Governor Samuel Merrill: Iowa Time Machine August 31, 1899

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On August 31, 1899, Iowa’s seventh governor, Samuel Merrill, passed away. In addition to serving as governor, Merrill was a merchant, Union colonel, banker, and political leader who helped guide Iowa through the decades when a young farm state became more closely connected by railroads, public institutions, finance, and national politics.

Born in Turner, Maine, on August 7, 1822, Merrill received a limited country-school education and briefly taught in Maryland before returning north, disturbed by slavery and the political world that sustained it. He built a mercantile business with his brother in New Hampshire, served in that state’s legislature in 1854 and 1855, and moved west to McGregor, Iowa, in 1856. There he became a successful merchant and banker and entered the Iowa House in 1859. When the Civil War began, Merrill and his brother advanced funds to help clothe Iowa’s first three volunteer infantry regiments, an early demonstration of both his resources and his commitment to the Union cause.

Merrill’s wartime record carried him into the governor’s office. Chosen colonel of the 21st Iowa Infantry in 1862, he led troops in Missouri and during Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge on May 17, 1863, he suffered a serious wound that eventually forced him out of military service in 1864.

Elected governor in 1868, Merrill served in Iowa’s highest office through 1872. His administration advanced railroad development, authorized construction of a new statehouse, promoted reforms to insurance law, protected school lands, and supported the removal of the word “white” from Iowa’s constitutional suffrage provisions. #Iowa #History #CivilWar #Governor #OTD