West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
MERCER M. HALL

Mercer M. Hall, a native of Knox county, Ohio, accompanied by his wife, Sophia Means Hall, and young son, John Corydon, came to Iowa in 1856, locating on a farm on South Prairie, five miles west of West Liberty.

The district was still largely undeveloped and but sparsely settled, so Mr. Hall experienced all the privations and hardships incident to life in a pioneer community.

Wishing to develop a farm, he began breaking the land, utilizing four yoke of oxen for this purpose. The weather was intensely hot and as there was no shade except that frunished by the house, the oxen, as they approached it, would crowd so slosely in the small shaded spot that Mr. Hall feared that they would push his little cabin over, it being constructed in the primitive manner of those early times.

He devoted his time and energies to general agricultural pursuits throughout his active business career and with a well merited measure of success in his undertakings.

Mr. Hall was an active member of the Methodist Protestant church of South Prairie, always having the interests of the church and Sunday school upon his heart.

In 1904, he retired from the farm and came to West Liberty, where he resided until his death, October 31, 1911.

His son, J. C. Hall, a resident of West Liberty for many years, died October 3, 1935. Two daughters, Elnora P. Nichols (Mrs. J. P.), and Sarah E. Nichols (Mrs. J. C.), in West Liberty.

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