My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in the book,  Biographical Souvenir of the Counties of Buffalo, Kearney, Phelps, Harlan and Franklin, Nebraska published in 1890 by F. A. Battey & Company.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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V. T. MERCER. An old settler and highly esteemed citizen of Gibbon township, Buffalo county, is V. T. Mercer, the subject of this notice. Mr. Mercer is a native of Delaware county, Pa., and was born in July, 1828. He is next to the youngest of a family of eleven children born to Euclid and Mary (Watts) Mercer. His father was also a native of Pennsylvania, was reared and married there and moved from there to Ohio, settling in what was then Guernsey, now Noble county, from which, after a residence of some years, he moved to Fulton county, Ill., where he died with the cholera. He was an industrious farmer and an honored and useful citizen. Mr. Mercer’s mother was a native of Maryland, moving with her parents when young to Pennsylvania, where she met and was married to Euclid Mercer. She survived her husband twenty-eight years, dying also in Fulton county, Ill. Of the eleven children born to them six were boys and five girls; all of them reached maturity, and, with the exception of three, are now living. Their christian names in the order of their ages are as follows: John, Elizabeth, Richard, Job, Chalkley, Hannah, Julia Ann, Sarah, Susan, Vernon T. and Hiram B.

Vernon T., the subject of this sketch, was reared mainly in Guernsey (afterwards Noble) county, Ohio. He was brought upon the farm and trained to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life, receiving during the winter months, according to the custom of those days, the rudiments of a common-school education by attendance at the country schools of the neighborhood. In 1860 he married Nancy Rebecca Waggoner, daughter of John and Elizabeth Waggoner, of Noble county, she being a native of that county and a young lady whom he had known from early childhood. He settled down to the pursuit of agriculture and was so engaged when the Civil war came on. He entered the Union army in 1864, enlisting in Company F, One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, his regiment being attached to the Army of the Cumberland, with which he served, being mustered out in May, 1865. Returning to Ohio he remained there, engaged in farming, till the spring of 1871, when he moved to Nebraska, settling in Gibbon township, Buffalo county, in June that year. He took a homestead in section 26, township 9, range 14 west, being 162.88 acres and embracing a fractional part of the old Fort Kearney military reservation. There he located and has since resided, having been steadily engaged in farming. He has one of the best places in Gibbon township. It lies only about two miles from the corporate limits of the town of Gibbon and is thus sufficiently near mills, markets, schools and churches. Every foot of it is susceptible of cultivation and it lies near enough to the Platte bottoms to place it in reach of an abundance of hay and grazing land. It has growing on it an excellent grove of trees, the result of Mr. Mercer’s industry and foresight, and is supplied with all other needful conveniences. Mr. Mercer has never aspired to be more than a humble citizen of the community where he resides, being content to follow the even tenor of his way, finding therein his chief pleasure as well as his highest reward. He has reared up around himself an interesting family of children, all of whom are now grown and some of whom are married and are themselves the heads of families. His children are — Charles Wilbur, Mollie L. (now wife of H. P. Smith, a sketch of whom appears in this work), John B. and Flora K.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the book, Biographical Souvenir of the Counties of Buffalo, Kearney, Phelps, Harlan and Franklin, Nebraska published in 1890 by F. A. Battey & Company. 

View additional Buffalo County, Nebraska family biographies here: Buffalo County, Nebraska Biographies

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