DRS. A. F. MERRIMAN AND SON

 

 

DRS. A. F. MERRIMAN AND SON. -- Among the representatives of the learned professions engaged in the active practice in San Francisco and Oakland, the members of this firm hold an honorable position and are recognized as belonging to the front rank as exponents of the rapidly advancing science of dentistry.  A more than passing notice of them therefore becomes a valuable and indeed the central portion of the professional representation of the volume.

 

Dr. Alvin Fox Merriman, Sr., a man who has been through all his mature life a student in his profession, and who has accomplished notable results in dentistry, is a native of New England, born at Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, July 4, 1832, his parents being Alvin Fox and Irene (Terrill) Merriman.  Both parents came all of old New England families and were of English descent, the Merrimans being of the old Puritan stock.  The father, and industrious, frugal man and a strict church member, was during his active career engaged in agricultural and manufacturing pursuits.  In the war of 1812, between United States and Great Britain, he served as captain of the company, and half a century later, when the safety of the country of his birth was again in danger by civil war, he once more offered his services on behalf of the old flag to such an extent as his advancing years would allow, and did credible duty in the hospital commissary department.  Not long after the close of the rebellion, he died at Bloomington, Illinois, which was then his home.  There his widow continued to reside, and survived him many years, her death occurring in 1889.

 

Our subject was but a mere child when his parents removed from their Massachusetts home to Manchester, Vermont, and there, on arriving at suitable age, he commenced to schooling in the Burr Seminary of Manchester, Vermont, an institution intended to prepare young men for the college course.  When he was fourteen years of age, he accompanied their family on their removal to Parkersburg, Virginia.  There he continued his English education in an academy for young men, and when he had reached the age of nineteen he commenced the study of medicine and later dentistry, for which he had a natural inclination.  His education in his profession completed, he opened the first regular office in the city of Parkersburg, and continued in practice there for some time.  After that he practiced in Athens, Ohio, and in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1852 removed to Kentucky, which was for many years thereafter the scene of his professional labors.  He first located in Lancaster, but having been married two years later at Stanford, he soon afterward removed to the latter place.  This was his home thereafter while a resident of Kentucky, but the calls of his profession from other points claimed his attention from time to time, and he practiced much over portions of that State, notably at Danville, Columbia in Burkesville, as well as places previously mentioned.

 

When the civil war broke out, Kentucky, occupying as she did a position directly in the midst of the two hostile factions, her people divided in sentiment, seemed to be a likely spot for a battle-ground, and measures were taken by the State authorities for the protection of the commonwealth, which, although she had not actually seceded, was yet being strongly importuned to do so and not without favorable consideration on the part of the large portion of her people and officials.  A large number of State troops were raised, and of these Dr. Merriman assisted in organizing a number of companies, which were mustered into the State service with him in command of the company.  A strong Union man himself, he succeeded by his determined stand on that question in holding the greater portion of the men loyal to the Government, eliminating at the outset those irrevocably attached to the Confederate cause.  He was identified with the State service about a year, and toward the close of his connection therewith, learning that some two  dozen recruits from his neighborhood were about to join Morgan, he started after them with a handful of men.  He picked up a few other half-hearted supporters on the way, but when they got close enough to see the men of whom they were in pursuit a general backdown on the part of his own men commenced.  Announcing his intention of attacking the intended rebels single-handed if necessary, he called for volunteers who were willing to remain by him under all circumstances, and only two rode out.  He persuaded the others, however, to assist, by pretending to charge when he and his two trusty companions did so in reality, and when the plan was put into execution the result was so effectual that a large party of Confederates surrendered without the firing of a gun, and gave up their arms to the daring men, their only real opponents.  It was a daring deed, but Mr. Merriman was determined to prevent their joining the enemy and did so.  After his years connection with Kentucky's State troops, he was appointed United States Contracts Surgeon, and was connected with the medical corps for some time in the field.  His health failing, he retired from this duty, but later offered his services as a volunteer in United States service, and was commissioned Surgeon of the Seventh Indiana Battery, commanded by Captain Swalow later serving on the staff of General Carter and that of General Walford.  The strain on his health was such, however, that he was eventually compelled to entirely give up his duties, and resigned his commission and retired from the service.

 

He then traveled for some time, and eventually located and practiced for two years at Bloomington, Illinois, whither his parents had meantime moved.  Leaving there, he returned to Kentucky, and while making his home at Stanford practiced extensively throughout the State.  In 1879 he removed to California, located in Oakland, where he has ever since resided and practiced.  In all the years of his connection Dr. Merriman has been an earnest worker for its advancement, and dentistry acknowledges, what he does not claim, that he has been in foremost rank in promoting its progress.  Especially in that class of dental surgery known to that science as "regulating," he has accomplished great results, and has pioneered the way to a perfect method, which marks one of the greatest steps forward made in dentistry.  While not by any means giving up the profession which he has made his life-work, Dr. Merriman has of late years devoted considerable attention to property interests here and elsewhere, as well as to mining development, and is vice-president of the Shenandoah Quartz Mining Company (re-organized), which owns the valuable property known as the Shenandoah mine, that adjoins the spot where in 1852 a company took out $20,000,000 in gold by placer-mining.  This company also owns a number of other mining properties, among which are ten claims on Feather river, in Plumas county.  These last claims are the property of the Pacific Gold Mining Company, and are to-day worth millions.

