In April 1890, her youngest sibling and only brother was born in Oxford, after which the family began a series of moves:  to Conway Springs, Kansas, in September 1890; to Winfield, Kansas, in September 1893; and then to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, in the spring of 1894.  In Guthrie, apparently, Myrtle began her teaching career, as two newspapers named her among the attendees at a Logan County teachers’ meeting in June 1895.  Education would be her career for most of the next 35 years.

The following October, the Chandler News-Publicist noted that Myrtle was teaching at the Martin School, four miles west of Wellston, Oklahoma.  So she had moved from Logan County into Lincoln County, about 20 miles southeast.  Nevertheless, she still attended a meeting of the Logan County Teachers’ Association in November, where she took part in a debate, arguing the affirmative for the topic “Should Corporal Punishment Be Abolished?”

Soon after — January 1896 — Myrtle’s parents and siblings also moved from Guthrie down to Wellston, where her father began operating a general store.  On 15 April 1896, a surprising item appeared in the “Wellston Writings” section of the Oklahoma State Capital newspaper in Guthrie:

Elmer Robert Mercer had been born 29 September 1875 in Johnson County, Illinois, the son of Andrew J. and Martha Ann (Morford) Mercer.  Elmer’s family moved to Cowley County, Kansas, when he was 3 years old, settling first near Dexter and then moving to Burden when he was 6.  There, in Burden, he grew up, graduating from Burden High School in 1894.  After graduating from the Dexter, Kansas, normal school in June 1895, he went to Guthrie, Oklahoma, to visit an aunt and uncle who lived there, and apparently decided to stay.  He and Myrtle both earned teaching certificates at Guthrie in November 1895.

I don’t know whether Elmer and Myrtle first met in Guthrie, or whether their families might have known each other when the Rhines lived in Winfield (also in Cowley County, Kansas, and about 12 miles from Burden) in 1893–94.  One thing I do know, though, is that the story of Elmer and Myrtle having been secretly married for 6 months is a fabrication.  Official records show they were married in Guthrie on 11 March 1896 — only 5 weeks before that news story broke.  Considering the birth of their daughter Jessie in August 1896, they may have wanted people to believe they had been married sometime the previous fall.

Soon after the marriage was announced, Elmer began building a home for himself and Myrtle in Wellston.  This home, apparently, is where Jessie was born in August 1896, and where she passed away 10 months later, June 1897.  They took Jessie’s body up to Burden, Kansas, to be buried in the Mercer Family plot, and remained there with Elmer’s family through the summer, returning to Oklahoma in time for the opening of school the following September.

Myrtle and Elmer both taught school near Guthrie for the 1897–98 term, and apparently moved back to Guthrie at that time.  Before that term was out, Myrtle’s father was murdered in Wellston, in February 1898.  See the Mary Martin bio page for a description of Isaac Rhine’s murder.

In August 1898, Myrtle gave birth to twins — a boy and a girl, Ralph and Ruth.  She and Elmer apparently remained in Guthrie for another year after that, though I do not know if either of went back to teaching that year.  In the fall of 1899, they moved to Burden, where they would remain for nearly all of the rest of their lives.

The 1900 census shows Elmer and Myrtle “Merser,” along with their twins, in Silver Creek Township of Cowley County (which includes the town of Burden).  Elmer’s occupation is listed as “Painter,” and reports in local papers show him involved in many painting, wallpapering, and general interior decoration projects for at least the next 25 years.  No occupation is shown for Myrtle.  (Presumably, she had her hands full just coping with a couple of toddlers at home.)

In February 1902, one more child, Paul, was added to the family.  Then in late March, the whole family fell sick with scarlet fever and had to be quarantined.  Sadly, daughter Ruth died, 6 April 1902, and was laid to rest next to her older sister at Burden Cemetery.  In all, then, Myrtle and Elmer had four children, but only their two sons grew to adulthood.  Their children were:

• Jessie M. Mercer, 1896–1897.
• Ralph Emerson Mercer, 1898–1975 (married Hester E. Ford).
• Ruth E. Mercer, 1898–1902.
• Paul Edison Mercer, 1902–1947 (married Florence Ellen Brandon).

