Joseph Merrill (sheriff)
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Joseph Lumpkin Merrell (1862 – July 24, 1939)[1] was an American sheriff. He was sheriff of Carroll County, Georgia at the turn of the 20th century who gained nationwide fame for stopping a lynching.[2] Articles about his bravery appeared in the New York Evening Post, the Atlanta Constitution, the Louisville Courier Journal, the Washington Star, and the Boston Herald.[3] He is also mentioned by Mark Twain in his 1901 essay The United States of Lyncherdom.[4] Merrell's last name was often misspelled in the press as "Merrill."[5]