San Benito-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Pearce, E. F. 1834 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 16, 2007, 1:14 am

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

E. F. PEARCE, who has a beautiful home of seventy acres, located in to San Juan
canon, California, is one of the represenative [sic] citizens of San Benito
county, and is deserving of some personal mention in this work.

  Mr. Pearce was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, December 15, 1834. His
parents, Edward H. and Mary (Brown) Pearce, were natives of Gloucester and
Hamilton, Massachusetts, respectively. Edward H. Pearce was a seafaring man, a
captain of various ocean vessels, and navigated nearly all the open seas of the
world. He was born in 1800, spent the evening of his life on a farm in
Massachusetts, and died in 1875.

  In early life the subject of our sketch learned the trade of shoe-cutter and
became an expert cutter. He worked in a factory in Nova Scotia for some time. It
was in 1851 that he made his first trip to California, coming via Cape Horn, as
a sailor before the mast. After spending four months in San Francisco he went
back into the country and hunted wild game for the San Francisco market. This
business he pursued about four years. Then, after a trip through the mining
districts, he in 1856 returned East. His second journey to California was made
by way of Panama in 1861.

  Mr. Pearce was married in 1857, at Nova Scotia, to Miss Sarah Eaton, a native
of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, born May 24, 1837, a daughter of Captain Thomas
Eaton, her parents being both of English birth. Captain Eaton was a seafaring
man and was commander of the ship Fairy. This vessel, which had her keel laid on
Friday, was launched on Friday, and sailed to sea on Friday, was, indeed, a most
fortunate craft, notwithstanding the superstition which governed the movements
of many sailors in those days. Mr. and Mrs. Pearce have two sons and five
daughters, viz.: Kate, wife of C. A. Dorsey, Sacramento; Lida, widow of Henry
Bounds, San Francisco; Edward, a rancher, Mabel, a teacher in the public schools
of San Juan; and Lillian, Arthur and Minnie.

  Mr. Pearce has served as Justice of the Peace of San Juan and as a School
Trustee of his district for sixteen years.

  During the time Edward H. Pearce lived on his farm he was a member of the
Massachusetts Legislature for over twenty years. Henry, the second son of E. H.
Pearce, joined the Union army at the commencement of the war and continued until
the close; was in forty-seven engagements and came out without a scratch
although he was six feet and five inches in height and weighed 256 pounds. After
the war he removd [sic] to St. Louis, Missouri, where he died, in July, 1889, of
Bright's disease. David, the youngest of the boys, also enlisted in the Union
army early in the war, served in the Army of the Potomac about two years and six
months, and, after his return, died of the same disease.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.

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