Genesee-Bay-Oakland County MI Archives Biographies.....Pierson, Seth W. 1839 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 11, 2007, 5:04 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

SETH W. PIERSON. This genial and popular citizen of Fenton, who has become
prominent in agricultural and social circles, comes of a family distinguished
for longevity, being descended from Henry Pierson, who came with two brothers
from Southampton, England about the year 1700. He is a man of intelligence and
uprightness and one whose influence is powerful for the upholding of true
standards of living, and whose genuine culture has made its mark upon the
community. He was born in Atlas Township, Genesee County, June 8, 1839, and his
father, John K. Pierson, who was born in West Avon, Livingston County, N. Y. in
1810, came as a farmer to Michigan in 1836, settling on a quarter section of
land in Atlas Township, the deed to which was signed by President Jackson. His
father had emigrated to Canada in 1823, and settled near the city of Brantford,
which then consisted of but one house, and where there was at that time an
Indian reservation occupied by a remnant of the Six Nations. There John Pierson
grew to manhood and thence he journeyed by ox-team to Michigan being fourteen
days on the road, thus making his way through the unbroken forest, and
establishing himself at the end of the journey in a log house which he erected.
The wolves were then numerous and often made attempts to enter this humble home.
Upon this place this representative and true-hearted pioneer lived for
fifty-three years, dying January 13, 1889. He was a man of high moral standing
and strong Christian character, and exerted a powerful influence in the
community. He was an active promoter of everything pertaining to the
agricultural matters of the township and was much interested in the improvement
of stock.

  The grandfather of our subject, David Pierson, was born in Connecticut and
removed thence to New York and afterward to Canada where he died. He served in
the War of 1812. Roby Weston, the mother of our subject, was born in Hamburg, N.
Y., and was a daughter of Seth Weston, a native of New Hampshire whose father
was an Englishman by birth and a member of the English navy. The mother is still
living on the old farm in Atlas Township, and of her nine children only one has
died and that one passed away in infancy.

  The log schoolhouse furnished the elementary education of our subject and at
the age of eighteen he entered for a course of two years the Clarkston Academy,
which was then under the charge of Prof. Isaac B. Cochran. At the age of
nineteen he began teaching and pursued this calling for nine years, and in 1856
he entered Oberlin College where he studied for a year, and in 1865 took a
commercial course at Albion. The graded schools of Bangor, Bay County, were
under his charge in 1866 and 1867, and the succeeding fall he purchased the farm
on section 19, Fenton Township, where he now resides, and which has since been
his home with the exception of three years which he spent in Holly, Oakland
County, in the produce business.

  Frances M. Nichols, daughter of James B. Nichols, of New York, became the wife
of Mr. Pierson in 1866. This lady received her higher education in the High
School of Albion and also studied in the Commercial College there and afterward
taught for several terms. They have never been blessed with children of their
own and after living in solitude for over twenty years they in 1887 took a
family of four children whose parents had both died and whose father, James C.
Nichols, was a brother of Mrs. Pierson. At the time of their adoption the eldest
was nine years old and the youngest, four.

  Mr. Pierson has taken an active part in local Democratic movements, being
influential in county, District and State conventions although he has never
aspired to any official position. He is a member of the Linden School Board of
which he has been its President for several years and has taken an active
interest in all educational movements. For several years he has been a member of
the Village Council and is now its President and has been School Inspector of
the township. His fine tract of one hundred and eighty acres lies inside the
corporation of Linden. He has bought and shipped a great deal of stock to
Detroit and Buffalo, and has given some attention to shipping produce but not
extensively. He began life with limited means and worked his own way to attain a
good education. He has been the local correspondent for the Flint Democrat
Besides his property in Linden, he has also fifty-three acres in Atlas Township.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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