Jesse Merrill has had approximately 480 descendants. Three hundred have reached maturity in the past 140 years. During this period five have been noted in standard biographical dictionaries; seven others have been included in Who's Who in America, the dictionary of notable living men and women in the United States. In the general population, one person in every 4,500 is listed in Who's Who, while one in every forty of Jesse Merrill's descendants has been noted in some biographical dictionary.

James Merrill, the oldest son of Jesse, attended Dartmouth College after which he was made principal of the York Academy in Pennsylvania. During this time he read law in the office of the Honorable David Cassatt and later settled in New Berlin, Pennsylvania. At his death, the courts ceased functioning for a period to honor his memory. A grandson, General Lewis Merrill, was one of the outstanding figures of the Civil War and the post-war period. Another grandson was the late Judge Charles M. Hough, known for his professional and personal worth.

Samuel Merrill, another son of Jesse, was a pioneer into Indiana. He also attended college at Dartmouth, taught school for a while and read law at the same time as his older brother James. He went to Indiana in 1816. Finally he decided to settle in Vevay, Indiana, and finding it impossible to procure a conveyance from New Albany, bought a boat, put his trunk and a number of law books in it, and rowed seventy miles up the river to Vevay. He was in sucession a representative to the legislature, state treasurer, the builder of a railroad, and president of the Indiana State Bank. He was a leader in state, intellectual and church matters. His name and that of his descendants are written honorably in the history of Indiana. Among his descendants are numbered William A. Ketcham, long a figure in the legal and political life of the state, Katharine Merrill, a literary light, Charles W. and Merrill Moores, both lawyers and leaders of community thought, Colonel Samuel Merrill and his son Charles W. Merrill, who carried on the publishing house started by Samuel Merrill, and Paxton Hibben, the war correspondent and writer. Samuel Merrill had 79 descendants who reached maturity; 31 of these went through college. Thirty-four engaged in professional activities as lawyers, engineers, ministers, writers, teachers, social workers and nurses.

Jesse, the third son, was a physician who settled near Boston, while the Reverend David Merrill, the fourth son, was best known to the people of 1840 as the writer of the "Ox Sermon," a sermon on temperance of which it is said that 3,000,000 copies were printed and distributed.

Not all the descendants of the Jesse Merrill family have become distinguished - even in an aristogenic family that cannot be expected. Some are in the home region as farmers and teachers. Some are in the far west engaged in various activities. As far as can be ascertained after an exhaustive investigation, not one of this family has ever been arrested or convicted of a crime. No one has ever been in the poor house. Only one has ever been a day laborer for any length of time.

This family,however,has never been well-to-do. It has not had the financial background of the well known Jonathan Edwards family. Jesse Merrill was a pioneer farmer, yet he sent four sons to college. With the exception of perhaps two or three individuals, members of this family have not "made money." At least two may be said to have acculated over $100,000. Two of those recently in Who's Who in America sold papers as boys and with a widowed mother's help, made their way through college. Despite the lack of inherited wealth and financial backing, one-third of this entire family has attended college. Thirty per cent of the group has engaged in professional activities as means of earning a livelihood and self-expression.

The Merrill family is an aristogenic group. It has produced more special ability than is found in the general population as indicated by its high incidence of professional activity and inclusion in biographical dictionaries. It has an average intellectual level higher than that of the general population as shown by intellectual tests, the large propotion of college attendance and their college records. its general success has not been due to financial backing or social position. It has been due to the innate make-up of the individuals themselves whose germinal constitutions have been composed of the best biological elements and a social heritage contingent upon the activity of these ability-producing genes.

[From Howard Merrill: Jesse⁶ Merrill's lineage: Samuel^5,4, Nathaniel^3,2,1]