Person:Pierre Ferry (2)

[From an unknown source, but published before 1889 (when Washington Terr. became a state); copied from a post at Ancestry.]

He arrived in Monroe in October, 1822, and occupied one-half of the Lacroix house, now standing, on the north side of the River Raisin and owned by Louis Lafontain. After one year's residence he was appointed a justice of the peace. He also taught school a number of years, and is now well remembered by many of our older citizens as the keeper of the toll bridge that crossed the river at the site of the present Monroe street bridge.

Colonel Ferry was regarded as one of our most intelligent citizens, a fine accountant and trustworthy, and was for many successive years elected treasurer of the county of Monroe. He resided on Washington street, in the homestead now owned and in possession of his descendants, Mrs. John Tull [Julia Ann] and family.Col. Ferry was in sentiment and belief an infidel, until his attendance in the old yellow court-house on the services conducted by the Rev. Mr. Frontis, a Presbyterian clergyman, at which time he became a Christian and united with the First Presbyterian church in the year 1825, saying, however, that his father was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church in France, and his partiality therefor would induce him to dissolve his connection should a Protestant Episcopal church be organized. He was one of the first members of the Protestant Episcopal church in this city, was the successor of Doctor Walter Colton, the first warden, assisted in organizing the Sabbath school therein, and was for some time superintendent thereof.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Connelley, William Elsey. A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. (Chicago, IL, and New York, NY, USA: Lewis Publishing, 1918–1919)
   Vo. 4, p. 2054.

   According to this source, he was born "at the old artillery training ground and fortress of Le Fere. At one time the town and its environs were part of the feudal possessions of the Ferry family. Thus it was that Peter Pierferry became the hereditary colonel of the Le Fere Regiment. He was a graduate of the St. Croix Military college and the Berna Military College, and a fellow student in these colleges with him was the young Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a matter of particular interest that Napoleon after his graduation became a sub-lieutenant under Col. Peter Pierferry in the Le Fere Regiment. In fact, these two men were in a number of campaigns together. After Napoleon reached the pinnacle of his career and became emperor, Colonel Pierferry, being a Royalist in sympathy, abandoned his cause and securing a passport from Napoleon came to America and settled on Belle Isle in Lake Erie. That was in 1811."
   
   NOTE: Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Le Fere Regiment at the age of 16, in 1785. If Ferry (or Pierferry) was, in fact, a fellow student, this would imply that even if he was a little older, he too would have been born around 1760-65. However, I have found absolutely nothing online generally, or in any resource at Ancestry, about anyone named "Pierferry," in any location. This whole story sounds very much like embroidered family myth.
   
   He supposedly came to join his brother Joseph, already living in New York, but the brother has not been identified in any New York source.
   
   He served several terms as treasurer of Monroe County.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Find A Grave.

   Find-a-Grave

3. ↑ Il faut lire "La Fère" (et non pas "Le Fere"), commune et château du département de l'Aisne.
   
   Attention ! - Il faudra vérifier s'il n'y a pas confusion entre la ville de La Fère et le Régiment d'artillerie de La Fère. Voici par exemple ce qu'indique Wikipédia (version française) : "Napoléon Bonaparte servit dans le régiment d'artillerie de la Fère sous les ordres du baron du Teil, mais, contrairement à la légende, il ne fut jamais affecté à La Fère, ce régiment étant cantonné à Valence puis à Auxonne."