B. Lantry, of Gabriels, N. Y., has the contract for putting in the foundations and E. M. Merrill, of Loon Lake has charge of the work on the dam. Mr. Adarjan expects to have the hotel ready for guests June 1st, 1903.
Tupper Lake Free Press and Herald, October 17, 1963
Tupper Lake in the Old Days
(From the Files, Oct. 13, 1912)
"E. M. Merrill of Saranac Lake and Robert R. Weir of McColloms believe they have discovered the long, sought after Adirondack gold mine, on land in the Town of Brighton, and have filed with the secretary of state eight claims of 40 acres each. Assays of rock taken from the property have so greatly encouraged the prospectors that they plan to sink a shaft, and if anything of value is uncovered a company will be formed to exploit the find"...
Malone Farmer, October 31, 1917
Elmer M. Merrill, of Saranac Lake, has purchased the E. J. Pickett property at Plumadore Pond, situated near the Plumadore station on the Delaware & Hudson R. R. The pond has been famous for many years because of its large speckled trout. Mr. Merrill's purchase is situated on the western side of the pond and consists of 42 acres of land, a two-story cottage and boat house.
Plattsburgh Press Republican, May 3, 1944
BIOGRAPHY OF NATIVE SURVEYOR PUBLISHED
A biography of considerable local interest, that of Lem Merrill, 79- year-old surveyor, conservationist, whose home is a 1,600 acre preserve, four and one-half miles west of Loon Lake station in Franklin county, has just been published, written by Marjorie Lansing Porter, author of "Old Plattsburgh."
Mr. Merrill's birthplace was Merrillsville where his people were early settlers and he has much to tell of pioneering days, of lumbering on the Saranac, of surveying with H. K. Averill in Clinton county, then "on his own" throughout the Adirondacks, and of famous Adirondack hotelmen such as Paul Smith and Ferd Chase. His reminiscences also include bear stories (his record to date is 26 bears killed!) guiding episodes, recollections of surveying in Canada and Michigan, and yarns by the dozen.
Many hunters in Plattsburgh and vicinity are acquainted with Lem Merrill's place which adjoins the 9,000-acre Debar Mountain Game Refuge, and have observed the gate at the entrance to his property, carrying this message: E. M. Merrill-Keep Out-This Means You. Many other residents of the North Country have heard of Lem Merrill and his half-century surveying career, and will read the account of his life with pleasure.
Plattsburgh Press-Republican, January 17, 1947
SERVICES ARE HELD FOR ELMER M. MERRILL
The funeral of Elmer M. Merrill, eighty-one, retired Adirondack woodsman whose death took place late Tuesday night at Alice Hyde Hospital, Malone, was held yesterday afternoon with services at the Cargil funeral home at Malone. The body was placed in the vault at Morningside cemetery to await burial in the Spring.
Mr. Merrill, a patient at the Malone hospital since December 2, was well known in Plattsburgh and had resided here on several occasions. Born at Merrillsville, he was a retired employe of the State Conservation Department. He was considered an authority on forestry.
Surviving Mr. Merrill are his wife; a son, Paul; and three grandchildren, all of California; and two sisters, Mrs. J. J. Fitzgerald and Miss Ina Merrill of Saranac Lake.
See Merrill Family.
