San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD NELSON PIERCE
Capability and efficiency have
marked the career of Ed. N. Pierce, and as assistant superintendent of the San
Joaquin General Hospital, located at French Camp, he conducts its affairs in a
most satisfactory manner. He was born in
Providence, Rhode Island, December 23, 1859; his parents were also natives of
the same state and during the Civil War his father gave his life at the Battle
of Pittsburg Landing. At seventeen years
of age, Ed N. Pierce enlisted as a seaman on the U. S. S. Pensacola and later
was transferred to the U. S. S. Constitution; he followed a seaman’s life for
three years, then in 1880 arrived in California and was discharged from the
service. He then removed to Solano
County, where he found employment on a large ranch and in 1883 he entered the
Clarke Business College in Stockton where he remained for one year.
At Stockton, in 1884, Mr. Pierce was
married to Miss Inez L. Austin and began farming near Calla Corners, remaining
there until 1889, when Mr. Pierce became second nurse at the General Hospital
at French Camp; later he became head nurse and chief assistant to the surgeon
in the operating room. After nine years
of service, he resigned and again engaged in farming at Calla Corners, and he
was active in bringing about the organization of the South San Joaquin
Irrigation District, covering approximately 71,000 acres and he served six
years as secretary; he still owns twenty acres at Call Corners, which he
continues to farm. Eight children were
born to Mr. and Mrs. Pierce: J. Austin;
Edna; Effie is the wife of George Murphy; E. N., Jr., is a rancher at Calla, he
served with General Pershing in Mexico in the 1st Division of the A.
E. F.; Mark W. is a rancher and served his country in the Navy and during the
war made fourteen round trips across the Atlantic; Lela is the wife of John
Fair, principal of the Gilroy high school; Chester S. is the first
superintendent of the agricultural department at the County Farm and during the
war served with the motor transport ammunition train of the A. E. F.; Byron
served as an aviator and was in training at Rockwell Field. Mr. Pierce is justly proud of his sons’ war
records. In 1915 he against took up his
duties at the County Farm and has been made assistant superintendent of the
farm and hospital. Politically he is a
Republican and fraternally is a member of Mt. Horeb Lodge of I. O. O. F. at
Ripon and is a past grand of the lodge and past district deputy, and twice been
a delegate to the grand lodge; he is also a member of Tyrian
Lodge of Masons at Manteca, and the Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite at
Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
861-862. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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