Eminent Homemaker
County: Sanborn
S. C. Mernaugh, Letcher, was born as Margaret Schladweiler at Farmer, South Dakota, Feb. 5, 1888. She attended high school in Alexandria, taught in rural schools three years and in Spencer two years. She clerked five years in general stores in Farmer and Letcher.
She was married to Sylvester Mernaugh Feb. 23, 1916, and went to live on the old Mernaugh homestead two miles north of Letcher. Part of the present house is the old claim shanty which Sylvester Mernaugh’s father built in the early 1880s.
Three sons were born to them. All of the boys were 4-H club members, all members of the Future Farmers of America in the agriculture classes in Letcher high school, all graduated from Letcher high school and all attended State College, majoring in agriculture.
Mernaugh has taken part in many activities in her community. She was a member and an officer for many years of the local PTA. She was president of the altar society of the Letcher Catholic Church. She was a member of a community home demonstration Extension club.
For several years Mernaugh was head of the women’s division of the Sanborn County corn show held annually in Letcher, one of the outstanding county events of this kind. She has won many prizes for cakes, pies and other cookery at this show and at the state fair in Huron. In 1940 she won the state championship on homemade butter and second prize for three consecutive years.