J. Randolph Merritt (1906) Merritt Family Cemetery, Glenville

A section of a stone rubbing from the gravestone of J. Randolph Merritt. 

J. Randolph Merritt, Master Mariner

died August 21, 1906

"His course was o'er the mountain wave

His home was on the deep."

This moderate sized cemetery is located next to the Old Baptist Society Cemetery on Glen Ridge Road in Glenville. An iron gateway marks the entrance to this family plot, and a stone wall borders this graveyard from surrounding residential properties. The markers themselves are most in sign and are carved from brownstone, marble and granite. The Merritt homestead is located off King Street where many of those interred here probably lived.

The most celebrated member of this family interred here is Joseph Randolph Merritt, "Master Mariner."  Though he was only aged 59 years, 2 months and 11 days when he died, this man had a remarkable life-long passionate concern with the sea which took him to many other parts of the globe. 

Captain Merritt was the son of Selectman Jotham Merritt and was born at the family home off King Street. Of him it is said that his love for the sea began in boyhood, and at the age of 19 years he set sail on some of the old Clipper ships that plied the oceans. 

When the Spanish-American War broke out he was a commander of a steamship between New York and Galveston, Texas for the Pacific Mail Main Steamship Company, and became a mate on one of the American government transports. 

In the Philippines he helped lay phone cables connecting the islands, and his transport Hooker was wrecked on an unmapped reef. When the war was over so was the transport service. 

Captain Merritt went to Colombia, where the President appointed him Admiral and thusly took control of the naval forces of the republic. He participated in several clashes with revolutionary units. He was highly celebrated and respected by the Colombians. American recognition of the secessionists of Panama would cause Admiral Merritt to tender his resignation in light of presidential orders to destroy five American war vessels at Carthagena, stating that if the warships were of any other nation he could carry out his orders but would not fight against America. 

Merritt returned to American waters to become captain of the Chalmette, of the Morgan Steamship Line. He died at Sailor's Snug Harbor, Staten Island, New York of cancer.