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Fantasy Fiction Field, June 1944

Page 9

FANTASY FICTION FIELD presents
the AUTOBIOGRAPH of ABRAHAM MERRITT

Publisher's Note: This article was sent to me June 16th, 1943 by Abe's agents Brandt and Brandt who said that it had been compiled by A. Merritt himself. W.D.

"Abraham Merritt was born January 20, 1884 at Beverly, N.J. Beverly was then a good old-fashioned whooly American village, on the Delaware River about 25 miles north of Philadelphia. The population was about a thousand who maintained themselves by fishing in the river, farming in the rich country round about, and commerce as then exemplified by two side-wheeler riverboats that picked up the truck twice a day and by what was known locally as THE ROPEWALK. Beverly runs of shad were famous -- progress in the way of water pollution not having arrived as yet -- and the hauls, sold in Philadelphia, when good meant three or four months' prosperity for the whole village. 

Mr. Merritt's grandfather had been a Quaker, but when his wife, Emily Grace of Maryland, refused to become a Quaker either "by conviction or adoption," he was dropped from the Burlington, N.J. Friends Meeting House Rolls. He was an architect and a builder, and designed and erected most of the new churches and statelier edifices of Beverly as the village grew in size and prosperity. He had a careless habit of forgetting bills, however, so that when he died his estate consisted of mostly uncollectable accounts, and the Merritt hacienda ultimately became a Public Park. 

The historic Burlington Friends Meeting House, some twenty miles north of Beverly, has a lot of Merritts in it, the oldest of their tombstones dating back to 1621. There are many Abrahams among them, also Jobs, Hezekiahs, Nehemiahs, Joshuas, and other fine old Biblical names. Mr. Merritt, the subject of this sketch, was christened Abraham after their grandfather and has always been thankful that the other names, for example Job, were by-passed by the naming committee. 

In Mr. Merritt's family tree there hang quite a number of obits of quite distinguished Americans, but he is really proud only of four. One is General Wesley Merritt, whose father and old Abraham's father were brothers, Fenimore Cooper who roosts there by virtue of Mr. Merritt's maternal grandmother Hannah Fenimore, a Quakeress also read out of the Meeting House because of her stubborn husband, and Col. Grace who licked Tarleton's men in the historic battle of Cowpens. And a pre-Revolutionary character who was a highwayman pursuing his business along the Boston Post Road; a most interesting scoundrel whose headquarters were at Mamaroneck and whose assassins, instead of being hanged for their crime, were presented with medals by a grateful countryside. 

When Mr. Merritt was about ten years old, his parents moved to Philadelphia, taking him with them. His father's name was William Henry

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FANTASY FICTION FIELD presents the AUTOBIOGRAPH of ABRAHAM MERRITT Publisher's Note: This article was sent to me June 16th, 1943 by Abe's agents Brandt and Brandt who said that it had been compiled by A. Merritt himself. W.D. "Abraham Merritt was born January 20, 1884 at Beverly, N.J. Beverly was then a good old-fashioned whooly American village, on the Delaware River about 25 miles north of Philadelphia. The population was about a thousand who maintained themselves by fishing in the river, farming in the rich country round about, and commerce as then exemplified by two side-wheeler riverboats that picked up the truck twice a day and by what was known locally as THE ROPEWALK. Beverly runs of shad were famous -- progress in the way of water pollution not having arrived as yet -- and the hauls, sold in Philadelphia, when good meant three or four months' prosperity for the whole village. Mr. Merritt's grandfather had been a Quaker, but when his wife, Emily Grace of Maryland, refused to become a Quaker either "by conviction or adoption," he was dropped from the Burlington, N.J. Friends Meeting House Rolls. He was an architect and a builder, and designed and erected most of the new churches and statelier edifices of Beverly as the village grew in size and prosperity. He had a careless habit of forgetting bills, however, so that when he died his estate consisted of mostly uncollectable accounts, and the Merritt hacienda ultimately became a Public Park. The historic Burlington Friends Meeting House, some twenty miles north of Beverly, has a lot of Merritts in it, the oldest of their tombstones dating back to 1621. There are many Abrahams among them, also Jobs, Hezekiahs, Nehemiahs, Joshuas, and other fine old Biblical names. Mr. Merritt, the subject of this sketch, was christened Abraham after their grandfather and has always been thankful that the other names, for example Job, were by-passed by the naming committee. In Mr. Merritt's family tree there hang quite a number of obits of quite distinguished Americans, but he is really proud only of four. One is General Wesley Merritt, whose father and old Abraham's father were brothers, Fenimore Cooper who roosts there by virtue of Mr. Merritt's maternal grandmother Hannah Fenimore, a Quakeress also read out of the Meeting House because of her stubborn husband, and Col. Grace who licked Tarleton's men in the historic battle of Cowpens. And a pre-Revolutionary character who was a highwayman pursuing his business along the Boston Post Road; a most interesting scoundrel whose headquarters were at Mamaroneck and whose assassins, instead of being hanged for their crime, were presented with medals by a grateful countryside. When Mr. Merritt was about ten years old, his parents moved to Philadelphia, taking him with them. His father's name was William Henry