Windham

MERRIFIELD, Edward L.

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, part III, 
p 14 of 20 unnumbered leaves (portrait p 14)

Edward L. MERRIFIELD, of New York City, was born 17 March 1835 in Jamaica 
[Windham County, Vermont], son of Lyman and Hannah MERRIFIELD. He received 
his education in the town schools of Jamaica, and at Leland's Seminary at 
Townshend [Windham County]. In 1851, at sixteen years of age, he left home 
to go to New York to seek his fortune. He had not a dollar when he arrived, 
but had a stout heart, saving disposition, and determination to succeed. He 
took hold of the first thing that presented itself, and in four years he was 
running a cordage business of his own. He prospered and within a short time 
had the largest business in this line in New York. In 1868, in order to 
protect a loan he had made, he had to take upon himself the management of the 
Continental Hotel. Though totally inexperienced in hotel matters, his 
business instinct soon told him how the hotel should be conducted to make a 
success. The different departments were organized on a business basis, and 
from a poorly conducted hotel it became one of the best in the city. He 
retained its management until 1876, when it was burned to the ground. By 
this time he had become a thorough hotel keeper, and his next venture was in 
a hotel at Twentieth Street and Broadway, which he renamed "The Continental." 
Though this hotel brought financial disaster upon all his predecessors, he 
soon had it on a paying basis, and made it a great source of profit to 
himself.

When this lease expired, in 1890, he secured its renewal and furthermore 
increased the hotel's capacity. As the Continental now stands, it covers ten 
city lots, and contains three hundred rooms. Besides his hotel connection, 
Mr. MERRIFIELD is a director in one of the largest national banks of New 
York, vice president of a savings bank, and financially interested in other 
enterprises in New York and elsewhere. He has done much to help bring the 
Hotel Men's Association of New York City to its present degree of prosperity 
and has been its president for the past six or seven years. He is a 
conspicuous member of the New York State Hotel Association and of the Hotel 
Men's Mutual Benefit Association of the United States. In 1863 Mr. [Edward 
L.] MERRIFIELD was married to [Miss?] Ellen L. FARRAR, of Townshend [Windham 
County, Vermont], and two children have blessed the union: Carrie H. and 
Mark E., and the latter is growing up in the footsteps of his father as a 
hotel man.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly