Marriner W. Merrill

Who was Marriner W. Merrill?

Marriner Wood Merrill born in Sackville, New Brunswick, was a pioneering settler of Cache Valley and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Marriner Merrill was the tenth of the thirteen children born to Sarah Ann Reunolds and Nathan Merrill. The family farmed, and Merrill later wrote of “not having any opportunities of even a common school education.” Merrill left Sackville and worked briefly as a cook on a fishing schooner based in Boston, Massachusetts before returning on word of his father’s fatal fall into a tidal marsh in May 1851. Merrill assisted in farm work in Sackville after his return.

Merrill joined the LDS Church in April 1852. He migrated to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory the following year in a wagon company led by William Atkinson, also of Sackville.

During his first winter in Utah, he married Sarah Ann Atkinson, the daughter of William Atkinson. Marriner Merrill at first engaged in farm labor and made shingles. The Merrills briefly relocated to Spanish Fork before the arrival of Johnston’s Army in the Utah War.

In 1860, Merrill was among the first to move to Richmond, Utah.