James Griswold Merrill (c. 1840–1920)[1] was an American Congregational minister and university administrator. He was the second president of Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1901 to 1908.
Early life
James Griswold Merrill was born in Montague, Massachusetts.[1] He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and Amherst College.[1][2] He subsequently attended the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1863 to 1864, and graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary in 1866.[1][2]
Career
Merrill was a Congregational minister in Iowa, Kansas, St. Louis, Missouri, Portland, Maine and Somerset, Massachusetts.[2] He retired as minister after serving in Lake Helen, Florida from 1912 to 1917.[1] In Portland, Maine from 1894 to 1899, he was also the editor of The Christian Mirror.[1]
Merrill was the acting president of Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1899 to 1901,[1] and its second president from 1901 to 1908.[3] An article in The Nashville Globe noted that he spent most of his time fundraising away from Nashville.[4] It also explained, "Dr. Merrill's interest in the education of the Negro springs not from a love of the Negro as a Negro, but from the love of the Negro as one of God's children; and this is simple Christianity."[4]
Personal life and death
Merrill married Louisa W. Boutwell.[1] He died on December 22, 1920, in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.[1][2] He was buried in Andover, Massachusetts.[1]
Selected works
- Merrill, James Griswold (1878). Twenty-five Sermons to the Children of the Congregational Church, Davenport, Iowa. Davenport, Iowa: Egbert, Fidlar & Cambers. OCLC 32955088.
- Bruce, Roscoe Conkling; Du Bois, W. E. B.; Frissell, H. B.; Frost, William G.; Merrill, James G.; Miller, Kelly; Ogden, Robert C. (1908). From Servitude to Service: Being the Old South Lectures on the History and Work of Southern Institutions for the Education of the Negro. Boston, Massachusetts: Sherman, French & Co. OCLC 36744138.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "J. G. Merrill, Ex-Head of Fisk University, Dies". The New York Tribune. December 23, 1920. p. 11. Retrieved December 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "REV. J. G. MERRILL, FORMER FISK COLLEGE HEAD, DIES". The Broad Ax. Salt Lake City, Utah. December 25, 1920. p. 2. Retrieved December 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Presidents of historically black colleges and universities 1837-2013". Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
- ^ a b "REV. JAMES GRISWOLD MERRILL, D.D.". The Nashville Globe. June 28, 1907. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.