USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hillsborough > The history of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735-1921, Volume 2 > Part 36
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ciates and competitors were men who fixed the standard of talent for the New Hampshire bar. These were such lawyers as Jer- emiah Mason, Daniel Webster, Levi Woodbury, Jeremiah Smith, John Sullivan, Ichabod Bartlett, and others, an array of legal ability, which, if equalled has never been surpassed in this country. While we may not claim for Pierce the legal intui- tion of Mason, the colossal strength of Webster, the artistic skill of Bartlett in presenting a case, or the silver tone of Sullivan whose voice fell upon the jury like a spell, yet for skill and ability in presenting a case to the jury, in the eloquence of his pleas, and for success in obtaining verdicts, he was surpassed by none.
A biographer has well said: "Besides his attractive physique, and his graceful and strong manner, he had a sort of chivalrous bearing toward the court, the counsel, and witnesses that carried everything before it. He had a vigorous understanding, a rare faculty for analysis, quick inventive genius, and a strong memory ; this for persons and localities was most remarkable, and it is said he never forgot a face nor a name." From the beginning he had a love, an admiration for the law as a profession, and a determin- ation to become one of the best advocates at the bar. It was this purpose which decided him to leave the senate.
Mr. Daniel W. Bartlett, in his biography of General Pierce, said, "As an orator General Pierce stands in an exalted position. He has all the exalted graces of oratory-is a man to make a deep impression upon an audience by his manner- is impassioned, yet logical, in all his speeches. He never yet made a poor speech, and succeeds best with but little preparation-upon the spur of the moment. Unfortunately, his best efforts are unreported. His finest pleas at the bar are not preserved. As a lawyer he has long ranked among the foremost in the Union."
The writer remembers of talking with a man of sound judg- ment and strong mind, who had heard Pierce make one of his pleas at the Wentworth trial, and he declared vehemently : "Eloquent? I tell you Frank Pierce should not have been allowed to plead at the bar, for no twelve men could be found all of whom could stand out against his eloquence and personal magnetism."
In 1846 his party offered to nominate him for Governor of the state and though it meant an election without special effort on
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his part, he declined. The same year President Polk tendered him a place in his cabinet as attorney general, which he declined. During the same year he accepted the office of United States district attorney, considering that in the line of his profession.
Finally there came a call he could not resist. The very at- mosphere of a town like Hillsborough, where he was born and lived much of his life, the scenery, the winter and summer life, the rugged landscape, the hills and valleys, the murmuring streams, and above all the influences surrounding his early years were all conducive to patriotism and martial duty. From his en- trance into life to his college days there lived in Hillsborough such men as John Gilbert, who had served through the War for Amer- ican Independence ; the descendants of Isaac Baldwin, who fell at Bunker Hill; Captain John McNiel, a veteran of the Revolution; General John McNiel, the hero of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane in the War of 1812, who with their associates were frequent visitors at the home of Governor Pierce. In his own home, night after night, during the winter months, around the big, open fireplace his father would gather his group of children about his knee, while he told them stories of the Revolutionary War and his serv- ice for nine long years, the whole tinged with romantic interest. From such parentage and with such associations in his younger years he could not help feeling his heart beating with family pride and patriotism when the roll of the drum proclaimed the opening of the Mexican War.
In 1847, when the Mexican war was in progress, Gen. Pierce enrolled himself as a volunteer in a company which was raised in Concord, and went through the regular drill with his fellow sol- diers as a private in the ranks. On the passage of the bill for the increase of the army, he was appointed Colonel of the Ninth Regi- ment, and shortly afterward commissioned Brigadier General in the army. He sailed from Newport, R. I., on the 27th of May, 1847, for Vera Cruz, in company with a part of the Ninth Regi- ment.
Upon starting to the front of war, in bidding adieu to one of his many friends, this person remarked: "I bid you God-speed, Frank, and hope you will come back in safety and honor."
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"I will come back with honor, or I will not come at all," was his swift, earnest response.
