Mt. Moosilauke (1800) - Samuel and Hannah Merrill
" . . . Uncle Sammy" Merrill (1778-1863) found his place up on a spur of the peak variously known as Moose-he-lock, Moose Hillock, and, much later, Moosilauke. While not a plateau, it seemed at least a good shoulder upon which to perch, perhaps 1000 feet above his fellow towns-folk, and 1700 feet or so above those down at the seashore. And it had its own fishing holes, as the Baker River passed near his feet, from its start just a few miles north in a glacial bog humorously termed Deer Lake, as it headed south and west then east to become part of the Merrimack.
Samuel had married Hannah Elliott (1775-1856), who was born in Haverhill, N.H. and lived in Benton, the next town to the north. They were married in March, 1799.Samuel and Hannah's Children
Betsey, born April 8, 1801
Robert Elliott, born Dec. 19, 1804, Dartmouth Medical School 1836, practicing in Meredith, Laconia, and Warren, died Jan. 15, 1892
Nathaniel, born Aug. 27, 1806, died July 26, 1878
James Spencer, born Feb. 8, 1808, married 1868 to Hannah P. Merrill
Mary H., born Sept. 10, 1815
Sarah C., born Dec. 3, 1817
Samuel and Hannah Merrill can still be found together in the quiet, small cemetery near the Baker River along the old carriage road just a few miles below their home site. Each gravestone provides a message still readable for those who care to look:
Samuel
Hannah
"We've laid his form beneath the sod,
His soul is laid with Christ in God.""God my redeemer lives
And ever from the skies
Looks down and watches all my dust
Till he shall bid it rise."
- RWA
