Sonoma-San Joaquin-Trinity County CA Archives Biographies.....Pearce, George 1822 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2006, 3:47 pm

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. (1880)

Pearce, Hon. George. The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this
work, was born in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, on the 5th day of January,
1822, and was raised and received his early education in Shelby county,
Kentucky, and completed his education in the city of Louisville. At the age of
seventeen years he was left to carve his way through life without the slightest
parental aid or assistance, and for a short time employed himself in the city of
Louisville as a salesman, out door clerk and collector, and in the Summer of
1845 migrated to Missouri with a young man and schoolmate in quest of business,
and visited St. Louis, Jefferson City, Independence, Booneville, Weston and St.
Joseph, but met with little success, and in the Spring of 1846, at the
commencement of the Mexican war, he was one of the very first detachment of
troops that left Fort Leavenworth for the enemy's country—in Company "C," First
Regiment of United States Dragoons, Captain B. D. Moore, a noble and gallant
officer. This detachment of troops left Fort Leavenworth on the 5th day of June,
1846, for the purpose and with orders to pursue and overtake a train of wagons,
laden with ammunition and belonging to one Speyers, who had left Independence,
Missouri, a few days before, bound for Santa Fe, and seize the ammunition; but
in case of failure to overtake the train before reaching the crossing of the
Arkansas river, to abandon pursuit and remain in camp near the crossing until
the arrival of re-enforcements. Failing to overtake the train, the detachment
camped and remained several weeks on the Arkansas river, in the vicinity of vast
herds of buffalo. On the arrival of re-enforcements and General Kearney, the
subject of this sketch was detached and assigned to special duty in the body
guard of the commanding general, in which he continued until the Spring of 1847,
and was at the taking of Santa Fe, and from thence to California, with General
Kearney, via the Gila river, reaching Warner's rancho, in San Diego county,
about the 1st day of December, 1846. At this point the commanding general was
informed by a native Californian that Don Andres Pico, with about one hundred
armed men, was at a place about forty miles distant, and were foraging and might
engage the forces under the general, which at that time consisted of about
eighty men, rank and file, the main body of the army having been left in New
Mexico, and this small force coming through to California, under the impression
and on information received from California that Colonel Fremont and Commodore
Stockton had already subdued the enemy and taken possession of California, and
that all was quiet. The information received at Warner's Rancho was of course
quite a surprise, though the-writer is not certain that General Kearney was not
informed at or near the confluence of the rivers Gila and Colorado that the
Californians were in revolt and again contesting the field with Fremont. After a
rest of one day at Warner's, the detachment moved toward San Diego, and the
first rains of the season struck us that day. After a long and fatiguing day's
journey in the rain, the little army camped, about eight o'clock in the evening,
upon a high plain in the mountains, about eight or ten miles from the enemy's
forces under Pico. At this camp, as a part of the practical life of the subject
of this sketch, occurred some important incidents, a history whereof it is
confidently believed has never been written or published, and with great respect
for the living and veneration for the gallant dead, the subject of this sketch
mentions, at the risk of being criticized and censured.. After the camp fires
were all started, Mr. Pearce was directed by General Kearney to take his
compliments to Captain Moore and tell him that he, the general, would be pleased
to see him at his tent. Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Hammond were also
summoned, and a conference held on the propriety of reconnoitering the enemy's
position that night and attacking him early the following morning. Captain Moore
opposed, mainly upon the grounds that discovery of our presence would
necessarily follow a recognaisance, and discovery would certainly result in
failure to obtain an advantage, as the enemy were all well mounted—were,
perhaps, the most expert horsemen in the world, and we were, for the most part,
on poor, half-starved and jaded mules. That it would be far better for the whole
of us to move and make the attack at once, that by this course we would be more
than likely to get all the horses of the enemy, and to dismount them was to whip
them. The objections of Captain Moore were overruled, and Lieutenant Hammond,
Sergeant Williams and ten men were forthwith detailed and did reconnoiter the
enemy's position. Mr. Pearce was present and heard the report of Lieutenant
Hammond and Sergeant Williams on their return. They reported substantially that,
as they neared some Indian huts at the base of the mountains, on the north side
of a small valley, at a place called San Pasqual, the guide stopped them and
called their attention to a dim light in one of the huts, and told them that
Pico and his men were occupying those huts; that Sergeant Williams and the guide
(the same native Californian who had reported at Warner's Rancho) absolutely
went to the door of the hut and saw a number of men sleeping on the floor of the
