A Biographical Sketch
GENEVE CATHERINE EVANS MERCER
Geneve Catherine Evans Mercer was born April 4, 1897. Queen Victoria
reigned over the British Empire, William McKinley had taken office only a month before as 25th president of the United States and Wilford Woodruff was president of the church.
Lehi was lighted by 26 kerosene lamps whose light was dim and subject to
being blown out by the wind The Lehi sugar factory was yet to be built but the
mercantile business, Broadbent & Son, was going strong…
Her parents Hyrum Jones Evans, called Uncle Hyle by many and her mother Lillian Mary Yates Evans, Aunt Lil, were born in Lehi only a few years after their parents, his from Wales and hers from England, had gathered with the Saints in Zion.
Her parents and grandparents knew first hand the sacrifices and hardships of life on the frontier.
Geneve was born, the third of nine children, in a small house ∂left to her family by her grandmother Evans and located in what ∂became the first ward. Her family soon moved to Second West., a street populated by many Evans relatives.
There was no shortage of play mates, and many of them, Winifred Evans Sorenson, Winifred's sister Verveen; Laverda Evans Adams, Rita Evans Dorton, and Gwen Yates Lewis were cousins.
Geneve loved and respected her family including her extended family, sometimes asking her Uncle Abel John Evans for advice. He was an attorney, had served in the territorial legislature and in many civic and church positions.
Highlights of her early life were living at Saratoga where her father farmed and Topliff, where he and other Evanses quarried limestone for the Lehi sugar factory and smelters.
Life at both places was harder than Lehi where electricity arrived, because the houses had no electricity or running water.
At Topliff drinking water was hauled in on the train, snakes and sagebrush were plentiful and about only commercial ∂establishment was the Red Onion saloon. The saloon was generally off-limits to children but they sometimes went there to buy candy. Geneve remembered the happiness of being safely tucked into bed at ∂night and listening to rain pound on the tin roof.
At Saratoga her mother, in spite of having a small baby and ∂other children, provided meals for construction workers building a road around Utah Lake. Aunt Lillian remembers Geneve, 16 and the oldest child living at home would wash dishes or peel potatoes ∂until she dropped but was too shy to go into the dining room to ask the men if they needed anything.
If her mother was taking a few moments to nurse the baby she ∂would have to re-button the long row of buttons on her blouse, go find out what the men needed, then unbutton her blouse to finish feeding the baby.
Geneve drove the younger children to school in Lehi in a horse and buggy, and in later years remembers that as the coldest she ever got in her life in spite of bundling up in blankets and sometimes having hot bricks.
Aunt Lillian who was in the first grade said one evening the horse slipped, the shaft of the buggy broke, and the horse went down. She was frightened and wondered what Geneve would do. Geneve kept the horse from trying to stand, until a man on a bicycle came along. He found a piece of wire, fixed the shaft, and got the horse up and they were able to continue.
Geneve loved swimming in the hot spring water of the Saratoga swimming pool in the summers and became a good swimmer.
As an older teenager she worked in Salt Lake for families needing help with children and housework. In those times the Salt Lake Theater was a show place and Geneve loved the theater.
She was saving money to go to a show there. It was almost the Fourth of July when she happened to pass a store with attractive dress material. She took her theater money and bought cloth to make her three little sisters’ outfits. Lillian's was pink, Zona's blue, and DeVere's yellow. Aunt Lillian said it was the first time she had a dress with matching panties.
She also said when she graduated from the eighth grade, Geneve, who was teaching school at time, sent her a dress. Lillian later wore the dress to a dance and an attractive boy, who she had not met, asked her to dance. After that, if there was a dance, her friends, said, "Oh, wear your lucky dress."
One of the great sorrows of Geneve's life was the death at the age of 28 of her younger brother Tom, who had a family and had been in Oregon. His funeral was held in Lehi. She later lost two grandchildren, Susan Mercer and Michael Mercer Smith, who was serving a mission in Australia.
A good student, Geneve loved school, especially mathematics.‹
She got an A plus in algebra and said the teacher told her it was the only A plus he ever gave. She also enjoyed history and reading and her German class, taught by Heber Bennion, Jr. After serving as principal of Lehi High School, Bennion entered politics and became Utah's secretary of state.
