For more than three decades Dr. Alfred M. Merriman has been widely known and popular as a general physician and surgeon of Bristol, Rhode Island. Since 1927 he has been colonel of the Bristol Train Artillery.
Alfred M. Merriman was born in Harpswell, Maine, May 1, 1868, son of Captain Walter Merriman, a native of that village, and his wife, Lavinia Merriman, now deceased, also a native of Harpswell. Dr. Merriman, a direct descendant of Joseph Curtis, of Harpswell, owns the old Curtis homestead in that town. The father of our subject was a member of the merchant marine until his death and was a man of fearless courage and reckless daring. After completing the public school course in Harpswell, the son attended the Brunswick, Maine, High School, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1892 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then combined the post of assistant in the Department of Chemistry with his own graduate studies and was awarded his Master’s degree in 1893. He continued his studies at Bowdoin, in the Medical College, graduating in 1895 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. His internship was passed at the Howard, Rhode Island, State Institution. It was thus with unusually thorough training and experience that Dr. Merriman established himself in the practice of medicine and surgery in Bristol in 1896, and he has met with the success merited by his care in preparing himself for this difficult and responsible humanitarian task. He has for the past twenty-six years been surgeon for the Rhode Island Soldiers Home in Bristol. He belongs to the Providence and the Rhode Island State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. Dr. Merriman is very public-spirited and has served as president of the Bristol Young Men’s Christian Association for some time, and for six years as a member of the Bristol School Board. He is a Republican in politics, and in 1917-18 was a lieutenant in the Rhode Island State Guard. His fraternal affiliations are with St. Albans Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is Past Master. His club is the Bristol Yacht Club, and his hobbies are athletic activities and the game of golf. He is a communicant of the Episcopal Church.
Alfred M. Merriman married (first), in 1899, Frances Perry, daughter of Major Raymond H. Perry, an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. His first wife is now deceased. Dr. Merriman married (second), in 1911, Cordelia L. Allen, born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.