Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/348

 PIEUCE

PIERCE

ference at New York city in 1S44; to the conven- tion at Lonisvillo, Kj., which organized the Melho«list Episcopal church. South, in l!S45, and to its first general confereJice at Petersburg. Va., in 1S46, and to those of \K}0 and 18.j4. He was president of Emory college at Oxford. Ga., 1848-54. and was elected and ordained bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Columbus, Ga., in 1854. He built St. Jolin's Methodist clmrch at Augusta, CJa., 1843-14; made an overlan<l journey to S;in Francisco on a stage coach in 18.")9, in the interests of his work, and received the degrees D.D. from Transylvania university, LL.D. from Randolph-Macon, college in 1867, and was a trustee of the University of Georgia, 1867-84. He is the author of Incidents of Western 7VaiW(1857). He died at Sparta, Ga., S«'i't.:3. 18^4.

PIERCE, Gilbert Ashvlile, senator, was born in E.Lst Otto. Cattaraugus county, N.Y. He moved to Indiana in 1854. and later attended the University of Cliicago Law school for two years. In April, 1861. he enlisted in the 9th Indiana volunteers for tliree months' service, and was elected 2d lieutenant. He re-enlisted, Aug. 3, 1861. w:is apjjointed captain and made assistant quartermaster. He served under General Grant at P.iducah. Fort Donelson, Sliiloh, Grand Gulf and Vicksburg, being present at its surrender, July 4, 1863. He was promoted lieutenant- colonel in 1863; served at Matagorda Island, Texas; was promoted colonel in 1864; appointed inspector and special commissioner of the war department, in which capacity he served at Hil- tI4, and governor of Dakota Territ/jry, 1884-87. He was cliosf-n Re- publican U.S. senator from the new .state of North Dakota. Nov. 20, 1889, and drew the short term, which expired March 3, 1891. In 1891 he purchaHeinted U.S. minister to Portugal by President Harri.son in 1893. resigning after a few months' service. He is the author of several novels, sketches and plays, and pnlilislie<l a Dickens Dictionary: A Key to the Characters nnd Principal Incidents in the Works of Charlrs Dick- ens (1872). He died in Chicago, 111., Feb. 15, 1901.

PIERCE, Henry Lillie, representative, was born in Stougliton, Mass., Aug. 23, 1825; son of Col. Jesse and Elizabeth S. (Lillie) Pierce; grand- son of Jesse and Catherine (Smith) Pierce, and of Capt. John Lillie (aide to Major-General Knox in the Revolution), and a descendant of John Pers, who immigrated from Norfolk county, England, and settled in Watertown, Mass., in 1637. He attended a private school conducted by his father at Stoughton, also the academy and the state normal school at Bridgewater, Mass.; removed to Dorchester, Mass., with his parents in 1849; in 1850 entered the chocolate manufactory of Walter Baker & Co., and on the death of Mr. Baker in 1854, took charge of the business. He was active in the organization of the Free-Soil party in Massachusetts in 1848; was a representative in the state legislature, 1860-62 and 1866; was a member of the Boston board of aldermen, 1870-71, mayor of Boston in 1873 and 1878, and a Republican representa- tive from the third Massachusetts district in the 43d and 44th congresses, having been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Whiting, and serving from December, 1874, to March 4, 1877. In 1884 he helped to organize an independent movement to support Grover Cleve- land for president, and thereafter acted with the Democratic party. After numerous bequests to charitable and other public institutions, aggre- gating $600,000, and including $.50,000 each to Harvard university, the ^Massachusetts General hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Techno- logy, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the ^Massachusetts Homoeopathic hospital, he transferred his valuable farm adjoining the Blue Hills reservation to the Boston Park commis- sioners to be added to the park lands of the city, and bequeathed the residue of his estate to be divided among the five beneficiaries first named. He was never married. He died in Boston, Mass., Dec. 17, 1896.

PIERCE, Henry Miller, educator and inven- tor, was born in Susquehanna county. Pa., Oct. 6, 1831;sonof Henry Miller and Susan (Peironnet) Pierce; grandson of Dr. John Harvey and Jane (Miller) Pierce and of James Stephen and Susan (Bishop) Peironnet, and a de.scendant of Dr. William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, and of Admiral Adam Duncan, the hero of Caniperdown in 1797. His parents came to America from Eng- land in 1820. He was graduated at Waterville college, Maine, A.B., 1853, A.M., 1857; was prin- cipal of Newcastle academy, 1853-55, of the high school, Cliicopee Falls, Mass., 1856-57, and president of Rutgers College for Women, New York city, 18.58-71. In 1861 with Dr. Francis Lieber and Judge White of New York he organ-