PIERCE, John T. (1861-1930)

PIERCE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 8/21/2020 at 12:41:50

John Theodore Pierce
(January 10, 1861 – May 20, 1930)

Ida County Pioneer Records, Ida Grove, Iowa, Thurs., June 5, 1930, p.4
Memorial Sketch of Dr. J. T. Pierce
“Know you not that a prince has fallen this day in Israel,” John Theodore Pierce was born in Chesterville, Ohio, on January 10, 1861. He was the son of Samuel Curtiss and Mary Ross Pierce whose home was in Ohio. Mr. Pierce was educated in the preparatory school at Fairport, Mo., later Amity College, College Springs, Iowa, and at Greencastle, Indiana. He received his degree of Doctor of Divinity at Missouri Wesleyan where he was trustee for many years. He was converted at the age of sixteen. He had planned to make the legal profession his life work, but feeling the inner urge of the ministry upon him, he consecrated himself to that important task. He was ordained in 1884 under the missionary rule as a deacon and elder, and in spite of a rather frail body he took his earliest appointment in the turbulent western towns and neglected mining camps.
His first appointment was a circuit that consisted of all the towns in Arizona along the Santa Fe road – a district of several hundreds of miles in length. In 1886 he joined the Missouri conference and was appointed to Breckenridge where on November 22, 1887, he was married to Miss Phoebe Smith who has been his lifelong loving companion and efficient colaborer in a common ministry.
To them, there were born four children, Mary Pierce Scamman, who resides at Rock Port, Mo., Joy Pierce Bridger, a beautiful daughter whose frail body could not stand the rigors of this earthly climate, who died at Denver, Colo., October 8, 1925; Major John T. Pierce Jr., of the U.S. Army stationed at Colorado Springs, Colo., and Thomas Curtis, a bright lad who died at the age of thirteen on Sept. 18, 1908. Beside his widow and children, Mr. Pierce leaves to mourn his loss four grandchildren, James Pierce Scamman, Joy Pauline Scamman, May Louise Pierce, and John T. Pierce III, and two sisters, Mrs. Clarence O. Finch of Cabot, Ark., and Mrs. Chas. S. Finch of Lawrence, Kansas.
[For paragraph after paragraph of nearly every year of his ministry as well as all the friends he knew, see this memorial online at http://idagrove.advantage-preservation.com/]
 
Dr. Pierce was born to mortality on January 10, 1861, and he was born to immortality on the 20th day of May 1930. Mr. Pierce died of an attack of pneumonia. During the time of his illness he was removed to the Methodist hospital in Sioux City where he died at noon on May 20. The members of his family were all present. A memorial service was held for him in Sioux City at the Westcott undertaking parlors by the members of the Masonic fraternity of which he was a member.