Forged by Stone, Shaped by Challenge

Ira Merrill in the 1860s

Imagine being born in 1803 to a stone mason father, the second of thirteen children in an industrious family. You and your eight brothers were likely all raised helping your father in the granite quarry and at construction sites. The quarries shaped you, building your muscles before most children were conscious of their strength. This was the life lived by Ira Merrill of the tiny Berkshire village of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts and his eight brothers—Joel, Caleb, Loyd, David, Thaddeus, Martin, Solomon, and Nathaniel—in the dawn of the nineteenth century. Ira’s life mirrored the growing pains of the adolescent nation, marked by financial frustration and technological progress. Success would come inch by inch—small victories in a world that pushed back against him. Ira’s persistent entrepreneurial spirit and Promethean mindset raised the collective bar for his family and for the industrializing nation, embodying the individual perseverance and collective industry of the 1800s.

Ira, in all probability, worked alongside older brother Joel with their father, learning the stone trade during the late 1810s and early 1820s. In 1829, Ira married Olive Nichols, first cousin of Joel’s wife Philena. Like so many others of the time, Olive died of consumption just a year into their marriage. Five years later, he married Olive’s sister Dolly and started a family. Ira also committed himself to his community. In 1838, he was serving as tax collector for the town of Shelburne, a role likely advantageous for a stone contractor working closely with local leadership. However, by 1841, it appears that his situation had flipped; a notice in the local paper listed Ira as an “insolvent debtor” whose creditors were scheduled to confer on how to deal with his estate. Why had Ira’s situation sunk to such a low point? Was his financial misfortune the result of personal delinquency or was it the broader result of the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that led to an overall economic downturn that lasted through the 1840s? Despite the cause, the situation must have been extremely trying for Ira and Dolly, who by this time had three small children and were living in a three bedroom house near the Deerfield River on Water Street in Shelburne Falls.

As the national economic crisis eased throughout the 1840s, ever resilient Ira Merrill steadily rebuilt his business and his reputation. It appears that Ira had significantly challenged himself and improved his skill set past that of his father, rebounding from economic adversity. In 1846, he posted a notice in the Northampton Democrat that he was “ready to undertake the work of tunnelling the [Hoosac] mountain between Florida and Adams for a million of dollars.” This would have been a monumental feat at that time, but with the rise of the industrial revolution, innovation and technological progress were taking center stage. It’s unclear if Ira was directly challenging Alvah Crocker (a prominent Fitchburg, Massachusetts mill owner) and engineer Herman Haupt to take charge of the tunnel project or if he simply sought a role under their leadership. While there is no indication that Ira ever directly worked on what would become the longest mountain pass train tunnel in the United States, his public bid reflects his ability and confidence to drill through rock on a grand scale, indicating he could secure the tremendous manpower and resources needed. From the humbling experience of public humiliation for debt and insolvency, Ira rose to public prominence and challenged himself to take on a most daunting project.

Shelburne Falls House

By 1851, Ira had certainly regained some of his wealth. The local newspaper reported that he had sold a pair of cattle, “the stoutest pair of cattle in the County,” together weighing 4675 pounds. His building projects, while smaller in scale than the boring of an almost five mile long tunnel, also progressed with earnestness, as did Ira’s ingenuity. In 1850, he and three brothers—Levi, Solomon, and Nathaniel—built the Shelburne Falls House Hotel, still standing strong today. Each brother reportedly took charge of building one corner of the building. In 1851, Ira once again participated in the world of local politics, this time on a slightly larger stage and likely motivated by his desire to secure construction contracts. He was appointed to the Franklin County Massachusetts Whig Party. The Whig Party supported federal subsidies for construction and a centralized national bank (the lack of which partly contributed to the Panic of 1837). In 1853, he was also appointed constable and collector at Shelburne, and was even appointed to the “Poultry Committee” by the Trustees of the Franklin County Agricultural Society. Ira was clearly taking charge of his professional destiny, exerting influence wherever he could.

In 1852, Ira made another bid to bore the tunnel through Hoosac Mountain—a project that would make it easier to transport goods between Massachusetts and the west. In a seemingly unsent 1853 letter addressed “Dear Brother,” he writes “we petitioned the legislation last year for a loane [sic] of two million dollars to put the tunnel through the mountain but we lost it.” Undoubtedly discouraged, Ira was still optimistic that he would be able to secure the loan within the year and undertake the project. Although there is no evidence that he had a direct role in the building of the Hoosac Tunnel, he was nevertheless armed with experience and fueled by ambition. In 1856, Ira Merrill successfully secured a patent for an “improved machine for tunneling and quarrying,” the first of three patents he would receive in his lifetime—including one in 1857 for “improvement in machines for breaking slabs or blocks of stone into regular forms” and one in 1865 for another “improved machine for tunneling and quarrying.” Despite professional and personal setbacks—he lost his roof to a storm in 1862—he didn’t stop innovating, despite never having had a higher education.

Ira Merrill’s 1857 Patent Design for “improvement in machines
for breaking slabs or blocks of stone into regular forms”

In his sixty three years, Ira built “numberless foundations, bridge abutments, and buildings,” reportedly without ever experiencing serious injury. In his final project, however, Ira’s luck would change. He was constructing the masonry in preparation for a new water power works at the Lamson & Goodnow cutlery factory in the village. Some of the factory workers took the opportunity to use Ira’s derrick to lift a gate on the property. While Ira was assisting them, the clasp that held the boom on the derrick gave way, hitting Ira in the head and knocking him ten feet backwards. With a broken leg and several broken ribs, along with the severe head injury, he lapsed in and out of consciousness until succumbing three hours after that devastating moment.

Ira Merrill’s life is a testament to grit and relentless invention, one man's contribution to advancing society. Today, I see his life reflected in the sidewalk of decoratively patterned red and gray pavers outside my window and in the stone retaining wall of neatly stacked granite blocks lining it. He remains an indelible part of his family’s legacy and his community's story. His hardships and hard work challenged his children and have allowed me—his great-great-granddaughter—to live more comfortably, admiring his work and (hopefully) perpetuating his character.