Person:Henry Pierce (5)

Henry Miller Pierce's father, John Harvey Pierce, offered each of his children $10,000 to come take up residence in the new country of America. (See James P. Pierce's biography in Sawyer.) Henry Miller Pierce took him up on this and arrived in Friendsville PA around 1820, around the same time as James and Susan Pieronnet and their daughter Susan. He probably married Susan shortly thereafter, whom he had known in England. They had 11 children and were successful and notable residents of Friendsville, in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Henry is last spotted in the 1870 Census in Tioga County, Barton township, waverly p.o, living with Susan. He is 79 and she is 69. He lists his occupation as retired farmer. Their son George, age 24, is living with them (home for a visit) and George is also enumerated in Buffalo in august of 1870, living with his sister Frances and her husband George Squiers. Susan Pieronnet Pierce is shown on the 1880 census as living with her daughter Frances and her son-in law George Squiers. Henry died in the meantime in 1874.

Henry Miller Pierce had 11 children, one of whom is my great-great grandfather, Edward Reynolds Pierce. He seems to have named his children for his parents and in-laws. There is a son,, named John Harvey Pierce. There is a daughter named Susan Duncan Pierce, who married a Thurston in Maine, possibly a relative of the Richard Thurston that Susans sister, Jane Miller Pierce, married. Jane Miller Pierce is named after he paternal grandmother, Jane Miller. The son just before my gg-grandfather is named Henry Miller Pierce, clearly named after his father. I don't have any idea who Edward is named for. A son born in 1825, is named James Pierronet Pierce, after his maternal grandfather.

The Susan Duncan name is significant because the Miller Pierces descended from the father of Admiral Adam Duncan, Scot "hero of Camperdown." In fact, George Norman Pierce, last child of Henry Miller Pierce, named one of his sons Duncan Haldane (after the maiden name of Adam Duncan's mother, Helen Haldane) Pierce.

Henry Miller Pierce family fathered at least three extremely successful male children -- James Pierronet Pierce was a railway and mining tycoon in California, George Norman Pierce was the manufacturer and inventor of the Pierce-Arrow, and Henry Miller Pierce (Jr.) had a very productive career as an educator and inventor. Frances married George Squiers, a very successful Buffalo businessman.