Samuel Merrill, 1928, reprint 1983

Some Eighteenth Century Migrations - Chapter XI, pp125-152

Greene, ME

    The first permanent settler of Greene, Maine, was Benjamin⁵ Merrill (Samuel⁴, Moses³, Daniel²) he having removed thither from North Yarmouth in 1775. (See pages 364-5.) Benjamin Ellingwood, a squatter, had been living in the territory now known as Greene for a year or two when Benjamin Merrill came and determined to make his home there. On the first of November, 1775, Ellingwood sold his house and improvements to the new-comer for £168,15s. Of the purchase price £77,14s. was paid in cash, various notes and other articles making up the balance, the last article mentioned in the account being a quart of rum, which was valued at six shillings.

   Benjamin Merrill at once took his wife and five children to Greene, a yoke of oxen transporting his household effects, and a cow accompanying the party on their journey of twenty miles or more. For eleven years the log cabin built by Ellingwood served for a habitation, but in 1786 a frame house succeeded it. Greene was incorporated in 1788. Benjamin⁵ Merrill was a member of the first board of selectmen and an assessor, and his son Benjamin⁶ was the first town clerk. (See the History of Androscoggin County, of which Georgia-Drew Merrill was editor, [Boston, 1891], page 500.)

Fryeburg, ME

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