 

He is a man of wonderful energy, which was perhaps never better displayed than in the case of an enterprise, which, though no-fault of his, did not reach the successful issue it merited.  The disastrous affair on the Southern Pacific railroad, known as the "Tehachapi accident," due to the defective working of the air-brakes, caused many inventors to turn their attention to some method of correcting the defects then displayed.  An embryotic system and appliance designed for the automatic coupling of cars, and an improved method of braking trains, was purchased by a California company.  Dr. Merriman took hold of the invention, and was one of the prime movers in an association should which contains some of the best men in San Francisco and Oakland, who were organized in the Lacy Automatic Car Coupling Company, with the object of pushing it into use.  In the interest of this company, he went East, and placed the invention before such railroad men as George M. Pullman and others, with the result that, on account of their adverse opinions, he soon gave up the coupler idea.  In the meantime, however, two years having elapsed, during which time various State legislatures, taking warning from frequent accidents, had passed a bill requiring railroads to use safer methods of heating cars than were then in use.  Dr. Merriman decided to adapt the Lacy appliance to their use, and with his own funds went to Detroit, Michigan,--a railroad center,--for the purpose of inducing capitalists there to take hold of the invention, the controlling company interests in which were then held by himself and his son.  Though a stranger when he reached there, he soon became acquainted with the men he had selected, and laid his ideas before them.  They demanded a practical test.  Nothing daunted, he secured the services of the best mechanics in Detroit, and with the latter working out his idea that he completed in eight months a system which he was satisfied would work to perfection.  A test was then made with a long train in the dead of winter, and during a run of 150 miles, during which the temperature of the cars was raised or lowered at will, the apparatus worked to the entire satisfaction of both capitalists and railroad men.  He formed a company of substantial men to purchase the right of his corporation, and after long negotiations, when the sale was about to be completed, its consummation was blocked on account of a vital mistake which had been made by his attorney.  For various reasons nothing has since been done with the invention, which, however thoroughly accomplishes its important work for which it was designed.

 

Mr. Merriman's wife, to whom he was married November 7, 1854, at Stanford, Kentucky, was formally Miss Lou Davis, a native of that State, and daughter of B. H. and Julia (Craig) Davis.  Their children are: A. F., Jr., whose sketch follows; Mamie, Fannie and William Cole.  The latter is attending the military college, and has in view a career in the dental profession.

 

Dr. Alvin Fox Merriman, Jr., the younger member of the firm, and who, it may be said, is one of the most successful operators in the profession, was born in Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky, October 14, 1858.  He began his schooling in his native place, and finished in Center College, Danville, where he completed the course when but little past twenty years of age, having passed very credible examinations.  His taste for dentistry was probably inherited.  When deemed too young to seriously enter upon a regular course of study, he found his principal pleasure in reading the scientific journals of his father, and at this early age he fell in love with dental surgery.  As a boy he read medicine with two prominent local physicians, Drs. Frank Payton and Oliver McRoberts, dissecting under their supervision, and obtaining in this way a considerable knowledge of surgery.  With a foundation thus laid, he entered regularly upon his dental education, which was finished before he had reached his majority.  In fact, he was yet in his twenty-first year, when, in April, 1879, he accompanied his father, on the latter's removal to California, though he had already accomplished triumphs in operative dentistry, such as are dear to the heart of the lover of his profession.  He had been in Oakland less than a month when Dr. R. E. Cole, then the leader of the profession in the cities, turned over to him his best practice, while he himself went on a trip of several weeks' duration.  This was quite a tribute to the young operators professional ability, but was amply justified by observations made before that time, as well as subsequently.

 

Ever since his location here, when just verging into young manhood, the Doctor has even attempt the same infidelity to the task of rendering promising fields of labor afforded by his science, and he is regarded in the profession as one of the most skillful exponents of operative dentistry in its most delicate features.  He combines with his high qualities as a representative of the profession those most worthy characteristics of being a high-minded gentleman, his whole being showing innate refinement.  Courteous, yet dignified, genial and frank in disposition, he is one of the ornaments of society in the city of his adoption.  He is associated with his father in all the property and enterprises with which the latter is connected, and has given much attention to their business management.

 

 

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco" Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company 1892. Page 437-441.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.