In those days diseases and the pestilences of war were more to be dreaded than the enemy they had sworn to meet. The cam- paign of the Mexican War was a marked example of this kind. Leaving a northern clime to enter the torrid and sickness-breeding climate of Mexico, the American army lost more men from disease than it did from battle. General Pierce and his men shipped from Newport on the bark Kepler, and they were scarcely at sea before the soldiers, put upon a short allowance of water, suffered from sickness. At Vera Cruz this misfortune was again visited upon them, the general himself being taken down with the affliction. But he soon rallied, and sharing his provisions and money with his men he gained great popularity among them. His brigade was made up of the Ninth Regiment from New England ; the Twelfth from Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Northern Missis- sippi and Louisiana; and the Fifteenth raised in Ohio, Iowa, Wis- consin, Michigan, and the eastern part of Missouri and the western part of Indiana. The whole force numbered 2,500 men. He was ordered to march at once to re-inforce General Scott in the interior of Puebla. His line of march, like nearly all of them in this war, was extremely harassing, as he was beset on all sides by the Mexicans and guerilla bands, whose object was to inter- cept all from the battle field of Contreras. A biographer in com- menting upon General Pierce's arduous and trying campaigns and battles in Mexico, says :
"In his service in Mexico he did his duty as a son of the republic; that he was eminently patriotic, disinterested and gal- lant; and that it has added a laurel to his beautiful civic wreath. As a soldier and commander, he has shown gallantry before the enemy, and was eminently the friend and father of his command."
Space forbids me from entering further into his war record than to say that he was at the battles of Contreras and Molina del Rey, where the Ninth Regiment, composed of New England men under Colonel Ransom won an enviable reputation. Unfortun- ately General Pierce was severely injured by his horse falling upon him among the rocks, so he was unable to act the part he would have otherwise have done. This incident was seized upon
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and distorted by his political enemies, but the facts remain, as shown by the official records that he was assigned one of the most arduous and dangerous campaigns of the war and that he conducted himself gallantly and heroically, and honored at last by being chosen to take part in the armistice. He had been made ยท Brigadier-General, March 3, 1847. His one great sorrow in com- ing out of the war was the death of Colonel Ransom, his New England friend, who was leading the gallant Ninth in one of the fiercest assaults of the entire war.
On his return from Mexico, General Pierce quietly resumed his law practice where he had abruptly stopped it two years before. In 1850 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, and was chosen President of that body, his ballot at this election, 257 votes to 6, showing his popularity.
General Pierce's personal appearance has been described as "elegant and commanding. He was within a few inches of six feet in height; was rather slight and thin ; had a very pleasant and impressive address. His eyes were bright and piercing; his hair was greyish; his forehead, and, indeed, face, very fine, open and frank in expression. It is difficult to gain a fair idea of the man from a portrait. You need to see the gentleness of his manners, feel the kindliness of his nature, and witness the easy politeness of all his actions. There was not the spice of an aristocrat in the man; he was as polite to a beggar as to a prince, as free and generous to a country farmer as to a Senator in the halls of Con- gress.
In June, 1852, though he had refused all overtures to accept such a nomination, he was nominated for President of the United States, and at the election in November received the electoral vote of twenty-seven out of thirty-one states in the Union. Hon. David Cross, in an address at the dedication of a monument to his memory at Concord, November 25, 1914, said with truthfulness : "No other man in New Hampshire has held the office of President of the United States, no man has held offices such as he held with less apparent effort to obtain them. No lawyer has ever been elected to the place of Senator of the United States and resigned before his term of office had expired and returned to the drudgery and routine of the profession.
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In the midst of this proud renown an event occurred which completely clouded the happiness of the lives of President-elect Pierce and his wife. In January, 1853, while traveling with their only living child, a boy of eleven years and named for his illustrious grandfather, the car was thrown from the track, and the child instantly killed before the eyes of his parents. The delicate, sensitive mother was overwhelmed with a grief she never conquered. General Pierce was never the same man after this. sad event, however wonderfully and heroically he went about his home life and public duties. "How worthless seemed the prospec- tive honors and the pageantry of the presidential life ; how empty and vain all earthly things in the presence of their dead child, and what terrible grief swept over him as he saw his fondest hopes suddenly crushed."
The term of President Pierce was from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857. Those were years fraught with bitter and mighty political feelings-feelings that engendered hatred, strife and civil war; a period when every active man had his enemies. His ad- ministration was signalized by the acquisition of Arizona from Mexico; the organizaton of the territories of Kansas and Neb- raska; by the troubles in Kansas caused by the efforts to make it a slave state, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise act.
During his Presidential term General Pierce remained in Washington, but soon after its close he made a journey to Europe, hoping the change would prove beneficial to Mrs. Pierce. They were abroad nearly four years but Mrs. Pierce failed to recuperate as her loving husband had hoped, and she died in 1863, loved and respected by all who knew her.
