Pierce, Ezekiel Porter

The following data is extracted from Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire History.

Ezekiel Porter Pierce, fifth son of Captain John Pierce, was born in Chesterfield, April 20, 1785. He lived at home, working on his father's farm, attending the common schools and Chesterfield academy, until he learned the carpenter and joineis' trade. At the age of twenty-one he left home, going to Farmington, Me., where he engaged in drafting and architecture. March 1, 1808, he married Susanna, daughter of Colonel Ezekial Porter, of Farmington, Me., who was born May 4, 1785. He moved here from Maine, to live with his mother, on the John Pierce homestead, in October, 1814. Here he attended to farming, trading, and manufacturing, entering largely into the manufacture of "patent acceleratory wheel-heads,"at the Factory Village, and the manufacture of bits and augers at West Chesterfield. About 1821 he purchased the so-called Cook Stand, at the Center Village, and kept a store and tavern there until in 1831, when he built the large stone tavern near the lake. Here he lived the remaining years of his life, keeping the E. P. Pierce Temperance Lake House, and which is still a temperance place.

He had born to him ten children, viz.: Susanna P., Theresa J., Ezekiel P., Julia A., Lucius D., Horace T. H., Lafayette W., Andrew Jackson, Augusta E., and Benjamin F. Susanna P. married Colonel Bethuel Farley, of Marlow, November 12, 1840, and had two children, Lucius P. and Dallas J. He died February 9, 1864, and she died July 9, 1883. Ezekiel Porter, Jr., married Sarah E. Webster, of Salem, Mass., May 1, 1844, has had two children, Georgie C. and Edward E., and resides in North Woburn, Mass. Julia Angeline resides in Chesterfield. Horace Truman Hanks married Sophia C. Dickinson, of Hinsdale, June 12, 1850, and his children were Julia L., William E., and Frank D. Lafayette Washington, seventh child of E. P. Pierce, married three times; first, Cleopatra S. Barry, who bore him one child, Charles L.; second, Mrs. Lydia M. Brooks, who also bore him one child, John A.; and third, Harriet E. Derby, and has had one child, Thirza B. He practices law in Winchendon, Mass. Augusta E. and Benjamin F. reside in Chesterfield. Ezekiel P. Pierce, Sr., died May 23, 1865, in the eighty-first year of his age. His widow died January 11, 1866. Mr. Pierce was, during his life, a leading representative man in his county, and will long be remembered as an active, resolute, self-denying and industrious business man, and a helperin every good work. Being of the Jeffersonian school of politics, he was, to the day of his death, a zealous advocate of republican democracy, a believer in the sovereign right and ability of the people to govern themselves; was anardent supporter of President Jackson, both in his own vicinity and in the legislature of New Hampshire, of which he was a member. Though he met with ridicule and opposition from some in the advocacy of his political principles, he rejoiced in their triumph, the discomfiture of his opponents, the defeat of the enemies of his country and of free government. He lived to glory in the death of American slavery and the overthrow of the great Southern rebellion, and to see the successful solution of the great problem of self-government, as a fixed and undeniable fact. He was an active laborer in the causes of education and morality, and, during his lifetime, in principle and practice an earnest temperance man; ever an opposer of wrong, and an unflinching, fearless advocate of what he believed to be right.

Source: Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire History

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