When we think of swimming and ice skating in Wethersfield, we naturally think of Windmont Park. But before Windmont opened in 1906, there was another body of water in Wethersfield enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Its name? Merritt’s Pond.
The story of the pond begins and ends with Henry Clay Merritt, born in Carmel, New York, in 1831. After completing his schooling, H. C. Merritt moved to Henry County in the 1850s and to Kewanee in the 1860s. He eventually developed fame as a hunter, businessman, traveler, and author. Upon meeting him, however, Henry County historian Henry L. Kiner described him as “among the peculiar people in Henry County.”
While in college, Merritt hunted partridges and began shipping them to a game merchant in New York City. When he came west, he saw the abundance of golden plover and prairie chickens as a golden opportunity. He soon began hunting and hired other hunters to gather game and ship to New York and other large cities. Soon, Merritt became wealthy. He eventually owned valuable business blocks in Kewanee, including the Merritt Block at the corner of Tremont and Third Streets (containing the new Kewanee House), the old Kewanee House property directly west of the Merritt Block, the Cliff House building at the corner of Chestnut and Second Streets, and all the rest of that block, except the Butterwick brothers’ building. He also owned property in Atkinson and other villages.
Back to the pond. In 1878, Merritt purchased the old brewery located on Lot 39 in Wethersfield at the corner of Mill and Hollis streets, which had been operated by immigrants Henry Meier and Gottlieb Ziegler. Merritt converted the brewery building to an icehouse for his burgeoning game business. To obtain his ice, Merritt dammed the Spoon River (now Mill Creek), a slough flowing west to east across his property, to form a small pond. By 1882, “all the boys and girls in town are bumping their heads” on the ice pond.
In 1886, Merritt built a new 30 ft. x 50 ft. brick icehouse and enlarged his pond by dredging and by adding a new 200 ft. brick dam. Wethersfield kids had “jolly good times” skating on the pond, with “boys and girls flock[ing] to the [pond] by the score.” Kids swam in the pond in the summer, albeit not without the occasional mishap. For instance, in the February 2, 1887, Kewanee Courier it was reported that “[l]ittle Otto Einenbark took an accidental swim in Merritt’s Pond last Saturday. He was finally pulled out all ok, but slightly damp.”
Apparently, dances were held at the pond, too. The Independent reported on December 13, 1894, that “Johnnie Cox is a great lover of violin music, and so laid off Saturday to practice [and] he will learn ‘after the ball’ (a then-popular song) so that he can play for the dance on Merritt’s ice pond.”
By 1898, Merritt was finished with his ice business and sought a renter for the icehouse and pond. After Windmont Park opened in 1906, a new owner sought fill for the pond, and by 1914, he closed what had become a rubbish dump.
Merritt died in 1907, and the memory of his pond was banished to what Petrarch called “the rubbish heap of history.”
(You can learn more about Henry Clay Merritt in my story, Henry Clay Merritt – “Born with a Gun;” my video, Kewanee Parks; and in my book, A Brief History of the First Years of Kewanee Parks.)