He continued to live in Concord, though his heart was still with his native town, as witness his words when he was about to re- move to the state capital. "I leave Hillsborough with no ordinary regret. There are a thousand reasons why it cannot be otherwise -I have hitherto known no other home.
"Here have passed many of the happiest days and months of my life. With these streams and mountains are associated most of the delightful recollections of buoyant and happy boyhood, and in my early intercourse with the generous, independent and intel- ligent yeomanry of Hillsborough I became attached to, and learned
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how highly to appreciate that class of the community which con- stitutes the true nobility of this country. I need hardly say that I shall never cease to remember my birthplace with pride as well as with affection, and with still more pride shall I recollect the steady, unqualified and generous confidence which has been re- posed in me by its inhabitants."
Ex-President Pierce departed this life October 8, 1869, in his 65th year, a comparatively young man. The state in 1914 erected a monument built of granite and bronze, which stands on the south side of the memorial arch, on the State House grounds, fronting Main Street, on a line with the sidewalk. The statue represents President Pierce standing in an easy position with his right hand resting on a conventionalized pedestal of fasces draped with the American flag, on which is a manuscript with the seal of the state, while his left hand rests against his hip. The sculptor was Augustus Lukeman. In the lower section of the inscription on the south side, which gives his war record, is engraved these words from General Ulysses S. Grant :
"He was a gentleman and a Man of courage."
In this brief sketch-by far too brief-the writer has at- tempted to describe impartially the meteoric career of one of New Hampshire's ablest sons. His could not have been a mediocre ability to have enabled him to have risen among so many brilliant men, step by step, to the highest office in the gift of the American people. When we judge him it must be with a full consideration of the spirit of his day; of the warfare that he waged under diffi- culties that we, nearly three-fourths of a century removed, cannot understand; of the mighty political volcano that raged under his feet; of the stormy political battle that reigned about him, and threatened not only to engulf him but the country as well.
HENRY DEARBORN, youngest son of Benjamin and Anna (Kendrick) Pierce, was born in Hillsborough, Sept. 19, 1812; he m. Nov. 11, 1841, Susan, dau. of Jacob Tuttle of Antrim, a most estimable woman, well worthy of being in the position she oc- cupied, as her husband was a worthy son of an illustrious father.
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From the day he cast his first ballot in 1833 to the year of his death he was active and energetic in the conduct of town affairs. He was appointed Lieutenant of a company of cavalry in the 26th Regiment, Jan. 27, 1836, and promoted to Captain, Dec. 8, 1838. Governor Hubbard, in 1840, invited him to belong to his staff under the commission of Colonel. The next years, 1841-42, he represented the town in the State Legislature. With his military training and spirit, it was natural he should be prominent in the actions of the militia, with their musters. (See Vol. I.) He was elected Moderator of town meetings many terms. I have said for nineteen years, but the records do not quite bear me out in this statement, but he was Moderator, and a good one, for 1845, 1850, 1856-1857, 1859-1867. Belonging to a family of orators, he was a fine speaker, and always ready, whether at a lyceum or on more momentous occasions to defend his point of view on any subject that might come up. His wife died Oct. 18, 1874; he died April 9, 1882.
VII. CHILDREN.
1. Kirk Dearborn, b. August 11, 1845. (See)
2. Frank Hawthorne, b. January 10, 1848 ; d. December 31, 1908; unm. A lawyer by profession; a politician by nature, his was an active career. Educated in the local schools and academies, and graduating from Princeton College, he was admitted to the bar at the age of 23 years. He entered in the practice of his chosen profession in the law office at Lower Village, the building still standing, in company with his brother Kirk. The Pierce Brothers enjoyed a lucrative practice here, until he was appointed by President Cleveland Consul to Matanzas, Cuba. The climate here proved anything but conducive to his health, and he started on his return to his home, and died in New York. He was Representative in 1877. Interested in the Amoskeag Veterans, where he acquired the title of Colonel, he was made judge advocate of the company.
KIRK DEARBORN, s. of Hon. Henry D. and Susan (Tuttle) Pierce, b. Aug. 1I, 1845; m. Feb. 17, 1879, Mary A., dau. of Dennis Collins, of Buffalo, N. Y.
Kirk D. Pierce was educated at Boscawen and read law and was admitted to the bar and opened an office in the little building
.
COL. FRANK H. PIERCE
KIRK D. PIERCE, EsQ.
