The Peirce Family – Lewis County Pioneers ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ Submitted by: Reese Spicer Lydia Peirce and her three surviving sons, arrived in Idaho in 1897, taking up a homestead on the newly opened Nez Perce Indian Reservation, north east of Kamiah. Strong, vigorous and used to the hardships of frontier life, they worked hard to establish what is now Lewis County and the city of Kamiah. Born Lydia Jane Pratt, in Paris Maine, May 16, 1822, She was married, about 1840 to Thomas Tarbell Peirce in Paris Maine and set up housekeeping in Harrison Maine. The sons born to them in Harrison numbered four and were henry L. b. 1842, Parker Isley b 1844, George W. b. 1846 and Thomas T. b. 1848. Between 1848 and 1854 the Peirce family removed to Berlin Wisconsin, where, in 1854, the youngest son, Thomas T. died. It would be twenty-one years before the family suffered another loss as great as this by the loss of the father. In the meantime the Peirce’s moved on to Lynde, Lyon Co., Minnesota, where Parker & George joined the army with the hope of fighting against the South in the Civil War. Fight they did, but not against the rebellious southern forces. In stead they were pressed into service against their own neighbors, the Santee Sioux. The four divisions of the woodland Sioux were in danger of losing their homeland and all they had, as the white settlers pushed farther and farther into their territory. During the ten years before the Civil War, over 150,000 settlers had came into Santee country. The Sioux signed two treaties with the whites and as a result, lost nine-tenths of their land, leaving them with a narrow Strip of territory along the Minnesota River. Many of the white men were abusive and cruel towards the Indians, relieving of them of their annuities which had been pledged by the treaties. The Indians crops, those that tried to farm, were very poor for the second year in a row, and many of them were starving. In August, 1862, four Sioux braves went hunting off the reservation. On their way back, they put into motion, events that would ring across the western frontier for many years. The uprising, which resulted, took the lives of 450 white settlers before they were defeated by a hastily assembled force of raw recruits led by Colonel Henry Sibley . (below) Four weeks after the rampage began, the Sioux were beaten by troops and local militiamen. Among the 2,000 Indian men, women and children who surrendered, 392 prisoners were quickly tried and 307 sentenced to death. President Lincoln commuted most of the sentences but kept the death penalty for proven rapists and murderers. The day after Christmas, 1862, 38 Sioux warriors were brought to a specially built gallows and hanged simultaneously. Parker Peirce had helped build these gallows and was one of the many troopers who stood by as witnesses. Afterwards, Parker and brother George were sent, with their Regiment, south to Tennessee to guard prisoners during the closing years of the Civil War. In the summer of 1865, Parker was sent to Fort Laramie in Wyoming, to be a scout for Government troops. Parker wrote a book, many years later, telling of his work in and out of the service. January 8 1875, Thomas Tarbell Peirce, perished from the cold after becoming lost in a storm. He was on a hunting trip with one of his sons and when found, was only yards from his camp. The Peirce brothers spent many years after the war, mining in Montana and Idaho and when the Nez Perce Indian Reservation opened up, Parker came with his mother, brothers Henry and George and an adopted sister to settle permanently in Idaho. The mother, Lydia Peirce died January 26, 1912 and shortly after Henry went back to Minnesota to make his home with a daughter. George and Parker continued to live on the Homestead and work at mining. The brothers never married and when Parker died March 14, 1930, George went to live in Seattle with his adopted sister Mrs. C. W. Ellenson. George died November 3, 1938 at the Ellenson home in Seattle. His body was brought back to Kamiah for burial in the IOOF Cemetery. Lydia Jane Peirce, Parker Isley Peirce and George W. Peirce lie side by side near a tall fir tree on the highest point of the cemetery.