Bio:  J. F. Pierson, Red River Parish
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted for the LA GenWeb Archives by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez, Feb 2000.

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J. F. Pierson.  This talented lawyer, who has achieved such an excellent
reputation for legal ability at the Coushatta and other bars, was born in Pike
County, Ala., October 3, 1844, being the ninth of ten children, four of whom
are living.  Born to William and Mary (Collins) Pierson, who were born in
South Carolina and Georgia, in 1808 and 1811, and died in Natchitoches, La.,
and Bienville Parish, La., in 1885 and 1848, respectively.  They removed from
Pike County Ala., in the fall of 1848 and settled in Bienville Parish, which
was laid out that year, but was in a very primitive condition.  Mr. Pierson
brought with him four negroes, and was worth in all, from $1,800 to $2,000,
and remained on the plantation on which he settled until the fall of 1860,
exclusively engaged in planting, but in that year sold his plantation, stock,
all his negroes, with the exception of three, for $30,000, reserving his
family horse and carriage and all his household effects.  This is a good
illustration of how rapidly money could be accumulated in Louisiana at that
day, his being an average increase of the prosperity of the settlers form 1847
up to the opening of the Rebellion.  J. F. Pierson, the immediate subject of
this biography, was a student in the common schools from 1854 to 1859, and
from the latter year until 1862 he attended Mount Lebanon University, being a
painstaking, intelligent and faithful student.  In the fall of that year he
joined Company C, Third Louisiana Infantry, and the following year was
captured at Vicksburg, being exchanged in 1864. From that time until Lee's
surrender he served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, proving himself a
true and tried soldier.  In 1865, after his return home, he began the study of
law and in the month of August, 1869, was licensed to practice in the Supreme
Court at Natchitoches.  In May, 1875, he came to Coushatta from Bienville
Parish and here has since continued the practice of his profession, winning
golden opinions for himself, in regard to his ability as an all-around lawyer,
from the members of the legal fraternity of this section.  Hi is a forcible
and convincing speaker, and his indomitable energy has enabled his to overcome
what at times seemed insurmountable difficulties.  He is a Democrat,
politically, a member of the Silent Brotherhood Lodge No. 146, of the A. F. &
A. M. of Coushatta, which lodge is in a flourishing condition.  In
November,1865, Miss Amanda J. Thomas became his wife, and in time the mother
of his four children: Edward, Thomas, Reuben A. and Malcolm.  Mrs. Pierson was
born in Alabama in 1846, and is the daughter of D. K. and Elizabeth (Ryan)
Thomas.  She is an earnest member of the Baptist Church and an intelligent,
cultured and charitable lady.

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