Leonard Pierce Jr.
Leonard Pierce, Jr., was born on September 5, 1828, in Eastport, Maine, to Leonard Pierce and Ann Laura Prince. His father was a trader who owned $1,000 of real estate by 1850. Pierce grew up and attended school in Houlton, Maine, and by 1850, he was working as a seaman. He served as a mate aboard the St. Louis in 1853 before spending a year in Mexico.
He married Sarah Cushman on December 25, 1855, and they had at least four children: Charles, born around 1857; Frank, born around 1859; Walter, born around 1865; and Richard, born around 1868. They moved to Bexas County, Texas, in the late 1850s, and he worked in the freighting industry. By 1860, he owned $300 of personal property.
He served as assistant paymaster in the Regular Army, and he received a commission as United States Consul at Matamoros, Mexico, on July 20, 1861. He spent the war assisting Unionist refugees in Mexico, and he helped organize 300 volunteers for the Union army. He resigned on November 30, 1864, and settled in Brownsville, Texas. He died in Brownsville on May 8, 1872.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (1897) | Pierce, Leonard Jr. | 1828-09-05 | 1872-05-08 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Civilian
- Rank in:
- Rank out:
- Rank highest:
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 1
- (6179) [recipient] ~ George H. Dana to Leonard Pierce Jr., 18 October 1863
Places - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, and 1870 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Florine Pierce Faulk and A. A. Champion, “Leonard Pierce, Jr. (1828-1872),” Texas State Historical Association, available from https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/pierce-leonard-jr.
