Henry Merrell
Henry Merrell, known as the "Industrial Missionary to the South," was born in Utica, N.Y., in 1816. He moved to Arkansas in 1856 and built an industrial complex in Pike Co. He helped draft an anti-secession resolution in 1860, but stayed with his adopted state when the war began. He was made a partisan captain to protect the mill in 1862, and in 1863 became a major of engineers. He tried to block the Arkansas River to protect Little Rock from capture, then retreated to southwest Arkansas with the army. Merrell died Jan. 19, 1883, and is buried in Camden.