WILLIAM FESSENDEN MERRILL, New York City.
Perseverance must accompany an ambitious nature, and both of these attributes have made themselves manifest in the life of William Fessenden Merrill. After securing a good common and high school education he entered Amherst College in 1859. He left at the end of his junior year to enter the army, but received his diploma from College the same as if he had graduated with his class of '63. After the close of the war he attended the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, for one year, studying civil engineering. Early in 1867 he began his railroad career as Assistant Civil Engineer of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, being employed upon the construction of the iron bridge across the Mississippi River at Burlington, and construction of certain branches until May, 1870. At that time he was employed as Assistant Civil Engineer on the construction of the Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore Railroad (now Chicago & West Michigan). In June, 1871, he entered the service of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Iowa (now part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy) and was engaged in the construction of a branch thereof. In May, 1873, he was appointed Resident Engineer of the Buffalo Division of the Erie, having charge of all the new construction upon that portion of the line. July, 1875, he received appointment of Assistant Engineer of the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad at Peoria, Illinois, afterwards becoming Purchasing Agent and Secretary to the Receiver and then Superintendent and Chief Engineer. When that road was turned over to the Wabash System in 1880 he was made General Superintendent of the Chicago & Iowa Division of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad. In May of 1882 he received appointment to General Superintendent of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, which position he resigned in June, 1883, to take position of Superintendent of the Iowa Lines of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. He was in the employ of that road in that capacity as General Manager of their lines in Missouri, and as General Manager of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy proper until January 1, 1896, when he was elected Second Vice President of the Erie Railroad, which place he retained until recently, when he resigned and accepted position of Vice President of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. His long experience and varied positions have eminently fitted him for the duties of his present office and at the same time made him a prominent character in the railroad circles of America. Mr. Merrill was united in marriage October 17, 1872, to Miss Eliza Grosvener Fessenden, and they reside in New York.


Excerpted from: "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," H.R. Romans Editor; Crawford-Adsit Company Publishers, Chicago, IL 1899.