hut, and a lone Indian sitting by the fire. They beckoned the Indian without the
hut, and while conversing with him and getting all the information they could, a
sentinel hailed the main party or detachment under Lieutenant Hammond, and of
course the whole detachment instantly retreated, without firing a gun; that they
went into this little valley from the mountains on the south, and as they
retreated up the mountain they distinctly heard the shouts of the enemy, " Biva,
California!" As soon as this report was fully made, and another short council of
war held, boots and saddles sounded on the bugle, and our gallant army of about
eighty men moved upon the enemy, and just before the dawn of the morning light
from the south side of the little valley, and almost opposite the huts, the same
bugle sounded the charge as foragers, which, as the reader is doubtless aware,
simply means that every one shall, single-handed, select and slay as many of the
enemy as he can and in his own way. It was yet too dark to designate a friend
from an enemy in a hand-to-hand fight, especially after the smoke of the first
volley fired. The subject of this sketch a few days before this engagement had
exchanged a jaded mule for a California mustang, and just as all of us drew our
sabres and put spurs to our animals, the mustang took fright, and for a few
minutes exercised very lively, stiff-legged, trying to dislodge the rider in
vain; but as all the rest of the little army were on mules, the mustang soon
reached the front—in fact, did so before a shot was fired. A very lively little
hand-to-hand fight ensued, in the van of which Mr. Pearce took an active part,
and was in immediate view of and but a few feet from the commanding general at
the time. In the fight the general received a wound in the loin from an enemy's
lance, when he heard the second order of the commanding general to retreat, and
a moment after, the countermanding order of acting Adjutant Turner, whose
language may here be repeated without disrespect to any. His language was: "No,
never, men. Never turn your backs on these men, or you will all be cut down.
Dismount!" This countermanding order was gladly obeyed instantly, and in a few
minutes the day won by this small force. There were forty-two of this little
army killed and wounded in the engagement, and the dead buried temporarily on
the field the night after the battle. This skirmish and the circumstances are
thrown in here because they have ever seemed a part of his practical life, and
because it is believed that they have never been published. The little army
moved on toward San Diego two days after, and after a few miles travel, were
attacked from the rear by a superior force, and took advantage of a small
mountain or hill, afterwards familiarly known as Mule hill, from the
circumstance of the men being while there (five days and six nights), driven
from necessity to subsist, in part, upon horses and mules. The little army were
embarrassed with twenty-two wounded men, and during these five days and six
nights were surrounded by the enemy but were finally relieved by about two
hundred marines from San Diego. Mr. Pearce was also in the succeeding
engagements of San Gabriel, plains of Mesa and Los Angeles, and remained in the
southern portion of this State in the service. In the month of August, 1848, he
was detached and sent with a few other men to San Francisco, at which place they
arrived (overland) during the month of September, when they took charge of a
large amount of ordnance and stores belonging to the United States Government.
The subject of this sketch, at the time of passing Los Angeles, had only
partially recovered from a severe attack of fever, and during the succeeding
months of October and November, and until the last day of December, 1848,
continued in a very debilitated state of health, and the last day of December
was struck down with a congestive chill, and remained in a very precarious state
of health until about the 1st of April, 1849, at which date, by the indulgence
and kindness of Lieutenant A. J. Smith, then in command of the detachment, he
was granted a leave of absence until the end of the term for which he had
enlisted in the service, and in a few days after went to Stockton and embarked
in a lucrative business, but his health soon become worse, and in the following
June visited Sonoma City, where he was honorably discharged from the service,
but so afflicted with fever and ague as to almost entirely disqualify him for
any manner of business, and was at first so much relieved by the climate of
Sonoma that he at once closed business in Stockton and removed to Sonoma and
embarked in business at that place with J. N. Randolph, and during the Fall and
Winter of 1849 continued in such a state of health as to comparatively
disqualify him for business, though able to be out, and took an active part in
the first election; voted for the constitution as it was first adopted, and
during the first session of the Legislature visited San Jose as a lobby member,
at the request of the citizens of Sonoma, for the purpose if possible of
preventing the incorporation of the city and valley of Sonoma in the county of
Napa, which was then threatened. He was accompanied in this service by Robert
Hopkins, Esq., then a practical lawyer, who but a short time previous had
settled in Sonoma and commenced the practice of his profession. On their arrival
in San Jose the subject of this sketch found a Mr. Turner, an entire stranger,
about to be foisted upon the people of Sonoma as their first District Judge, and
felt it his duty promptly to prevent it if possible; to accomplish this object
