When his aged pastor, Rev. Daniel Bagley, with snowy locks, stood above his bier and a troop of silver-haired pioneers in tearful silence harkened, he told of fifty years of friendship; how they crossed the plains together, and of the quiet, steady, Christian life of Thomas Mercer. He said, "Whatever other reasons may have been given, that he understood some Indians to say the reason they did not burn Mercer's house during the war, was that Mercer was 'klosh tum-tum,' (kind, friendly, literally a good heart), and 'he wawa-ed Sahale Tyee' (prayed to the Heavenly Chief or Great Spirit). Thus did he let his light shine; even the savages beheld it." In closing a touching, suggestive and affectionate tribute, he quoted these lines: "O what hath Jesus bought for me! Before my ravish'd eyes Rivers of life divine I see, And trees of Paradise; I see a world of spirits bright, Who taste the pleasures there; They all are robed in spotless white, And conqu'ring palms they bear." HESTER L. MERCER. When a child I often visited this good pioneer woman--so faithful, cheerful, kind, self-forgetful. With busy hands she toiled from morning to night, scarcely sitting down without some house-wifely task to occupy her while she chatted. Of a very lively disposition, her laugh was frequent and merry. A more generous, frank and warm-hearted nature was hard to find, the demands made upon it were many and such as to exhaust a shallow one. Her experiences were varied and thrilling, as the following account from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of November 13th, 1897, will show: "There is something in the life of this pioneer woman that makes a lasting impression upon the minds of those who consider it. Mrs. Mercer's general life differed somewhat from the lives of many pioneer women in that she was always a pioneer. Many had given up an existence in the thickly settled portions of the east to accept the burdensome, half-civilized life of the west. They had at least once known the joys of civilization. It was not so with Mrs. Mercer. She was a pioneer from the time she was ushered into the world. "She was born in Kentucky. Go back 75 years in the life of that state and you will get something of its early history. Those who lived there that long ago were pioneers. Her father and mother were Jesse and Elizabeth Ward. They were of that staunch, sturdy people that struggled to obtain a home and accumulate a little fortune in the southern country. Jesse Ward at the age of 18 joined a regiment of Kentucky volunteers which was a part of Jackson's army at the defense of New Orleans in 1814. "Mrs. Mercer was born in Hartford, the county seat of Ohio county, Kentucky. She was but a little tot when her mother died.