USU Research Farm

Customary to many who practiced polygamy in the early years of the Church, a home was constructed for the wives of the man who practiced.

Marriner Wood Merrill married his second wife, Cyrene Standley, June 5, 1856 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They moved to Richmond in 1860 and started their farm in the area that would later become the South Farm. In the same company as Marriner was his brother-in-law Edwin Pace, who owned about 20 acres around the area. That same year, Edwin became distasteful about the quality of life in Richmond and traded his land for land Marriner owned in Bountiful, Utah.1

The Merrill family continued to live in Richmond near the High Creek Canal, including purchasing a home across the canal from the Preator family. In the winter of 1872-1873, the Prator home was delicately taken apart and moved to build a home on the South Farm.1 Some records indicate that the rock home was constructed in 1860 before the Merrill family added the wooden backside.3

Marrine married Maria Loenza Kingsbury on Oct 4, 1867 in Salt Lake City, Utah, a granddaughter of Stillman Pond. She moved into the home on the mill on the northwest side of Richmond. In 1885, Cyrene and Maria did a home switch as the other wanted to live in the other's home. Maria lived in the house until 1906 after Marriner's death and sold the house to Parley Merrill, the oldest son of Cyrene and Marriner.2

Parley sold the home in 1909 to John Thomas Caine Jr and his wife, Katrinka Caroline Ballif. They raised their children at the house. After John died in 1940, the house was deeded to his son, Lawrence Baliff Caine, and his wife, Marcella Margaret McHugh. By 1975, the Cain family constructed a two-story home, co-existing with the Merrill home. Sometime after 1975, the Merrill home was destroyed.4 By 1999, the farm had been donated to Utah State University, which used the home to house some of the workers. By 2021, the home had been demolished.

The homes were nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 but were not added to the registry.

1. Merrill, Melvin Clarence, (1937). Utah Pioneer and Apostle: Marriner Wood Merrill and His Family, pgs. 402. Digital copy Internet Archive, Contributed by the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/utahpioneerapost00merr/page/405/mode/1up

2. Merrill, Melvin Clarence, (1937). Utah Pioneer and Apostle: Marriner Wood Merrill and His Family, pgs. 456-458. Digital copy Internet Archive, Contributed by the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/utahpioneerapost00merr/page/457/mode/1up

3. "Caine, John T.-Country Home P.1 | Classified Photographs". collections.lib.utah.edu. Retrieved June 18, 2024.

4. Lamar T. Merrill Jr. (1975) TMerrill-Caine Home. University of Utah J. Willard Marriot Digital Library. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/search?page=2&q=Richmond%2C+Utah&rows=200&gallery=1#g139