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Local figure

Eben G. Merritt

Eben G. Merritt and his wife, Ruby, opened an Esso filling station on the Pittsboro Road south of Chapel Hill in 1929 and ran it for nearly fifty years; it is the business now known as Merritt's Store and Grill. Also a contractor and cattle grower, he went to court in 1952 when the new bypass cut through his pasture and threatened to leave his station off the main road.

Source: The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1941

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Eben G. Merritt. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Eben G. Merritt’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

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Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Eben and Ruby Merritt open a gas station on the Pittsboro Road Eben and Ruby Merritt began running an Esso gas station on the Pittsboro Road south of Chapel Hill in 1929 and kept it for nearly fifty years. It is the business that became Merritt's Store and Grill. People: Eben G. MerrittSearch the index · Chapelboro.com: Claire Mackman, Merritt's Store & Grill: Serving Since 1929 (August 10, 2018)
  2. Eben G. Merritt opens a new filling station on the Pittsboro Road E. G. Merritt opened a new filling station on the Pittsboro Road, just above his old stand, with a tiled roof and a large parking lot. It later ran as Merritt's Service Station and store. People: Eben G. MerrittSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1941, p. 3
  3. Eben Merritt stops highway crews with an injunction over land taken for the new bypass Filling station owner Eben G. Merritt got an injunction that briefly halted State Highway Commission work near Morgan Creek, arguing that the new bypass and the rerouted Pittsboro road would cut through his pasture, isolate his new house and pull his station off the main highway for far less than they were worth. A court-appointed commission set his damages at $6,000 in March 1953, and he appealed. People: Eben G. MerrittSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 9, 1952, p. 3

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Eben G. Merritt Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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