San Joaquin County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



HENRY F. MERRILL.
 
        Among the vineyardists who is devoting his energies to this branch of 
agriculture is Henry F. Merrill, who resides on a ten-acre vineyard southeast of 
Lodi. He was born in Campo Seco, Calaveras County, Cal., on May 13, 1887, and is 
a typical Western man, possessing the energy, determination, and enterprise 
which have been the dominant factors in the upbuilding of the Pacific coast 
country. He is the son of Douglass and Anna Virginia (Whitaker) Merrill, natives 
of New York and California, respectively. The father came to California in an 
early day and was a building contractor in Lodi and the mother came to 
California with her parents in 1861 and also settled in San Joaquin County. They 
had four children: Mamie Adaline, Mrs. C. C. Wright; Nellie, Mrs. Howard 
Gillespie; Henry F., and Joseph F.
        Henry F. Merrill attended grammar school at Campo Seco, Lodi, Lockeford 
and Live Oak, and in November of 1909 was married at Stockton to Miss Emma 
Vollbrecht, a daughter of William and Anna Vollbrecht, her father a native of 
Germany who came to America with his parents when three years old. Mrs. 
Vollbrecht is one of twelve children. Her father is deceased, but her mother 
still lives in Iowa. Mr. Merrill is a lather by trade and was engaged throughout 
San Joaquin County until November, 1920, when he came to the Lodi section and 
purchased his vineyard on which he has since resided. The ranch is irrigated by 
a four-inch pump which supplies ample water. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill are the 
parents of three children: Emily, Bernice and Lowell, and in politics he is a 
Democrat.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p     1543     
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.