 The first home missionary appointed after the founding of the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1832 was Thomas Ward Merrill, who, in 1829, went to the Michigan Territory.While a student at Waterville College in Maine, Merrill was influenced by the conversion of Professor George Dana Boardman and his offer of himself to serve as a missionary in India.To earn money for his trip from Maine to Michigan, he sold Mrs. Judson's "Memoirs" and the American Baptist Magazine.