Reuben Merrill

Reuben Merrill (December 2, 1818 – June 16, 1875)

Early life Reuben Merrill was born on December 2, 1818, in Cumberland, Maine.

Personal life On October 1, 1846, Merrill married Hannah Elizabeth Blanchard, with whom he had four children:

In the 1850s, when Merrill's seafaring career was its peak, he commissioned noted Portland architect Thomas J. Sparrow, to build him a home. The result was the building at today's 233 West Main Street, completed in 1858.

Death Merrill died on June 16, 1875, aged 56, when he was knocked overboard from his ship, Champlain, while shipwrecking in the Farallon Islands, California, off San Francisco, in dense fog. witnessed his father's death. He lived until 1929, but did not go to sea again. He is also interred in Yarmouth's Riverside Cemetery.