Henry DeMerritt Young was born in Gilford, NH, in 1860, the son of Lemuel D. Young and Elizabeth K. Marston. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Boston, MA, to pursue an education in art. He studied at the Museum of Fine Arts while supporting himself by modeling for a manufacturer of plaster casts and decorations. He continued his artistic studies while working as an illustrator, singer, and teacher in Boston, Concord, NH, and Waltham, MA. He also studied in New York, where he joined the Art Students’ League.

Young devoted much of his artistic career to watercolor landscapes of New Hampshire subjects. In December 1893, he exhibited views of Lake Asquam (Squam Lake) and the surrounding region at his studio, 12 West Street, Boston. Reviewing the exhibition, the Boston Evening Transcript observed, “Mr. Young has devoted his efforts of late years to the representation of the lake and mountain scenery of New Hampshire, with gratifying success.” The exhibition included views of the Sandwich Range, the northern peaks of the Presidential Range in winter from Jefferson, and the summit of Mount Chocorua.

On June 14, 1894, Young married Mary Frances Dyer of Auburndale, MA. During the summer of that year, he stayed at the Iron Mountain House in Jackson, NH. In December 1894, he held another exhibition at his Boston studio, featuring views of the New Hampshire lakes, Mount Chocorua, and Jackson.

In January 1896, Young established a studio at 314 Boylston Street in Boston, where he held an exhibition of watercolors the following month. The exhibition included views of Mount Chocorua, Lake Asquam, and Jackson, together with coastal subjects from Maine. Reviewing the exhibition on February 26, 1896, the Boston Evening Transcript observed, “He has a genuine sympathy for the mountains, and understands them better than most painters.”

Young was a member of the Boston Art Club and the Boston Water Color Society, and his work was exhibited in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. He also worked as an illustrator for Boston publishers and produced etchings. For approximately three years before his death, he taught drawing in the evening classes of the Boston YMCA, eventually organizing a life-drawing class for his students. He was also associated with the Twentieth Century Club and was an original member of the Boston branch of the Walt Whitman Fellowship. His son, Marston Dyer Young, was born in 1896.

During the summers of 1897 and 1898, Young spent considerable time painting along the Maine coast. In October 1897, he exhibited watercolors of Casco Bay and other coastal subjects at Gould & Whipple’s Gallery in Portland, ME. In November 1898, he arranged another exhibition of his recent watercolors, including New Hampshire mountain and lake subjects, at the Portland Society of Art.

On November 27, 1898, Young died when the steamship Portland, traveling from Boston to Portland, sank during a severe storm off Cape Cod, MA. He was thirty-eight years old and was lost at sea. A substantial collection of his recent watercolors, which he was carrying to Portland for exhibition, was also lost. The planned exhibition at the Portland Society of Art was subsequently canceled. He was survived by his wife, Mary Frances, and their son, Marston.

In January 1899, Boston’s artistic community organized a benefit exhibition and auction to assist his widow and their two-year-old son. Williams & Everett donated the use of their galleries at 190 Boylston Street, Boston, and auctioneer Frank A. Leonard contributed his services. The exhibition opened January 19, followed by the auction on January 26. Nearly 150 fellow artists contributed paintings and other works of art for the benefit, including John J. Enneking, Benjamin Champney, Frank Henry Shapleigh, George Albert Frost, Jean Paul Selinger, J. A. S. Monks, William Hart and Daniel Santry. The sale of 155 numbered works and several additional contributions raised nearly $5,500 for Young’s family.

Obituary From the Telegram & Gazatte
Worcester, MA / Wednesday, November 30, 1898 / Page 8 / Others Who Perished.

Henry DeMerritt Young, the artist, according to a telegram from Portland received in Boston last night, took passage on the Portland boat Saturday. Mr. Young started for Portland, where he was to exhibit a collection of water colors at Gould & Whipple’s gallery, and his friends in Boston have heard nothing from him since. Mr. Young was a member of the Boston Art club, the 20th Century club and other associations of artists and men of culture. He was a teacher in the life class at the Y.M. C. A., and was well known to the publishers of Boston, having illustrated many books published in this city. Mr. Young was about 35 years old.

He was born in New Hampshire and came to Boston when a boy. For several years he studied at the Art Museum of Boston, meanwhile modeling for a well-known firm of makers of plaster figures and decorations, and illustrating for various publications. Later he went to New York to finish his studies, and while there joined the Art Students’ league and studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. Afterward he enjoyed a considerable measure of success in water color work. It was to exhibit a series of water color sketches of the North shore in the vicinity of Marblehead and of the Maine coast that he was going to Portland.

Reference
Independent research by the authors