J.S.D. Mercer Bio. Hancock County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by: Valerie Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 250-251 Hancock County J. S. D. MERCER, sheriff of Hancock County, occupies his present position because of his fearlessness as an officer, his executive talents, and his courteous and pleasing per- sonality. This is his second occupancy of the office, prior to becoming the incumbent of which he had filled other posts, and his entire record from the time that he started out to make his own way in the world has been one of stead- fast effort, marked industry and conscientious performance of the duties of public and private life. Sheriff Mercer was born in Grant District, in the north end of Hancock County, on Mercer's Run, where his great- great-grandfather, William Mercer, had settled about 1800, upon his arrival from Washington County, Pennsylvania. One of his ancestors was General Mercer, a noted officer of the Revolutionary war. The father of J. S. D. Mercer was Robert Mercer, a school teacher in Hancock County for some years, and later engaged in the furniture and under- taking business at Hookstown, Pennsylvania, where he was taken sick. Then he removed to Hancock County where he died at the early age of thirty-five years. Robert Mercer married Sarah Elizabeth Allison, a daughter of Jonathan Allison, Jr., a descendant of James Allison, one of the ear- liest settlers of the north end of Hancock County, the old home being on a fork of Tomlin's Run. There were two children who reached maturity: J. S. D.; and J. W. F., a blacksmith of Chester, West Virginia. J. S. D. Mercer was five years of age when his father died, and he was taken into the home of his maternal grand- father, Jonathan Allison, a large land owner. He attended the public schools and was reared on the original Allison homestead, where he remained until twenty-one years of age, then learning the carpenter's trade, at which .he worked for about fourteen years, mainly at East Liverpool, Ohio. His first public office was that of town clerk of Chester, in which he served for one term, being then elected mayor of Chester, an office in which he acted with excellent execu- tive ability for two terms. When he left that office he was chosen county assessor, and served one term, and in 1912 was first elected sheriff of Hancock County, and was the incumbent of that office for four years. During the four years that followed the expiration of his term he was engaged in business successfully as a building contractor, but again in 1920 re-entered public life when he was elected sheriff as the nominee of the republican party. He ran far ahead of his ticket. Sheriff Mercer devotes his entire time to the duties of his office, and is one of the best offi- cials the county has known. He requires only one deputy, this being his son, M. D. Mercer, and the affairs of the office are taken care of in an efficient and expeditious man- ner, much to the satisfaction of the people of the county. Sheriff Mercer is courageous in action, prompt and ener- getic, and possesses more than the average detective ability, which has assisted him in making the county a law-abiding community. He has the support of all good citizens. Sheriff Mercer married Miss Martha B. Allison, of the same stock of Allisons from which he descends, her mother being a Pugh of Pughtown. Five children have been born to them: James Raymond, D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice of dentistry at Akron, Ohio; Merwyn D., his father's deputy in the sheriff's office; Thelma Elizabeth, a teacher in the public schools of New Cumberland; and Martha E. and Mary L., who graduated from the high school at New Cumberland as members of the class of 1922. The family was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which Sheriff Mercer belonged until recently, when he transferred his membership to the Presbyterian Church at New Cumberland. As a fraternalist he belongs to the Knights of Pythias; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed through the chairs and at one tune sat in the Grand Lodge; and the Junior Order United American Mechanics, in which he has also passed through the chairs.