PIERCE, Herbert B. (1858-1930)

PIERCE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 8/21/2020 at 14:42:48

Herbert Burdick Pierce
(October 12, 1858 – October 12, 1930)

Ida County Pioneer Record, Ida Grove, Iowa, Thurs., Oct 16, 1930, p.1
Head of Schools Fifty Years Ago
Death of Herbert B. Pierce Occurs at Rock Rapids on His 72nd Birthday
Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Fish, Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Bowman left Tuesday morning for Rock Rapids, where they attended the funeral of Herbert B. Pierce, the brother of the two ladies, who expired Sunday, October 12 on his seventy-second birthday. Mr. Pierce had been a sufferer from chronic bronchitis for many years and at various times had contracted pneumonia. It had been his custom to spend the winters in the mild Florida climate and he and his wife were expecting to go south the first Sunday in October. The day before his proposed departure, he was taken much worse and sank rapidly.
Herbert Burdick Pierce, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Pierce, was born October 12, 1858 at Sterling, Ill., and died October 12, 1930. He was educated in the public schools of Clarence, Iowa and attended Simpson College at Indianola. In 1878 he was elected superintendent of the Ida Grove public schools and served three years in that capacity. At that time, the building was located in the north part of town. Many of the older citizens of the town were once his pupils. He moved in 1882 to Rock Rapids, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was married October 31, 1883 to Ida L. Eastman of Clarence, Ia. The family resided many years in Rock Rapids, where Mr. Pierce was engaged in the practice of law, in abstracting, real estate, loans and insurance. For over forty years he taught a large Bible class in Rock Rapids and during his whole life, he was an enthusiastic church worker. He was a great student and traveler and had been all over the United States, Mexico and Europe. He was a member of the Knights Templar and Odd Fellows.
Mr. Pierce is survived by his widow, two sons, Homer J. Pierce of Minneapolis and Ralph E. Pierce of Minneapolis and Ralph E. Pierce of New York City. There are two grandsons, Herbert Pierce, Minneapolis and Burdick Pierce of New York. His two sisters are Mrs. Bowman and Mrs. Fish of Ida Grove. The following tribute to Mr. Pierce’s memory was written by one of his former pupils, Mrs. Maud Clarke Saunders: “With the passing of Herbert B. Pierce many fond memories are awakened. He taught in the Ida Grove school when Ida Grove was only a village. Several of this community will remember the good times spent under his administration in the school house that used to stand in the old town. Those were happy days for he was an ideal teacher. His was the opportunity of opening new fields in school life, making the work like an adventure into fairy land. The old “Seven American Classics” with Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Hawthorne’s Great Stone Face, still hold the charm which he created. Ichabod Crane and Katrina VanTassel became so real that his pupils found them in the people with whom they associated. Not only was the school work of vital interest but before the days of supervised play, Mr. Pierce was part of every game played during recreation periods. He formed baseball nine, one of girls, another of boys, and championed the teams with such enthusiasm that the girls came out with flying colors. Before the days of telephones he constructed, with the aid of his pupils, a miniature outfit, so it worked to the delight of his youthful assistants. He demonstrated the tremendous power that lies in the hand of every school teacher in molding the lives of the young minds in their care. The charm and wonder of the world of study, which he opened has never lost its hold. “No greater reward could be asked by any teacher, than that other minds, in their care, may be lead into as delightful fields of knowledge, as those discovered by the children under the leadership of Herbert B. Pierce.”