The honored subject of this review is numbered among the progressive and representative agriculturists of Obion County, where he is the owner of a finely improved landed estate of five hundred acres, situated near the boundary line between Tennessee and Kentucky, Pierce Station being his post office address. He is a scion of one of the old and influential families of northwestern Tennessee and through his character and achievement he has well upheld the prestige of the honored name which he bears and which has been closely identified with the civic and industrial activities of this section of the state for more than seventy years.
Mr. Pierce was born in Obion County, Tennessee, on the 8th of June, 1850, and is a son of Thomas M. and Margaret (Blacknell) Pierce, the former of whom was born in North Carolina, in 1810, and the latter of whom was several years his junior. Thomas M. Pierce received excellent educational advantages and was a man of fine intellectuality and marked business acumen. He was a successful teacher in the schools of Tennessee for a number of years and eventually became one of the prominent agriculturists and merchants of the northwestern part of the state, both he and his wife having passed the closing years of their lives in Obion County and both having held the unqualified esteem of all who knew them. Thomas M. Pierce came to Tennessee in the year 1842 and first located in Dresden, Weakley County, whence he later removed to Obion County. He became the owner of a fine landed estate of eight hundred acres, which he operated with slave labor prior to the Civil War, most of this property having been confiscated at the close of the war, though he had been a stanch supporter of the cause of the Union and had ably opposed the secession of the Southern states. Notwithstanding his personal attitude at this climacteric period in the history of the nation, three of his sons—Thomas D., Henry H. and Rice A. –espoused the cause of the Confederate government and were valiant soldiers in the Southern service during the great fratricidal conflict. Mr. Pierce was a man of specially progressive ideas and policies, and he developed an extensive merchandise business, in connection with which he had well equipped general stores at Jacksonville, Union City, and Pierce, Tennessee, and at Fulton, Kentucky.
Pierce Station was named for Thomas M. Pierce, who built the first station house himself, and was the first station master. He was also the first postmaster and held both offices until a short time before his death when he resigned. He was a Democrat but held the post office through the Republican administration.
Both Mr. Pierce and his wife held membership in the Methodist Church, their lives having been ordered in harmony with the faith which they professed. Mrs. Pierce was graduated in one of the excellent educational institutions of her native state, Virginia, and was a woman of exceptional culture and refinement. She was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of Tennessee prior to her marriage and she ever held the affectionate regard of all who came within the sphere of her gracious and gentle influence. The names of the children, with respective years of birth are here noted: Harriet, 1834; William B., 1836; T. Devereaux, 1838; Henry H., 1840; Rice A., 1842; Lawrence, 1844; and George J., 1850. The four eldest were born in North Carolina and the remainder in the Weakley County, this state, except George J., who is the subject of this review and the youngest of the number, he having been born in what is now Obion County, as previously noted. Of his brothers, Rice A., is now living.
Source: Hale, Will T, and Dixon L. Merritt. A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Company, 1913. Volume 5.
