MERCURE, SARAH JOSEPHINE (JOSIASSEN)

by Clarence P. Mercure

Entry F295 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

S. Josephine Mercure 1939 at Broken Bow, Nebraska

               (1884-1977)

Sarah Josephine (Josiassen) Mercure, the
youngest of the 9 children of Christian
Sibrand Josiassen and Martha Louisa (Siev-
ertsen) Josiassen, was born August 24, 1894
in Keya Paha County, Nebraska near Burton.
Her father, born on the island of Sylt in
Germany, was a sailor for many years before
emigrating to the United States. Her mother
was born in Oslo, Norway. After they married
in this country, they lived in Chicago where
he sailed on the Great Lakes. Next he worked
for McCormick Reaper and they they started
farming near Martha's parents and brothers
in Red Wing County, Minnesota. Then after
being eaten out completely by grasshoppers
two or three years in a row, they moved by
covered wagon pullen by oxen to Keya Paha
County, Nebraska in the spring of 1894. Then
Sarah was born in August.

She received her education in Keya Paha
County, Nebraska and started teaching there
at the age of 16 in 1900. Her first class
consisted of 35 pupils, with 2 or 3 men over
21 years of age. In those days the schools were
held by quarters, and often the boys did not
get to attend the fall quarters and sometimes
spring quarters because they were needed on
the farm. Needless to say, being only 16, she
had quite a discipline problem with these
young men. One time they were just sitting
and talking and ignoring her, completely
disrupting the school. She picked up a stack
of 4 or 5 books, walked up behind one of them,
and hit him on top of the head as hard as she
could. It almost laid him out. After that, with
the help of the parents, she did maintain
discipline. She taught in Keya Paha and
Merrick County rural schools from 1900 to
1908, attending Fremont Normal College as
much of the time as she could when not
teaching. She graduated from Fremont Nor-
mal College (later Midland College, Nebras-
ka in 1909. In 1909-1910 she taught in high
school in Rushville, Nebraska. In 1910-12 she
was school principal in Seneca, Nebraska and
in 1912-13 she was school principal at Cody,
Nebraska.

She married Nelson Darwin Mercure, Sr.
on June 11, 1913. They lived at Mullen where
he and his brother, Clarence had a hardware
store. Nelson Darwin Mercure, Jr. was born
May 16, 1914. Nelson Darwin Mercure, Sr.
was killed in a car-train wreck near Lincoln
on August 23, 1916. Nelson Darwin Mercure,
nicknamed "Cub", purchased the first auto-
mobile owned in the Mullen area in the early
'teens. It was a shiny black roadster with a
chain drive. The old-timers remembered it as
being a "Brush" automobile.

S. Josephine Mercure continued to operate
the hardware store with her brother-in-law,
Clarence. Then on June 18, 1918 she married
Clarence Preston Mercure, Sr. Clarence
Preston Mercure, Jr. was born 1921.
After a long illness, Clarence Preston Mer-
cure Sr. died July 7, 1930. In the late 'teens
and early "twenties" she taught intermittent-
ly at Mullen High School.

S. Josephine Mercure was elected County
Superintendent of Hooker County in 1930.
She held that position from 1931 through
1938. At that time there were between twenty
and thirty rural schools in Hooker County.
From 1939 to September, 1941 she kept
books at her son, Darwin's Ford garage in
Mullen. In September, 1941 she left Mullen
to live with her son, Clarence. They lived in
McCook, Lincoln and Stanton during the
next seven years, and she found some work
while in Lincoln.

Then in January, 1948 she moved with
Clarence to Oshkosh, Nebraska where she
kept house for him until 1961. All her life she
had enjoyed working with flowers and gar-
dening, and she had more time for both at
Oshkosh. She also enjoyed the fishing at Lake
McConaughy in the 1950's. She and Clarence
also acquired a new hobby, hunting Fairburn
agates and petrified wood. She enjoyed this
hobby most of all and still hunted "rocks" at
the age of 92. She lived by herself after
Clarence married in 1961, living in her own
home until about three months before her
death. She died on August 20, 1977, four days
short of her 93rd birthday.