THE PIERCE FAMILY
Page last updated 1/11/2008
The Honorable John Pierce (1824-1892)
- State Representative from Bossier Parish during the Era of Reconstruction(1867-1870)
- Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, Member: Federal Relations, Registration, and Commerce & Manufacturing Committees
- Native of Virginia, landowner and resident of Camp Parapet, La., one mile above the old city of Carrollton
- Married at GoldPoint Plantation, Bossier Parish-1849 to wife, Mrs. Hettie S. Pierce (1829-1944), native of North Carolina.
Pierce Descendents:
- Ada Pierce Roy
- Benedict Pierce
- Beauregard Pierce
- Ida Pierce Thompson
- Laura Pierce Bass
- Leathe Mary Pierce Brown
- Marlborough Pierce
- Mary Pierce
- Milford Pierce
- Nellie Pierce
- Samuel Pierce
THE PIERCE FAMILY cont.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=71392
Hettie Pierce, born a slave in
North Carolina in 1829, died in Madison in 1944 at the age of 115.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, she and her husband - who'd also been a
slave owned by her master - moved to
Louisiana, where he became a legislator and judge. The Pierces were kept on
the move constantly in Louisiana because of
Reconstruction-era lynchings. After her husband's death, Hettie Pierce came
to Madison with her youngest son, Samuel, and
his wife. They became one of the first, if not the first, black families the
Williamson Street neighborhood. Samuel, a
former Pullman porter, became one of Madison's best-known and popular citizens
during his years as messenger for Wisconsin
governors. Accounts of the time described his "matinee-idol looks,"
and his reliable and soothing presence in the governor's
office. He had a knack for calming irate constituents who came to the governor's
office, and kept track of the governors'
correspondence. The flag at the Capitol flew at half staff when Samuel died,
and he was described as "one of the best
diplomats in the state Capitol" in a newspaper article about his passing. Theodore Pierce, the nephew that Samuel
and Mollie
Pierce raised as a son, took over the job as executive messenger and became
an outspoken and well-liked figure in Madison's
gay community and the Willy Street neighborhood. Hettie Pierce outlived all
her children, one of whom became a high ranking
Army official who advised the military on integration. When Hettie was 95, she
traveled through the South by herself looking
for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She found 50 of them. Hettie
Pierce may have been the oldest woman to have
died in Wisconsin. The state started keeping records in 1983, and since that
time the oldest person to die was a 113-year-old
Milwaukee County Woman. Descendants of Hettie Pierce still live in Madison.
Madison, Wisconsin, last stop on the Underground Railroad...
"A place in black history"
Chris Martell, cmartell@madison.com
For many blacks in the 19th century, Wisconsin seemed like a haven. It was a last stop on the Underground Railroad, a place to catch boats on the Great Lakes or the Mississippi that would take them to safety in Canada. It was a state full of abolitionists that openly defied a court order to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Some decided to stay and make Madison their home. Others stayed for a while and then moved on. Most of their stories never made it into the history books in school, and are still waiting to be told.
source: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=71392
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