More information about William Hamilton Merritt ~J.B~ The financial difficulties Merritt experienced in the 1840s and 1850s show that he was not always a successful businessman. He was a director of the Niagara Suspension Bridge Company incorporated in 1846, and of several small railways in the Niagara peninsula, as well as the St Lawrence Navigation Company. His close association with the Welland Railway Company from 1852 caused him severe financial loss in 1859, but the Niagara District Bank, which he promoted and incorporated in 1841, did prosper. Merritt’s public interests ranged far beyond transportation and trade. In 1843 he visited the United States to gather information for the government respecting the establishment of a provincial lunatic asylum. He worked on behalf of the survivors of the War of 1812 by obtaining medals for those who had fought at Detroit, Crysler’s Farm, and Châteauguay, and played a leading part in the building of the second Brock monument at Queenston. He was active in the affairs of the Church of England, aided the establishment of Grantham Academy at St Catharines in 1829, and as a member of the Refugee Slaves Friends Society helped escaped slaves from the United States in the 1840s and 1850s. In his later years he encouraged the gathering of Canadian historical records from England and elsewhere, particularly relating to the United Empire Loyalists. In 1860 the library committee of parliament, through Merritt’s influence, employed his son J. P. Merritt and George Coventry to gather documents. This early attempt at a national archives ended in 1863, shortly after Merritt’s death. Out of the project, however, had grown the Upper Canada Historical Society, formed in October 1861, to which Merritt subscribed.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:52:43 +0000
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