Charles Chauncy Merrill

EARLY DAYS IN GREENBUSH

Charles Chauncy Merrill

Charles C. Merrill was born in Orwell, Vermont, September 10, 1833. He was a son of Horace and Deborah (Paine) Merrill. His boyhood days were mostly spent in Chardon, Ohio, to which place his parents had removed in 1836. In the fall of 1853, he came to Greenbush, Illinois, where his brother Frederic H. Merrill resided. During most of the year of 1854, he was employed in the dry goods and general store of McKinney & Co., at Oquawka, Illinois.

August 27, 1855, at North Bloomfield, Ohio, he was married to Cornelia Converse Osborn, daughter of Leonard and Amanda (Smith) Osborn. The same year he became a partner in the firm of Osborn & Merrill at Greenbush, Illinois, changing the firm name to Merrill, Osborn & Merrill. In 1860, having withdrawn from the business, he removed to Galesburg, Illinois, where he still resides. For more than 35 years he was a clothing merchant in Galesburg. In religious belief he is a Methodist; politically, a republican. They had no children. Cornelia, wife of C. C. Merrill, died October 28, 1904. She was a working member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was noted for her Christian character.