Vermilion county Illinois, HON. WILLIAM P. PEIRCE, M. D. ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p.245-246 HON. WILLIAM P. PEIRCE, M. D., Mayor of Hoopeston, is also a practicing physician and surgeon and senior partner of the firm of Peirce & McCaughey, proprietors of the drug store on Main street. The various titles appended to his name have been justly earned and from them it will be readily guessed that he occupies no secondary position in his community. Dr. Peirce was born in Chautauqua County, N.Y., March 25, 1830, and lived there until about 1852, completing his education in what was then Fredonia Academy, but is now the Fredonia State Normal School. Upon leaving school he commenced the study of medicine under the instruction of his father, Dr. Austin Peirce, beginning his readings at the age of eighteen years. Later he entered upon a course of lectures in the University of the City of New York, from which he was graduated in the class of 1852. In the fall of the year above mentioned young Peirce came to Illinois and began the practice of his chosen profession in Kendall County where he resided until the outbreak of the Civil War. In June, 1861, he raised a company of volunteers named Company D, and assigned to the 36th Illinois Infantry and of which he was elected Captain. After a year's faithful service in this capacity, he was appointed Surgeon to one of the new regiments, the 88th Illinois, with the rank of Major, and remained with it until the close of the war. He met the enemy in many important battles, being in the fight at Pea Ridge, Bentonville, Ark., Wilson's Creek, Mo., Shiloh, Tenn., and the siege of Corinth, at which places he was in command of his company. After receiving the appointment of Surgeon, he was at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, in the Atlanta campaign, and at Nashville and Franklin, Tenn., besides many other important engagements. The greater part of the time he acted as Brigade Surgeon and discharged his duties in such a manner as to gain him the friendship of his subordinates and the approval of his superiors. After the war was ended Dr. Peirce returned to Illinois and located in Lisbon, Kendall Co., Ill., and subsequently at Lemont, Cook County, where he followed his profession until 1880, when he took up his residence in Hoopeston and is now in the enjoyment of a lucrative business. He makes a specialty of surgery and has met with unqualified success. He soon afterward established his drug store and being a liberal and public spirited citizen, has always interested himself in the wellbeing and progress of his adopted town. While a resident of Kendall County, Dr. Peirce was elected on the Republican ticket to represent his party in the 25th General Assembly and during the sessions which followed, served on the committee of State Charitable Institutions and Revenue. Later he was appointed a delegate from the Fifteenth District to the Constitutional Convention of 1870 at Springfield. In 1871 he was elected Senator from the district comprising Kendall, Grundy and Will counties, living at the time in Minooka, Grundy County, where he practiced until his removal to Cook County. During the Constitutional Convention he was on the committee of Federal Relations, Revenue and Judicial Districts, sometimes serving as Chairman. In the Senate he was Chairman of the Committee on State Charitable Institutions, Railroads, Penitentiary and Education. Wherever residing he has usually been a representative to district and State conventions, having always taken a lively interest in political affairs. He is a member of the County Medical Society and in Masonry is a Knight Templar. In Cook County, this State, Dr. Peirce was married July 18. 1879, to Miss Ella Anderson. The four children born of this union were named respectively: William, James, Lamartine and John Logan. They are all living and form a bright and interesting group, which the parents look upon with pardonable pride. Mrs. Peirce was born in Harrisburg, Pa., May 12, 1848, and is the daughter of James Anderson, who removed first to Cook County, Ill, and then to Kansas where he died in 1888. Hon. Austin Peirce, the father of our subject, was a native of Vermont and born in 1799. When a young man he emigrated to Chenango County, N. Y., where he read medicine with Dr. Pitcher, of the town of Pitcher, and afterward took a course of instruction at Geneva. He commenced the practice of his profession at Hamlet, Chatauqua Co., N. Y., where he made his home for many years. His decease occurred in 1860, when he was sixty-one years old. The mother in her girlhood was Miss Mary Ann Sterling of Chenango County. The parental household included eleven children, eight of whom lived to mature years and five of whom are still living. The mother also survives and makes her home in Fredonia, N. Y. She was born in Connecticut in 1808 and came with her father, James Sterling, to Chenango County, N. Y., when quite young, living there until her marriage. The elder Peirce during his younger years belonged to the old Whig party and about 1842 was a member of the New York Legislature. He was a man of decided views and attained to much prominence in his community, serving as Township Supervisor many years. In religious matters he belonged to the Presbyterian Church in which he officiated as Deacon for a long period. Dr. Peirce, our subject, is a member of the Universalist Church at Hoopeston. A lithographic portrait of Dr. Peirce appears elsewhere in this volume in connection with this brief outline of his life.