Sadie Jane Hert (maiden name: Selsor) was born on March 19, 1832, in Indiana to Andrew and Nancy Selsor. Her father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1860. She married Joseph Hert on June 29, 1850, and they had at least nine children: James, born around 1851; Nancy, born around 1853; Mary, born around 1862; Ada, born around 1865; Jackson, born around 1868; Nevada, born around 1870; Rose, born around 1873; Troilus, born around 1875; and Charles, born around 1878.
They lived in Indiana until around 1852, when they moved to Illinois. They moved to Trenton, Missouri, in the late 1860s, and her husband worked as a stock dealer there. By 1900, they were living in Jackson, Missouri. Her husband died of “la grippe” there on May 12, 1912, and she died of heart disease in Carroll County, Missouri, on July 26, 1913.