Alexander Maitland Bartlett (1826-1883) and Laura Salome Merrill (Mrs. A. Bartlett) (1829-1891)

As an Oberlin College graduate with three degrees (A.B. 1853, A.M. 1856, School of Theology 1859), Alexander Bartlett’s career focused on education and ministry. He was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, February 5, 1826, one of five children in the family of Isaiah Bartlett, a mechanic and farmer (b. 1792) and Marian Mason Bartlett (n.d.). He came to Oberlin College from his home in Johnston, Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1847.

After his graduation in 1853, he married an Oberlin student, Laura Salome Merrill (O.C. 1850-1852) on August 25, 1853 in First Church in Oberlin. Laura Merrill was born on November 16, 1829 in Nunda, New York, the fifth daughter of Riley Merrill, Sr. (b. 1794, d. June 3, 1860) and Anna Cravath (b. 1797). She grew up in a well educated family, one directly descended from an original Mayflower passenger. Her father, an educator, worked in the Nunda, New York public schools. She entered Oberlin College in 1850, left in 1852, and then returned to Oberlin in 1853 to marry Alexander Bartlett. The couple raised two sons (Robert and Addison) and four daughters (Clara, Cora, Nellie, and Edith). All the children except Edith graduated from Marysville College in Tennessee.

Alexander Bartlett’s career began immediately following graduation in Mansfield, Ohio, 1853-55, and Putnam, Ohio, 1855-57, as Superintendent of Public Instruction. he completed an A.M. at Oberlin in 1856, and earned a divinity degree at the Oberlin School of Theology, 1857-59. Thereafter he served Congregational churches in Wellington, Ohio, 1860; Conneaut, Ohio, 1863; and Austinburg, Ohio, 1866. He returned to Marysville, Tennessee, and served as Superintendent of Schools, 1870-1873, and then as Professor of Latin at Marysville College, 1873-83.

Alexander Bartlett died in Marysville, November 19, 1883, and was buried there with his wife (d. July 16, 1891).