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made famous by the occupancy of his uncle, President Franklin Pierce. Here, with his brother, Frank H., he entered into the spirit of his profession with a diligence worthy of his success. Quick, nervous and fluent of tongue, he has proven himself a good lawyer and excellent debater. Given the management of big cases he has proved successful to his trust, showing over and again that the eloquence of the family was not given wholly to one of its members. Removing his office to Post-Office building in 1897, he is still there in active practice, the oldest lawyer in town, the last male representative left of an illustrious family. He is prominent in political circles, and a member of the order of Cincinnati.
His wife, Mary A. Pierce, died at their home Sunday morn- ing, Sept. 18, 1910, in her 64th year, a woman of strong and beautiful character. As a wife and mother and loyal friend, she was on a high plane of womanhood, loved and respected by all who had the good fortune to meet her.
Since the death of his wife, Kirk D. Pierce has lived with his two daughters at the fine residence which was once the home of President Pierce, his uncle. Mr. Pierce's home is filled with interesting heirlooms of the family. Among the other treasures life-sized portraits by Healy of Hawthorne, probably the best like- ness of this great romancer ever painted, Daniel Webster, Gov- ernor Marcy, John P. Hale, and others. A biographer has well said :
"Sitting before the cheerful open fire in the library, sur- rounded by all these mementoes of great men and large events, one readily conjures up visions that are luminous with the eloquence and profound with the statesmanship of those who have stood at the same fireside in other days."
VIII. CHILDREN.
1. Susan Hawthorne, b. December 16, 1881.
2. Mary Kirk, b. February 14, 1883.
PIKE.
The Pike, Pechi, Peque, family now largely distributed over the United States has been found by those who have traced the name to have an ancestry running back to the early days in English
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history. In fact, the name is found on Roman coin, and is in the literature of Egypt and the Hebrew language. Robert Pike, with whom the genealogy dates in England, was consecrated Bishop of Litchfield in the 12th century. Gen. Gilbert Pike, of Burn, was in 1299 created the first Baron. Gen. John Pike, of the VIIIth generation, went to Spain in 1685 with the Duke of Lancaster. Joannes Pike, who was said to have married a cousin of Worthy Washington Pike, belonged to the ancestry of Sir Thomas More. Other illustrious ancestors might be mentioned, not the least among them being that of John Pike, Attorney, who with his wife Sarah Washington Pike were of the same ancestry as Gen. George Washington, and Pres. James A. Garfield was a descendant of Major Robert Pike.
According to "Weever's Visitation of Somerset" we trace the ancestry back from John Pike, Attorney, already mentioned, and who came to New England from South Hampton, Eng., with his wife, two sons and three daughters on the ship "James" ar- riving on June 2, 1635, as follows: John, Stephen, William, John, Thomas, Hugh, Thomas, and Sir Richard Pike, of Pikes, Moore- linch Parish, West Bridgewater, Eng. This first representative* of the family in this country was a highly educated man, and leaving his native land at the time of the Reformation has often been classed among the dissenters, who came here to "worship God ac- cording to the dictates of his heart." Though a man of pro- nounced opinions and fearless in his convictions, educated as a lawyer he understood the value of prudence in a time when fac- tional feelings were rife.
His sons, John and Robert, the first distinguished from his father by the title of Captain and his brother as Major, were both active and influential in current affairs. The older born in Bridgewater, Eng., in 1605, married Mary Tarbell and settled in Newbury, Mass. Educated a lawyer, he was elected to many town offices, was made deputy to the General Court in 1657-58; rem. to New Jersey for a number of years, he was made Judge
*The late Dr. C. A. Fernald, a member of the Pike family, spent many thousands of dollars and almost a lifetime in tracing its history, the result of his researches forming one of the most remarkable genealogical works that has been published. Dr. Clifford Pike, of Saco, Me., who went to England and traced the family back to Archbishop Richard Pike, 1380, has written a history that is both interesting and valuable .- AUTHOR.
JUSTUS PIKE
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and Governor of the colony planted there, and returning to New- bury in 1671, he continued his former activity in local circles.
Among Captain John's descendants was Gen. Zebulon Mont- gomery Pike, worthy of his long line of soldiery ancestors, him- self distinguished in colonial warfare. It is of interest to us to know that he at the head of a doughty band of wood scouts was the first to explore the headwaters of the Contoocook River, ascend Mount Monadnock and lead his men on a first exploration down the valley of the Contoocook to the Merrimack River at Penacook.
