Pierce, Riley

WELLS, LANE, PANTON

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/2/2009 at 13:54:20

Riley Pierce has been closely and influentially identified with agricultural interests of Bremer County for many years and is now numbered among the extensive landowners and successful agriculturists of this vicinity. He was born in Cattaraugus county, New York, September 4, 1834, and is a son of Luther and Clarissa (Wells) Pierce, the former born January 18, 1802, and the latter, February 14, 1807. When Luther Pierce was nineteen years of age he agreed to pay his father twenty dollars for the time yet remaining before he attained his majority, and, being thus released from work on the farm, went to New York state, where he worked in the lumber woods. About 1838 he removed to Illinois and there engaged in farming, meeting with well deserved success as a reward of his energy and enterprise. He accumulated six hundred acres of land and amassed a comfortable fortune, which he expended always wisely and practically. In community affairs he took an active and prominent part, serving as justice of the peace and supervisor, and he became known as Father Pierce to his many friends. He had six children, Julian, Rosina, Riley, Desdemona, Mary and Byron.

Riley Pierce was still a child when his parents moved to Illinois and he acquired his education in the public schools of that state. In 1859 he joined a party of pioneers driving ox teams across the continent to California. He started from his home in DuPage county, four miles south of Elgin, and afterward joined a party of travelers with fifty wagons. The caravan made the trip to California without being molested and in that state Mr. Pierce engaged in teaming and farming, having joined a cousin, Hiram Thurston, who had gone to the state ten years before. He worked in the latter's employ for some time and remained in California until 1861, in which year he returned by way of the Isthmus, intending to enlist for service in the Civil War. Being, however, too late for the first draft of seventy-five thousand volunteers and too early for the draft of three hundred thousand, he moved to Iowa and settled in Bremer county, this state, buying land in Polk township from the government. He paid one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for this property and he continued to develop and improve it for many years thereafter, adding greatly to its value and attractiveness. His holdings comprise three hundred and twenty-four acres and there are also eighty acres across the river, which Mr. Pierce uses as pasture for his fine herd of shorthorn and Durham cattle and his registered Percheron horses. On the home farm Mr. Pierce has erected two large silos, fine barns and outbuildings and a comfortable residence and has made it in all respects a valuable and productive property. He still makes his home upon it and gives a general supervision to its management, but the farm is operated by his sons, who have also charge of a large property in Wisconsin and another in North Dakota. Mr. Pierce is vice president of the Savings Bank of Plainfield and is recognized as a discriminating financier and a farsighted and able business man.

On the 23rd of September, 1862, Mr. Pierce was united in marriage to Miss Vernelia Panton, a native of Oakland county, Michigan, and a daughter of William and Jane Ann (Lane) Panton, the former born in Milton, Kent county, England, and the latter in Victor, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce became the parents of three children: William, who lives at home; Frank, who lives in Wisconsin, where he has married and where he engages successfully in the lumber business, being also president of the First National Bank at Winona; and Vernon, also at home.

Mr. Pierce gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and has served two three-year terms as supervisor. In 1904 he was delegate to the National Farmers Convention at Fort Worth, Texas, and he gives his aid and active support to every progressive public project, being known as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He is a worthy and upright gentleman, whose life has ever been in harmony with his professions and whose good qualities have gained for him an honored name.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914