Charles Franklin Pierce Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1833-1834 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CHARLES FRANKLIN PIERCE, superintendent of the Riggs Institute, 
at Flandreau, Moody county, was born in the town of Ware, Hampshire 
county, Massachusetts, on the 17th of January, 1858, and secured his 
early educational training in the public schools of his native state 
and at times assisted his father in the machine shops. In 1873 he 
accompanied his parents on their removal to Nebraska, and they settled 
on a farm near Creighton, Knox county, where his father took up 
government land and became numbered among the pioneers of that section. 
In 1876 the subject taught his first term of school and with money 
earned by teaching during the winter terms he was enabled to continue 
his own educational discipline, entering Boone Seminary, at Boone, 
Nebraska, where he prosecuted his studies for two years, after which he 
was engaged in teaching in the public schools of that state for several 
years. In 1887 Mr. Pierce entered the Indian school service as a 
teacher at the Santee Agency, Nebraska, where he soon received a 
promotion to superintendent of the school. In 1892 he was transferred 
to Oneida, Wisconsin, where he was detailed to erect buildings and 
organize a school among the Oneida Indians. In 1895 he was again 
promoted, being made disbursing officer at that place, while in 1900 he 
was transferred to his present important office as superintendent of 
the Riggs Institute at Flandreau.

	Mr. Pierce is a Republican, and has been frequently a delegate to 
county and state conventions in the different states in which he has 
resided. In 1884 he was elected superintendent of schools for Knox 
county, Nebraska, and thereafter he became editor and publisher of the 
Transcript, at Creighton, that county. He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, the order of the Eastern Star, the Knights of the 
Maccabees, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. His religious faith is 
that of the Methodist Episcopal church.

	Mr. Pierce was married to Miss Laura A. Jasmer and they have had 
five children.