Stephen Mason Merrill (September 16, 1825 – November 12, 1905) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1872. Early life Stephen Mason Merrill was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio on September 16, 1825. He was the fifth of eleven children and as a child the family moved to Clemont County in southwest Ohio, the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant. It was here that he spent his growing years. While growing up, Merrill learned the trade of shoemaking and by the time he was 17 years old (1842) he had moved to Greenfield, Ohio in Highland County. It was here that he joined the local Methodist Society. The society was one of three important components of the early Methodist system. Methodism had the society, composed of all who met regularly for prayer and fellowship; the class, a dozen or so believers that met to share religious experiences; and the band, which numbered four or five persons for intimate study and conversation. Ordained ministry Merrill was the grandson of a Minute-Man of the American Revolution. By 1845, when Merrill was 20 years old, he had been licensed to preach and was teaching school. The next year he was admitted to the Ohio Conference on trial and received the Georgetown circuit, which had 22 stops. After spending three years on the circuit Merrill married Anna Bellmire. A year after his marriage (1849) at 24 years of age, Merrill was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, North (In 1844 the Methodist Episcopal Church had split along geographical lines because of slavery and slave-holding) From 1844 to 1848, Methodism declined in membership from over one million to nearly half that number and this fractured Methodism needed additional leadership. He served with distinction as a pastor and presiding elder in the Ohio Annual Conference. He was the Editor of the Western Christian Advocate (an official publication of his denomination) when elected Bishop. Episcopal ministry By 1851 Merrill was ordained an elder. It was during this time of crisis in the Methodist movement that Merrill shown brightly. Once he was appointed to the pastorate he rose from pastor to district captain to presiding elder. By the end of the decade, at age 34, Merrill was transferred to the Kentucky Conference. He later returned to the Ohio Conference in 1863 at the age of 38. Merrill attended his first General Conference in