Historical Marker
Henry Merrell
Murfreesboro, Pike County · Arkansas
Erected 2013
Henry Merrell was a textile man before he was an Arkansan. Born in Utica, New York, in 1816, he went to work in a Whitesboro mill at fourteen and attended the abolitionist Oneida Institute. He took charge of the Roswell Manufacturing Company in Georgia in 1839 and began operating the Long Shoals Factory in 1845. In Arkansas he became a Confederate major, built a river blockade to protect Little Rock, and moved to Camden in 1863. He died there in 1883 and is buried in the Confederate Cemetery. His autobiography calls him an industrial missionary to the South.
Where it stands
34.06205, -93.68997 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Crater of Diamonds State Park — 2.3 miA volcanic crater where anyone can dig for diamonds and keep what they find.
- Historic Washington State Park — 20 miA Southwest Trail town that was Arkansas's Confederate capital from 1863 to 1865, then lost the railroad and kept its buildings, with a blacksmith shop and the 1836 courthouse.
More markers nearby
- Royston Factor Mill — steps away
- Pike County Diamond Mines — steps away
- Pike County Court House — steps away
- Howard County in the Civil War — 15 mi