John S. Merritt was born in Covington County, Alabama, on his father and mother's old family homestead near Brooks. He was the seventh child of William Henry "Bill" and Syvel Dreding Merritt. In his early teens the family left the homestead and moved to the Rose Hill and Cedar Grove area. During the next few years, Bill Merritt was involved in the sawmill business. When he was about twenty years of age, John moved away from home and worked as a farm hand for Mr. Will Graves. During the years that he worked for the Graves' family, he became involved with a young lady by the name of Annie Harris, and John became the unwed father of her only child, a son, who was named Roscoe Darrell (R.D.) Harris. This child was reared by his grandfather, Doc Harris. Mr. Will Graves paid for the child by giving Mr. Harris two mules and a wagon which John repaid with labor. Family records show that August 8th, 1917, John and his brothers, Jim and Tom, had to report to the draft board in Andalusia, Alabama, to stand the physical examination for the army. John was found unfit for service due to blindness in his left eye at birth. Jim and Tom were accepted and served during World War 1. In early 1925 John left Cedar Grove and traveled by train to Samson in Geneva County for the purpose of marrying Mattie Lee Roberson, whom he had met earlier in Covington County. They were married February 10, 1925, at the old Geneva County Courthouse in Geneva, Alabama. John Samuel Merritt was hired in July 1926 by the City of Samson under the direction of Mayor Hugh Wise. He carried the title of "Street Man." This job consisted of keeping up the streets and digging drainage ditches plus the duty of removing the town's garbage. This he did with the help of one man named Rube Dannley. The city vehicle used for this was a one horse wagon and an old gray horse named Maude. The salary paid to these men was fifty cents per day or three dollars for the six day week. The next mayor of Samson was Mr. W.D. (Dolly) Coleman who wanted to improve Samson by adding law enforcement. He appointed John Merritt the additional duty of Town Marshall, on an "as needed" basis, and raised his salary to one dollar per day. A day's work then could be as long as eighteen to twenty hours. As Samson began to grow and had two cotton gins and three sawmills, the need for additional law enforcement became necessary. The first chief of police hired was Keeton Grissett along with an Officer Rottle. John Merritt was given full time police work. The court system used by the town at that time was Judge Jesse Sanders who was also a Justice of the Peace. Judge Sanders was a man of good character with moderate education. He was a small, hump-backed man who walked with a cane. He maintained his office upstairs in part of the Masonic building which was located west of today's Coffee County Bank. After the retirement of Judge Sanders, the town used the Mayor's Court. Serving as mayors during this time was Harry C. Walters, Pat Stakes, John B. Logan, Sr., and Sam Morris. During his service to the city of Samson, Merritt worked with many other police officers. Some of them were Charlie Rushing, Red Hemby, Frank Rushing, Chief E. B. Stafford, Zeb Scott, John D. Hill, Chief O.C. Hicks, Fate Speed, Sam Owens, Melvin Brown, Leon Pickron, and his son, Eldon L. Merritt. John S. Merritt was injured many times in the line of duty. The first time was by a citizen who became angered because the city refused to build a bridge over a drainage ditch for his wife. He became so angry that he assaulted Merritt with a knife and severely cut him on the face and upper left arm. The scars left by these cuts were carried for the rest of Merritt's life. Another injury occurred in the early 1940's when two drunken soldiers were in town and were told to leave. When they refused to leave, they were placed under arrest by Merritt and were being taken to jail. One of them picked up a 2 x 4 and struck Merritt in the face, causing him to become unconscious. The two then escaped by bus to Geneva where they were followed by Officer Charlie Rushing and were brought back to Samson at gun point. After several others, the most serious injury came on July 11, 1947, when two Geneva County men came to Samson and being highly intoxicated, were told to leave town by Officer Red Hemby. The two refused and armed themselves with shotguns. Hemby then told Merritt about this and together they went to the alley between the bus station and Homer Reeve's Gulf Station to take the men into custody. About this time Hemby lost his courage and ran from the scene. As John Merritt approached the men, one of them shot Merritt, striking him in the upper chest and face. Then, as he turned to fall, he was struck in the back and shoulders by a second shot. The next day Red Hemby was discharged from the police department. It has been said that he ran to the home of Calvin Johnson and hid under a bed for the night. On June 12th the two men were arrested by Sheriff W. P. Register and Deputy Fox Davis as they were traveling to Geneva to surrender. Mr. John D. Hill was appointed to serve as night policeman while Merritt was confined to the hospital in Enterprise. As the City of Samson had very limited funds, Merritt's salary had to be stopped so that Hill could be paid, but thanks to people such as T.S. Faulk and Company, Mr. Tom Brooks, O.G. Myras, People's Drug Store, Dr. E. T. Brunson, Ralph Stevens, Charlie Maund, Brown Howell, Lomax Crowell, and many other good people in and near Samson who furnished food, clothing, medicine and paid bills, John, Mattie Lee and the family of nine children were able to make out until he could return to duty. John Merritt was never able to read or write. He took notes by memory and then had someone else make the reports. When the city bought its first police vehicle, it was a black Ford pickup truck equipped with a steel paddy wagon type body on it. This truck was referred to as "the dog wagon." As Merritt could not drive, he did his police work on foot. if the call was too far to walk, he would get someone to drive for him. This was mostly done by one of the fire chiefs who were, during this time, Clarence Jenkins, Albert Crews, Houston Alford, Alton McDuffie, Cow Campbell and Eddie Alford. Eddie Alford went on to serve fifty-seven years with the Samson Fire Department. He and John Merritt were the best of friends. The Merritt family cannot thank Eddie and his wife Abby enough for all their help and friendship through the hard years. In 1966 the health of Merritt began to fail, and he was forced to retire from police work. However, he did continue to serve as radio dispatcher until he lost his eyesight because of the damage done by the shotgun pellets to his eyes. On April 16, 1968, at the age of seventy-three, John Samuel passed away in Room 100 of the Geneva County Hospital (now Wiregrass Hospital) with his friend and doctor, Hoyt A. Childs, son Eldon, daughter-in-law Alice F. (Dot), daughter Sara and son-in-law R. C. Grimes at his side. He was buried in his family plot in Piney Grove Cemetery north of Samson. This ended the career of forty-three years of John Merritt to the city of Samson and the life of the longest serving police officer in the history of the town. John Merritt loved the town of Samson and all of its people. He refused to talk about ever leaving the area. His family and friends can never thank you, Samson, enough for allowing us to be part of you, our hometown.
Eldon & Dot Merritt
|
