Moses Merrick: Tioga Pioneer

Our earliest known Merrick ancestor is our fourth great-grandfather*  Moses Merrick; an early settler in Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

He's counted there on the 1820 Federal Census in Covington Township. Married, he has six children. The two youngest boys are William 'Lester' and Hiram Leonard Merrick. We haven't unearthed the other four children.

This post isn't as much so much about grandpa Moses' story. That's still a mystery. It's to establish our relationship to him and serve as proof our Merrick ancestors were early pioneers in Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

Tioga Pioneers

Our primary research sources for this blog are

• History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania published in 1897
• History of Tioga County vol 2
• Federal Census Records
• North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 the Resseguie family.

The History of Tioga County Volume 2 has a biographical sketch on the first Merrick pioneer to this area,

Israel Merrick

"ISRAEL MERRICK, JR., was one of the prosperous and progressive pioneers of Tioga county. Of New England ancestry, he was born in the state of Delaware in 1790, whither his parents, Israel Merrick, Sn, and wife, had removed in search of a home. Not liking the place, and having their attention called to the inducements Morris was holding out for settlers in Wellsboro, they came here about 1805."  

Isreal Merrick, Jr. pgs 659-61.

Our Merrick ancestor, grandpa Moses, was first counted here in 1820.

(click to enlarge)

"In 1840, 53 Merrick families were living in New York. This was about 22% of all the recorded Merrick's in the USA." - Ancestry.com

If in 1840 there around two hundred and fifty American Merrick families, twenty years earlier it seems unlikely to find two unrelated families living in tiny pioneer county Tioga. Pennsylvania.

But we can't connect the family of Israel with that of Moses. In fact, according to our family's Ancestry.com DNA results, our distant Merrick matches come out of Massachusetts, not Deleware. We can, however, connect Moses Merrick to the Merrick brothers, William and Lester.

William 'Lester' Merrick

Pioneer Tioga County

"William L. Merrick was born in Potter county, Pennsylvania. His father, Moses Merrick, was an early settler of Middlebury township, Tioga county, where William L. was reared to manhood and partially cleared a farm.  ...His wife was Caroline Whitney, a daughter of Jeremiah Whitney, of Middlebury township, Tioga County." 

1897 Tioga County History Chapter 61 Part One - Biographies

Jeremiah and Susan (Resseguie) Whitney 

Caroline Whitney's mother was Susan Resseguie. Her family is featured in North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000. That book confirms Lester Merrick and his brother, Hiram Leonard married Carolyn, and her sister Joyce, Whitney. We are verified by DNA descendants of Jeremiah Whitney and Susan Resseguie.

(click to enlarge)

Lester and Carolyn (Whitney) Merrick

"...reared five children, as follows: Fidelia, who married Erastus Rice; Wheeler O., Bradford W., E.(lias) Moses, who died from wounds received at the battle of Cold Harbor, and Fannie, wife of Ira Mourey. Mr. Merrick and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics, he was a Democrat."

On the 1840 Federal census the Merrick boys grandfather, Moses, was living with them. Elias and his brother, Bradford W Merrick, fought at the Slaughter Pen with our grandpa, Joseph S, at Fredericksburg, Virginia. (see link here) All three went on to serve the Union again.

Bradford W Merrick

"BRADFORD W. MERRICK, son of William L. Merrick, was born in Middlebury township, Tioga county, March 19, 1842. He was reared in this county and obtained his education in the common schools. On August 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was honorably discharged after nine months’ service. In the fall of 1864, he re-enlisted in Company C, Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served until mustered out in August 1865. ...He died June 1, 1896, from diseases contracted in the army."

Driving Through Wellsboro, PA 2014

*Note: Relationships, such as grandmother, 2nd great, etc., are expressed from the perspective of the grandchildren of Leon Arthur and Anna Grace (Fuller) Merrick.

Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc.  - are used here generically to include relatives such as fourth great grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.

Original Military Records (hosted large zoomable files)   

Joseph Sylvester Merrick: Pension Index   Death Certificate   Burial Card

Velorous C Merrick:   Muster Roll    US Register of Deaths   US Burial Register   Pension Index    National Internment Card

Wheeler Otis Merrick:  Pension Index   Death Certificate   Obituary   

Moses Merrick:   Muster Roll    US Burial Register   Burial Card

Bradford William Merrick:   1890 Veterans Schedules   Pension Index   Burial Card

Elias Merrick:    Death Certificate