After graduating from high school, Geneve borrowed money from her sister Mary to attend B.Y.U. In the pre-fast food and frozen dinner era, many students lived in boarding houses. To help pay her board and room she worked for Mr. and Mrs. James A. Oliver whose boardinghouse was located at about 650 North 2nd West.
In later years she enjoyed reading about the success of boarders there including Ernest Wilkinson, who became president of BYU, and Ray Davis, who
became president of Idaho State College. One of her roommates, Nora Anderson from Arizona, became Mrs. Davis.
Geneve taught school three years, one in Tabiona in the Uintah Basin, one at Nephi in Box Elder County and one near Wells, Nev. She often spoke of people she met at those places, her students, people with whom she boarded and townspeople.
One summer she and her cousin Gwen Yates Lewis decided to attend
education week at BYU and hitched a ride with their uncle Abel John. On the way back he stopped in American Fork to attend to some business and the girls strolled along Main Street.
An American Fork resident, Charley Mercer, saw them and although he said nothing to them he recognized Gwen who had cooked in a mining camp in American Fork Canyon. He wrote to Gwen and asked for the name of the girl with her. After some correspondence ∂he took the interurban to Lehi to call on Geneve. Much to the amusement of her younger sisters and brother, he was chewing gum. They knew Geneve, because of her experience as a teacher, detested gum chewing.
After a courtship of some months, which included letter, writing, Charley wrote to Geneve and said he would like to get married after he made good. She wrote asking him if he did not believe in a man and woman making good together. They took the interurban to Salt Lake City and were married in the City and County Building. Her parents gave them a reception in Lehi and they began life in the small house on Second West that had ∂once been her childhood home.
They spent some summers in American Fork Canyon where Charley mined and prospected. The first summer his brother Jed and Jed's wife Helen were with them. Geneve told them while walking alone she had seen a bear, but they never believed her saying there were no bears in the canyon.
After their first two children were born, Arva in 1924 and Charles in 1926, they moved to the large two-story house built in 1901 by Tom Austin. Located on Fourth East and Fifth North it is now owned by Wesley Dalley. Three more children were born there, Jedda, Julian and Bill. The family lived there 20 years.
During the 30's Charley began mining at Mercur. Geneve helped him, writing business letters and figuring the payroll. He liked to discuss business decisions in great deal and always asked her advice
She encouraged him to buy farm land on Lehi's bench and probably some of their happiest times were driving up there to look things over. Ever the outdoor lover, Geneve also encouraged him to buy a home in west Lehi with a few acres of ground attached. This is now Julian and Diana's home.
There she enjoyed raising chickens, a few cows, horses, pigs ∂and sheep and
even a few turkeys and geese. Geneve was devastated by Charley's sudden death on April 29th, 1961,
After a few years alone she moved to the Kimball apartments in Salt Lake City where her sister, Lillian, was living. Geneve and Lillian enjoyed doing genealogy.
One year, Lillian remembers, Geneve submitted the most names of anyone in the17th ward.
When the senior citizen complex was built near 21st South and 2nd East, they moved there. Aunt Lillian remembers the man happy times they had riding the city buses to see autumn leaves and Christmas decorations. Sometimes they rode the bus to the car barns where Trolley Square is located, then went to Bill and Nada's Cafe to call a cab to get home.
Geneve's family appreciates the kindness of Aunt Lillian and members or her family to Geneve, especially after Geneve's health began to fail. She lived for a few years with family members, principally Bill and Beverly, and for the past seven years has been in nursing homes in Bountiful, where Jedda lives.
She was always deeply religious, once saying she never at any time doubted the teachings of the church. She taught a church religion class as a young woman, enjoyed Relief Society Work in the Lehi Sixth ward, genealogy in the Salt Lake City 17th ward and was thrilled when her sons and grandchildren served missions.
She was always there for her husband and children and believed in them and encouraged them in things they tried to do. She particularly urged them in obtaining education.
Her legacy to her 5 children, 20 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren are her belief in them, her love of education and her great faith.