MERCURE, CLARENCE PRESTON, SR.

by Clarence P. Mercure

Entry F292 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Clarence P. Mercure, Sr. Early 1920's

Clarence Preston Mercure, Sr. was born
January 24, 1876 in Brooklyn, New York, His
parents actually lived at Orwell, Vermont
and had their business there; but the mother
lived in Brooklyn during the winter months
for several years to send the older children to
school there. His parents moved from Ver-
mont to Iowa in 1885 and to south Cherry
County in 1887.

Clarence, Sr. "Cad" worked for his father
on a grading contract his father had when the
Burlington Railroad was built. Clarence, Sr.
worked as a cowboy for a number of years
back in the "free-range" days. He worked for
several years for the Bratt Cattle Company
down in the North Platte, Nebraska area, and
later on he was employed as a rider with Jim
Robinson, Charlie Rector, Bill Rector and
others on the UBI Cattle Company south of
Mullen. Then in about 1907 or 1908 he went
to Arizona and California. He finally settled
at Williams, Arizona where he studied motors
and electricity production and became engi-
neer of the electric light and cold storage
plant there. Weekends he worked some as a
guide down the "Bright Angel" trail to the
Grand Canyon.

He returned to Mullen, Nebraska in 1913
and went into the hardware business with his
brother, Nelson Darwin, Sr. "Cub". They also
sold some automobiles. They built a brick
building about a half a block north of the
corner drug store on Main Street (north of
the alley and west across the street from the
livery barn). (Later the Mullen Coop bought
this building, a fire got started in grease or
oil stored in the building, and it burned
down.) The north half of the building had a
basement; and Clarence, Sr. installed the first
light plant in Mullen in the basement of this
building, selling electricity only to business-
men. There weresteps to the basement at the
front of this building, and later on, at
different times, there was a barber shop and
a tire retreading business in the basement.

Clarence, Sr.'s brother, Nelson Darwin, Sr.
was killed in a car-train accident near
Lincoln, in 1916. Clarence, Sr. and S. Jose-
phine Mercure (Nelson Darwin's widow)
continued running the hardware business
then. On June 18, 1918 Clarence Mercure, Sr.
and S. Josephine Mercure were married at
North Platte. A son, Clarence Preston Mer-
cure, Jr., was born 1921.

After World War I the hardware business
got poorer and poorer. Clarence Sr. finally
quit the hardware business and got the Ford
dealership. There was quite a demand for
"Model T's" at that time. Sometime in the
1920's he went into partnership with Leo
Elliot, and they leased the "Greathouse"
building on Main Street for their car busi-
ness. Later on Floyd Gregg bought Leo Elliot
out.

Clarence, Sr.'s health started to fail in 1926
or 1927, and he had to retire a year or two
later. He died after surgery at Alliance,
Nebraska on July 7, 1930.