Solano County Biographies

LEWIS PIERCE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
the subject of this sketch is a native of York county, Maine, and born March 16, 
1832.  Here his father died when he was but five years old, and at the age of 
ten he took up a residence in Baldwin.  At the age of fifteen he removed to 
Bedford, York county, Maine, where he was educated in a Grammar school.  It is 
no easy task to give the reader an idea of the sufferings, hardships and toils 
this boy experienced, thrown into the world as he was and on his own resources 
to obtain a livelihood at the age of ten.  But with a courage that is 
commendable in one so young, and a determination to surmount all obstacles be 
they great or be they small, he went at work with a will, saved his earnings, 
and in March, 1851 � then but 15 years old � had sufficient funds to pay for a 
passage on the steamer �Pacific� to San Francisco, arriving July 2d of that 
year.  For five years after his arrival in that city he was apprentice to a 
baker, after which he did business on his own account for five more years, then 
came to Suisun with a few thousand dollars, engaging in the grain trade amassing 
a fortune equaled by few in this county.  Married Miss Nellie B. Staples, 
January 22, 1874.  On a plateau in a westerly direction from Suisun, on the 
banks of the Suisun Creek, stands Mr. Pierce�s handsome new residence.  The 
location is one of the most picturesque and attractive to be met with in this 
part of the county.  It commands a magnificent view of the bold mountains that 
fringe the western border of Suisun valley.  Half encircling it, is a grand 
amphitheatre of cliffs dotted with timber, grass lands and cultivated fields.  
The building is of wood, two stories above a basement of cut stone, constructed 
in a most substantial manner, and in an unique and highly attractive style of 
architecture.  It is finished and furnished in a manner appropriate to such an 
enterprise.  This house enjoys a happy combination of the useful and the 
beautiful.  It is a well-lighted, ventilated, convenient and cheerful home.  
Everything pertaining to its construction is substantial, heavy, rich and 
elegant, but not gaudy.
 
History of Solano County � San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley  & Co., East 
Oakland, pub 1879, pp 434