Apostle Merrill's six-year-old son's recovery from a severe head injury

On July 8, 1890, a six-year-old son of Apostle Marriner Wood Merrill of Richmond, Cache County, Utah, was severely injured when a horse kicked him in the forehead. The horse’s shoe struck the boy, cutting a deep gash and knocking him unconscious. Family members, including Willard and Laura Merrill, rushed the child to Logan, Utah, to seek medical intervention. Dr. Ormsby attended to the boy, performing the necessary surgery to sew up the severe wound and making the child as comfortable as possible. Despite fears that the boy would not regain consciousness, the medical treatment was successful, and the family members were able to return home to Richmond by 11 p.m. that same evening. The injured boy was Melvin Clarence Merrill, a child of Apostle Merrill's fourth wife, Maria Loenza Kingsbury Merrill.