Hiram B. Bierce Biography


	This biography appears on pages 37-38 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				HIRAM B. BIERCE. 

	Hiram B. Bierce is president of the Volin State Bank and an 
enterprising, alert and wide-awake citizen who has contributed in 
substantial measure to the upbuilding and advancement of the town and 
county in which he lives. He first came to Dakota in September, 1876, 
to look over the country. He then returned to Iowa, but again came here 
in July, 1877, and has since been a resident of this state. He was born 
in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in 1854, a son of Watson and Emily 
(Ward) Bierce, who in 1865 left their home in the Keystone state and 
removed westward to Iowa. In 1881 they joined their son, Hiram B. 
Bierce in Dakota. The father died in Clay county, South Dakota, while 
the mother passed away in Brule county, this state. 

	Following his arrival in Dakota territory, Hiram B. Bierce rented 
land and in that way continued to engage in farming for a decade, 
during which period he carefully saved his earnings. At the end of that 
time he bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 16, 
Bethel township, Clay county, where he established his home, and as the 
years passed his careful management of his business affairs and his 
practical methods of developing his farm won him a substantial measure 
of prosperity. He continued to reside thereon until 1909. He sold the 
property in that year and the following year removed to Volin, where he 
has since made his home. He had become interested in the Volin State 
Bank upon its organization in 1902 and has since been identified 
therewith, advancing with the institution until he is now president of 
the bank. He bends his energies toward its further development and the 
extension of its business relations and he has made it a strong 
financial concern. 

	During the period of his residence in this state Mr. Bierce has 
won substantial success, yet all days have not been equally bright. In 
1878 he had a crop of early wheat devoured by grasshoppers, but later 
he plowed the land and raised a crop of corn on it in the same year. 
Other difficulties had to be encountered, but perseverance and 
determination enabled him to overcome the obstacles in his path and 
gradually he advanced toward the goal of success. 

	In 1882 in Parker, South Dakota, Mr. Bierce was united in 
marriage to Miss Cynthia Echelberry, a daughter of Abraham and Emily 
(Atwood) Echelberry, natives of Ohio and Virginia respectively. Their 
children were born during the period of their residence in Ohio. Their 
son John was the first of the family to come to Dakota, arriving about 
1870, removing from Illinois to this state. He drove across the country 
with teams, being forty one days upon the way. A married sister 
followed the next year. John Echelberry afterward returned to Ohio, 
and, accompanied by his brothers, Joseph and Louis, again drove to 
Dakota, settling in Clay county at a period when the work of progress 
and development seemed scarcely begun there. During the flood of March 
and April, 1881, the parents of Mrs. Bierce lived on the bluffs at the 
edge of the high water and gave refuge to many who deaf from the 
flooded bottom lands. They were just removing to Dakota at that time 
and their furniture was still in the freight house at Vermillion. The 
high water lifted that freight house from its foundation and carried it 
down stream. The railroad lost many rods of its rails and the ties were 
washed from the roadbed and distributed along the bluffs. Mrs. Bierce's 
brother and sister who came in the early '70s lost many crops through 
drought and grasshoppers. One year in the '70s her sister brushed the 
snow from the vines in the garden and gathered a mess of peas on the 
12th of April, a deep snow having fallen so late in the season. Mr. 
Bierce, too, has many recollections of the early days which were 
fraught with hardships, privations and trials. In the blizzard, which 
occurred on the 12th of January, 1888, he had started to town on 
horseback. With the increasing severity of the storm he turned back, 
but could not get through on his horse and left it two miles from his 
home, making the remainder of the distance on foot. The snow was so 
deep along the hills that he sank in to his waist and knew he must try 
some other expedient than walking, so he lay down and rolled up hill 
until he reached solid ground. He feared that the supply of wood was 
not enough to keep his wife warm and returned in order that he might 
help her to be comfortable through the storm. Mrs. Bierce, however, did 
not realize the severity of the blizzard and was not worrying in the 
least. 

	Mr. Bierce is a republican in his political views, giving 
unfaltering allegiance to the principles of the party, yet never 
seeking nor desiring office as a reward for his fealty. He ranks high 
in Masonry, holding membership in the lodge and chapter at Vermillion, 
in the consistory at Yankton, in which he has attained the thirty-
second degree of the Scottish Rite, and in the Mystic Shrine at Sioux 
Falls. If e exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the craft, 
which is based upon a recognition of the brotherhood of mankind and the 
obligations thereby entailed.