Charles Merrill

Early business career When he became of age, he moved to nearby Portland, Massachusetts, and in partnership with his brother and a man with the last name of Scott engaged in mercantile business under the firm of S & C Merrill & Company. The business proved unsuccessful and heavy debts were incurred. Once the firm was dissolved, Merrill moved to Virginia, where he took a subcontract on a railroad leading from Petersburg, which was then in progress of construction. He was successful in this new business venture and made enough money to pay off the debts he had incurred in his previous business in Portland. After returning to Portland, he took a contract building a military road from Lincoln to Houlton. The building of this road, and the familiarity it gave him with lands and localities, caused him to become a large investor in the area's real estate from 1835 to 1840. He contributed largely to the erection of the Unitarian Church's first building in Detroit and was a trustee of the church from its inception until his death. The Merrill Humane Fountain was originally located in front of the old Detroit Opera House in Campus Martius Park. As automobile traffic increased in downtown Detroit, the city's elders decided to move the fountain to the Merrill Plaissance, at the far southern boundary of Palmer Park, in 1926.

A set of windows designed by John La Farge, now in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, were memorial windows dedicated to three trustees of the First Unitarian Church of Detroit. The central grouping of windows was dedicated to Charles Merrill and features two lancets entitled "Faith" (center left) and "Hope" (center right). The inscription beneath "Hope" comes from Psalm 119, reading "The entrance of thy words giveth light." The windows were created in 1899 when the First Unitarian Church of Detroit built the congregation's second site. Eventually, the building was sold to the Church of Christ and the windows were removed when the widening of Woodward Avenue was planned in 1936, necessitating a modification and move of the church building. The windows were never reinstalled and ultimately all but one of the windows were donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1959 by the Unitarian Church Trust. The DIA windows were restored between 1988 and 1991 by Mary Clerkin Higgins and were dedicated in April 1991.