Merrill resigned his position of state treasurer. The Indianapolis News reported on July 15, 1911: "His honesty and splendid record made him a man to inspire confidence in the bank." Merrill visited all thirteen of the bank's branches twice each year, traveling on horseback to personally examine their accounts and ledgers. It was said that he was able to review columns of figures with machine-like rapidity and accuracy. Railroad company president Merrill served as president of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company from 1844 to 1848. The state legislature initially established it as a state-owned railroad on January 27, 1836, as one of the first rail lines in the state. The railroad was salvaged following the collapse of the state's internal improvement programs and transferred to private ownership on June 20, 1842. With additional funding from investors in the East, Merrill expanded the railroad to complete the line, which extended from Madison, Indiana, to Indianapolis. More track was laid during his first two years as president than had been done in the previous ten years of its state-owned management. Merrill resigned from the railroad in 1848 after disagreements with H. R. Hall, the rail line's superintendent. Publisher In 1840 Merrill authored and published Chamberlain's Gazetteer of Indiana. The following year he bought Hood and Noble's bookstore, one of four bookstores located in Indianapolis at that time, and oversaw its merger with his publishing business. After Merrill's death in 1855, ownership of the Merrill Publishing Company passed to his son, Samuel Merrill Jr. After a merger with Bowen Stewart and Company in 1885, it became known as the Bowen-Merrill Company; in 1903 the firm was renamed the Bobbs-Merrill Company. Other interests In addition to his banking and business ventures, Merrill, a temperance and abolitionist, was interested in education and religious work. Merrill was an early president of the Temperance Society of Indianapolis and a leader of the State Colonization Society. He was also an outspoken abolitionist. On one occasion, a pro-slavery man entered the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank of Indiana and challenged Merrill to a fist-fight, which Merrill won. Because of his interest in education, Merrill helped to establish Wabash College in 1833 and served as a trustee. Merrill also taught school in York, Pennsylvania, and on occasion in Vevay, Indiana, and served as the superintendent of Sunday Schools for Indianapolis's Second Presbyterian and Fourth Presbyterian churches. Merrill was