In the fall of 1904, Myrtle went back to teaching.  Her teaching assignment that year required a 6½-mile commute, which proved to be taxing in a horse-drawn buggy on snowy winter days.  During the next two terms, 1905–06 and 1906–07, when she was assigned to an equally distant school, in the area known as Eaton, south of Burden, she and Elmer rented a house near the school and moved the family down there.  Then, I suppose, it was Elmer who had to commute whenever he had work to do in Burden.  Newspaper reports over the next 20 years mention Myrtle teaching at various rural schools around Cowley County.  None were within Burden; they were anywhere from 3 to 20 miles outside of town.  Myrtle apparently rented rooms for herself close to some of the more distant schools, but I don’t think the whole family went with her again after 1907.

One notable school term was 1909–10, when she was teaching at Silver Creek (3 miles west-southwest of Burden), and the schoolhouse burned down just after Christmas!  She taught the rest of the term in a private home.  Another unusual term was 1912–13, when she left Cowley County altogether and taught at Kiowa, Kansas, 100 miles to the west.  During this term, she was the guest of Elmer’s brother Ed and his family, who lived in Kiowa.  I have found no reports of Myrtle teaching anywhere from mid-1921 through mid-1925, but she was back on the job for the 1925–26 term.  I don’t have details about her teaching assignments after 1926 because, as of this writing (September 2023), no Cowley County newspapers are available on line for that period.  I do know, though, that Myrtle continued teaching at least through 1930, for she listed that as her occupation in the 1930 census.

Outside of the classroom, through all these years, life went on.  Elmer continued his painting and wallpapering business.  Myrtle’s sister Mabel Martin and family moved to Burden about 1902.  Her sister Alice Rosecrans died in Colorado in November 1904, after which Myrtle’s mother and her brother Richard also moved to Burden.  Her sister Nettie Todd remained in Wellston, Oklahoma, but came to Burden for a visit in the summer of 1906, during which she fell seriously ill and languished there for months, never recovering sufficiently to return home, and finally died there in February 1907.

Over the years, newspapers in Burden and Winfield kept track of various misfortunes to visit the Mercer household.  Some notable examples:  In April 1905, Elmer fell into a cellar and broke two ribs.  Then in the fall of 1905, he was sick for several weeks with “la grippe.”  Other times, the papers simply reported that family members were “very sick” without specifying the diagnosis.  These included Myrtle for several weeks in the summer of 1908, Elmer for about a month in the summer of 1909, Myrtle and son Paul both for several days in September 1909, and Myrtle again in December 1910.  In June 1913, Myrtle was rushed to the Winfield Hospital for an emergency appendectomy.  She remained in the hospital for 6 weeks.  She was back in the hospital for several days in December 1921 (reason unspecified).  In March 1925, reportedly, the entire family was quite sick with influenza.

On a happier note, the papers mentioned, several times, Elmer with various friends and family members going fishing in Grouse Creek (about 4 miles east of Burden).  A couple of times he caught some huge catfish (one was 47 pounds) and sold them to the town butcher.

A most surprising announcement appeared in the Winfield Daily Courier on 4 April 1923 (p. 4).  Myrtle had sued Elmer for divorce, alleging extreme cruelty and non-support.  Somehow the two of them must have worked through whatever difficulties they were having, as there was no further mention of the suit in the following weeks and months, newspapers soon resumed referring to “Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Mercer” and “the Elmer Mercer family,” and the 1930 census showed them still together.

Myrtle’s mother, Mary Martin Rhine, died at Myrtle’s home in Burden on 2 January 1930.

Late in 1937, Elmer suffered a heart attack, from which he never fully recovered.  The following July, he went down to McAllen, Texas, where his son Paul and Myrtle’s sister Mabel had both moved, thinking the change might be good for his health.  Myrtle apparently waited until October before following him down there.  Elmer passed away there in McAllen on 9 December 1938.  Papers in Burden and McAllen both ran brief obituaries, and Myrtle accompanied his body back to Burden for burial.

Myrtle resided in Burden for the rest of her life.  The 1940 and 1950 censuses both show her widowed and living alone in Silver Creek Township of Crowley County (which includes Burden).  Both also show her occupation as “farmer,” so she had evidently retired from teaching by then.  Sadly, one more tragedy came into her life during this period, when her son Paul died suddenly in a traffic accident near McAllen on 22 December 1947.  He too was buried in the Mercer family plot at Burden.

Late in 1956, in failing health, Myrtle moved into a nursing home in Winfield, and there she passed away on 11 June 1958.  The Winfield Courier carried an obituary for her, and she was laid to rest in the Burden Cemetery next to Elmer, and close to her mother, her daughters Jessie and Ruth, and her son Paul.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of Myrtle, Elmer, and their descendants, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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