San Francisco County
Biographies
CHARLES
DEXTER PIERCE
CHARLES DEXTER PIERCE, of the firm of Pierce & Co., hardware merchants of Oakland and San Francisco, Mayor of Oakland in 1888-9, and President of its Board of Trade in 1890, was born in North East, Erie county, Pennsylvania, July 16, 1859, a son of Dexter and Eliza (Newton) Pierce. Grandfather Seneca Pierce, born in Blackrock, New York, near Niagara Falls, became a tanner and carried on business in that line in Chautauqua county, New York, and afterward in North East, Pennsylvania. Later in life he moved to Iowa, and followed farming for a few years near Delhi, Jones county, but returned to North East, and there died about the age of sixty-four. His wife, Ellen (Pitcher) Pierce, survived him a few years, dying also in North East, at the age of sixty-five. Their son, Dexter, born in Chautauqua county, in 1831, learned the tanning business with his father there and in North East, moved with his parents to Iowa and farmed a few years in Jones county. Returning to North East, he there opened a hardware store about 1860. Three years later he became a partner in a hardware store in Erie, carrying on business in both places and residing in Erie after 1868. In 1873 he first came to this coast, for the benefit of his health, and in 1874 the subject of this sketch came out, accompanied by his mother. Residing for a time in San Jose and afterward in Santa Barbara, Mr. Pierce concluded to settle in this State, and in 1876 went East to wind up his business in Erie and North East. In 1877 he again came out and opened a hardware store in this city. In 1880 he admitted to partnership his two sons, W. Frank and Charles D., under the style of Pierce & Co., and in 1884 retired from the firm which has since consisted of the two sons without change of style. Mrs. Eliza (Newton) Pierce, born in Pennsylvania in 1824, died in San Diego, California, on Thanksgiving Day, 1886. Her father, Harvey Newton, was among the early settlers of North East, coming there about 1800, probably from New York State, with his parents, who are believed to have been of New England birth or descent. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, enlisting from Pennsylvania, but in later life became a farmer in New York, where he died in 1885, aged about ninety.
Charles D. Pierce was educated first in the district school in North East and from the age of nine in Erie, where he went through the grammar-school course. Coming to this coast at the age of fifteen, he studied for a time in a college in Santa Barbara, and then took a course in a business college in San Jose. Going East with his parents in 1876, he worked in his father’s store in North East until it was sold out in 1877; and when the father opened a store in Oakland in that year he filled the position of clerk with him until 1880, when he was admitted into partnership as already stated. Besides their general trade, which is chiefly in builders’ hardware, Pierce & Co. are general agents on this coast for the National Cash Register. In 1888 Charles D. Pierce was elected Mayor of this city on the Democratic ticket, his success being largely due to personal popularity, as the remainder of the Republican ticket was elected by a plurality ranging from 1,087 to 1,707.
In 1890 he interested himself in restoring the Board of Trade of Oakland to a position of greater usefulness and was elected its president with marked unanimity, his energy and popularity being generally recognized as a pledge of renewed life for that institution. Mr. Pierce is a member of Live Oak Lodge, No. 61, F. & A. M.; Oakland Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M.; Oakland Commandery, No. 11, K. T.; Oakland Lodge of Perfection, No. 12, A. & A. S. Rite; Gethsemane Chapter, No. 5, Rose Croix; DeMolay Council, No. 2, Knights of Kadosh; Islam Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and of the Grand Consistory of California. Mr. Pierce was married in Oakland, May 13, 1885, to Miss Ella N. Bartholomew, born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Alfred and Emma (Pratt) Bartholomew. The father died in Oakland, January 19, 1886, at the age of sixty-four, and the mother is living here.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages
633-634, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.