Edward P. Pierce
Edward P. Pierce, an old resident of Grand Rapids, died yesterday at his home, 698 Logan Street, at the age of 80 years. He was for many years a prominent contractor and builder in this city but of late years had been retired. He was for a long period a regular attendant at Park Congregational Church, and had of late years been a charter member and deacon of the East Congregational Church.
Mr. Pierce was born in Rochester, NY in 1822, was married in 1848, and came
to Michigan in 1856. He assisted in the survey and construction of Monroe
Street, and built the Morton House, Aldrich block, Wonderly Building, and many
other buildings and residences. He was inspector of construction work for the
Chicago and West Michigan Railway for ten years. His widow survives him.
(Unknown)
NOTE: The obituary was no doubt from a Grand Rapids newspaper, dated about 29 Apr 1902 when Edward P. Pierce, age 79 years, died. The clipping was found in an old Peirce-Pierce Bible which was on the bookshelf in our family home in East Grand Rapids. In 1942, age 12, I found it, the tattered covers, inside were dried flowers, yellowing clippings and the grand pages of births, marriages and deaths of the family, written in that old fashioned writing, and of course the musty odor. My encounter with this old family volume led me directly into a life of genealogy. My grand uncle Eugene Huston’s grandmother, Arabella Pierce Huston, was a sister of Edward’s father, Luther Pierce, Jr. Eugene married his 2nd cousin, Ada Lillian Pierce, daughter of the contractor. They are all buried in the huge cemetery where Easter Avenue intersects Hall Street (Oak Hill Cemetery). Eugene and his wife, Lillian, do not have tombstones. Edward Pierce had a brother, Warren, who lived south of Grand Rapids on a farm and whose children married into families of KEYES, HAMMOND, BLODGETT, DEUEL, WINCHESTER and ROWLEY. Edward’s family married into DANIELS, ALLEN, HUSTON, ANTRIM, HICKS, ACKER and LATHROP families. The Lathrops continued in a successful building and contracting business in the Oakland, California region. It was a large family. If anyone is interested in the Pierce/Peirce family of and around Grand Rapids, I’d be happy to share what I have, which is nearing a book after 62 years, i.e. the descendants of Edward’s grandparents, Luther Pierce and Lucy Wells, of Shelburne and Hinesburg, VT, formerly from Connecticut. The Bible now rests on our family book shelf in Bar Harbor, Maine. Where will it be in another 62 years? (26 Aug 2004)
Thomas H. Roderick – Roderick@acadia.net
19 Seely Road
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
Transcriber: Evelyn Sawyer
Created: 17 February 2005
URL: http://kent.migenweb.net/obituaries/local/piercee.html