Thomas Mercer

Judge Thomas Mercer (March 11, 1813 – May 25, 1898) was a pioneer associated with the early history of Seattle.

Mercer was born in Mercersburg, Ohio on March 11, 1813, and was the eldest son of Aaron and Jane (Dickerson) Mercer, natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively. Aaron Mercer moved to Ohio in boyhood, being among the pioneers of that country. He learned the process of manufacturing woollen cloths and blankets and then operated his own factory very successfully for a number of years.

In 1834 he was among the pioneer settlers at Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois. The eldest of fourteen, Thomas's education was chiefly in the school of necessity. As labor was the chief occupation of the pioneer, and in the noble army of workers Judge Mercer has been arrayed throughout his life, he was a bright, active boy, quick in mathematics and mechanical work.

His boyhood was passed in the factory of his father, and with his systematic methods and recognized ability he became foreman at the age of fourteen years and operated the factory up to 1834, when the family removed to Illinois and engaged in fanning. In 1830 young Mercer started a store in a little, old, log cabin in Princeton, and this enterprise he prosecuted for one year, abandoning it then because of the close confinement entailed.

He then returned to farming. In 1837 he took part in the division of Putnam County and the organization of Bureau County. Elected clerk of the new county, he soon relinquished the job, which paid only 25 cents a day, to someone else.

Mercer was married in Princeton in 1838, to Nancy Brigham, a native of New Hampshire. He then continued farming up to 1851, when he sold out, settled up his affairs, and in April 1852, with his wife and four children, left his Illinois home, and with horse teams crossed the plains to Oregon. In the same train were Dexter Horton and William H. Shoudy, both of Seattle. On this trip, Mrs. Mercer fell ill in The Dalles and died in the Cascade Range, leaving a bereaved husband and four small children, the eldest being not quite 14.

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