he at once obtained the consent of and put forward Hopkins for this important
position, as one residing among us and known to the people of his district, who
was accordingly elected; and having also secured the other and main object of
his visit, viz: bounding the county of Sonoma so as to include the city and
valley of Sonoma; he returned to Sonoma about the middle of January, 1850, and
continued so depressed and afflicted with fever and ague that at times he would
swoon and fall unconscious for several minutes, notwithstanding which, under the
advice of his physician, and his own conviction that he could best treat the
disease by active out-door exercise, about the 1st of April, 1850 with a company
of prospectors, about twenty-five in number, with rifle, ammunition and mules,
visited the head-waters of Russian river, crossed Eel river, and about the last
days of May purchased a small log house and ferry-boat on the Trinity river,
about thirty miles below the present site of Weaverville, in Trinity county, and
during the following Summer months followed mining, ferrying, trading, etc,, and
in July and August of that year visited Humboldt Bay and Port Trinidad,
returning to his ferry and log house, to find but few miners and less business
at or near the ferry or log house, he moved up the river, and late in the Fall
camped on the present site of Weaverville, and was induced to and did purchase
another small log house, and concluded to winter in it and try his fortune
mining, but having very little practical knowledge of mining, met with poor
success, and in the following month of March was induced to and did visit Salmon
river, pitching his tent on the present site of Sawyer's Bar, where he remained
only a few days, to find the camp overrun with adventurous miners, many of them
from the so-called Gold Bluff. He then returned via Weaverville, Shasta City,
and the Sacramento valley, to Sonoma, much improved, though not entirely well of
that inexorable malady, and spent the Summer and Winter of 1851 at Sonoma, and
the following Spring, still leaving Mr. Randolph in charge of the business at
Sonoma, he again went to Trinity, and spent the Summer mining, but with poor
success, and convinced now that more than half of the gold contained in the
gravel and earth washed by him was wholly lost, from want of a proper method and
knowledge of catching and saving it. He returned to Sonoma in the Fall, where he
then commenced reading law, with the late T. J. Boggs and R. A. Maupin, but in
the Autumn of 1853 accepted the office of Deputy Sheriff, under Israel Brockman,
the first Sheriff of Sonoma City, in which service he continued until after the
election of 1855, in which the Know Nothing party (so-called) succeeded in
carrying the elections, and defeating Mr. Brockman, but prosecuted his studies
of the law at all leisure times, and in the Fall of 1855 removed to Petaluma,
and prosecuted his studies in the office of the Hon. J. B. Southard, and in the
Spring of 1856 was admitted to the bar of the District Court, Hon. E. W.
McKinstry presiding, and about the 1st day of July of that year moved into the
office which he now occupies, and has ever since continued the practice of his
profession in the City of Petaluma, and a few years later was admitted to the
practice in all the courts—State and Federal—within the State of California. He
has generally taken quite an interest in politics; has always been democratic,
and during the late war between the States was active and zealous; he opposed
the commencement and prosecution of the war, earnestly contending that as our
system of government was founded in voluntary consent, it would of necessity
have to be perpetuated by consent, and that a destruction of this voluntary
consent, ipso facto, destroyed the system, and a maintainance by force of arms,
without regard to the usual processes of law, necessarily subverted the whole
system, and he yet holds that the original system can never be restored
precisely as it existed before the war; numerous pernicious precedents of the
past eighteen years have ripened into practice, and will in the future be
assumed to be law, however erronious, He was elected to the State Senate in
1863, and, under the amended constitution, drew lots for a long or short term,
and drew a short term, viz: two years, but was re-elected in 1865 for four years
more, against a most violent and strenuous opposition, and served his term out.
About the close of his term married Miss Coulter Brown, a native of Shelbyville,
Kentucky, who has borne him three daughters and one son, all of whom are still
residing with him at Petaluma.

Additional Comments:
Petaluma Township

Extracted from:

HISTORY
—OF-
SONOMA COUNTY,
-INCLUDING ITS—
Geology, Topooraphy, Mountains, Valleys and Streams;
—TOGETHER WITH—
A Full and Particular Record of the Spanish Grants; Its Early History and
Settlement, Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources; the Names of Original
Spanish and American Pioneers; a full Political History, Comprising the Tabular
Statements of Elections and Office-holders since the Formation of the County;
Separate Histories of each Township, Showing the Advancement of Grape and Grain
 Growing Interests, and Pisciculture;
ALSO, INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE; THE RAISING OF THE BEAR FLAG; AND BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
—AND OF ITS—
Cities, Towns, Churches, Schools, Secret Societies, Etc., Etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO:
ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1880.


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