Leonard Pierce Jr. was born on September 5, 1828, in Eastport, Maine, to Leonard and Ann Pierce. His father was a trader who owned $1,000 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Houlton, Maine, and he worked as a “seaman.” He married Sarah Cushman on December 25, 1855, and they had at least four children: Charles, born around 1857; Frank, born around 1859; Walker, born around 1865; and Richard, born around 1868. The family moved to Bexar County, Texas, in the late 1850s, and he worked in the “freighting” industry there. By 1860, he owned $300 of personal property.

 

He remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and in July 1861, he became the U.S. Consul to Matamoros, Mexico. He moved his family from Texas to Maine and began his duties in January 1862. According to two biographers, his “principal responsibilities as consul were the care of refugees from Confederate territory and the military enlistment of Union sympathizers.” He reportedly “relocated about 700 refugees and sent about 300 men to enlist in the Union army.”

 

He resigned in late 1864 and moved to Buffalo, New York. After the war, he moved to Brownsville, Texas, and he died there from consumption on May 8, 1872

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