Beginning with John Pike, Attorney, the first in America, we can easily follow the line of the following heads of families : John Pike, Atty., Captain John, Joseph, Joseph, Jr., Joseph, 3rd, Daniel, Thomas, Justus, the eighth in descent of the family in America and fifteenth in the line from Sir Richard Pike, of Bridgewater, Eng.
JUSTUS, s. of Thomas and Ruth (Keyes) Pike, of Hudson, Mass., was b. Aug. 24, 1792 ; m. Nov. 30, 1817, Charlotte Blodgett of Tyngsboro, Mass, where he res. until 1824; wife d. Feb. 13, 1819; he m. second, May 22, 1822, Mary C. Barker; rem. to H. in 1824, buying a farm on the side of Stow's Mountain; his second wife dying Dec. 29, 1857, he m. third, Mrs. Cynthia Bailey Barnes, b. April 5, 1809. He d. Aug. 24, 1863 ; wid. d. Oct. 26, 1884.
IX. CHILD, BY FIRST MARRIAGE.
1. Charlotte B. Pike, b. November 27, 1818 ; m. George W. Murdough, (See)
IX. CHILD, BY SECOND MARRIAGE.
2. Charles P., s. of Justus and Mary C. (Barker) Pike, b. in Tyngs- boro, Mass., September 18, 1822; came to H. with his parents when 1 year old. He m. April 20, 1852, (Mrs.) Sarah A. (Good- ale) Severance, dau. of Levi and Mary Goodale, of H., b. De- cember 21, 1826. They res. in Bradford twenty-eight years, until their house was burned in 1880, when they came to H., buying the Isaac Cooledge farm. A broad-minded man Mr. Pike took an active interest in political and educational mat- ters; served as school committeeman for many years, and on
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the boards of Selectmen for Bradford and Hillsborough ; he was Justice of the Peace fourteen years. His wife d. July 9, 1889 ; he d. August 27, 1892.
X. CHILDREN.
(For step-daughters, see Goodale gen.)
1. Lizzie S., b. January 16, 1854; ed. in the schools of Bradford, Penacook and Colby, New London, academies. Was a pop- ular teacher nine years ; was the first lady member of the School Board in H., serving eleven years in the Town, School District. She m. November 27, 1878, George H .. Tuttle. (See)
2. Levi G., b. September 20, 1861; m. May 26, 1904, Catherine M. McLean, dau. of John C. and Mary McLean, of South Framingham, Mass., b. May 27, 1869. Her parents came from Scotland. Mr. Pike is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and is a weaver in Hillsborough Woolen mills.
Mrs. Pike is a direct descendant of the Clan McLean from the western Isles of Scotland. This brave and heroic surname is originally descended from that of Fitzgiraldo. or Geraldson being the most potent name of English ex- tract in the kingdom.
3. Winnie G., b. March 17, 1869; m. March 13, 1889, Freeman C .. Adams, s. of Calvin and Loraine Newman Adams, b. Janu- ary 4, 1844. Mr. A. was a commercial traveler for many- years, and traveled through every state in the Union with the exception of three. After his father's death, he ret. to. H. to care for the farm, but rem. to Manchester, where he, d. February 17, 1913.
XI. CHILDREN.
1. Lester F., b. November 7, 1891.
2. Beulah L., b. July 4, 1895.
3. Elmo P., b. June 15, 1897.
3. Horace G., b. January 24, 1824; ed. in schools of H. and at Hancock and New Hampton Academies; studied medicine with Dr. George H. Hubbard and Dr. John Stevens; was grad. in 1856 from medical college in Woodstock, Vt. He practiced in Boston; Mass., three years, then went to California in 1859, where he practiced with marked success; m. Emma, dau. of Thomas and Anna (Jarvis) Lake, of Buckinghamshire, Eng. He res. in Sanel Mendicino Co., Calif .; was a classmate of Dr .. John Goodell; d. October 4, 1888; no children.
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4. Jane E., b. February 20, 1826 ; m. in November, 1846, Thomas R., s. of William Graves of East Washington; merchant, b. in Boston, August, 1820; res. East Washington.
X. CHILDREN.
1. Nellie M., b. October 5, 1847; ed. in public schools of Wash- ington and Colby Academy of New London, N. H .; teacher in Delaware and Maryland; m. August 28, 1876, Charles B., s. of George B. and Adeline Gallond of Amherst, Mass., b. July 29, 1854. Mr. Gallond was ed. in the schools of Amherst, Mass., and Colby Academy ; merchant tailor. 2. Lizzie R., b. June 15, 1857, in East Washington ; d. December 3, 1863, in New London.
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