Charles Curtis Pierce.
Embracing in his ancestry distinguished names, both in the patronymic and the given appellations, and inheriting from his immediate parentage the firmness of fiber and personal heroism that characterizes the people of Kentucky at their best, Charles Curtis Pierce, one of the leading farmers and influential citizens of Morrow township, Macon county, has well sustained the reputation and traditions of his family and made his record creditable alike to the state of his nativity and that of his adoption.
Mr. Pierce was born on January 1, 1842, in Marion county, Kentucky, and is a grandson of Jacob Pierce, a native of that state and a man of prominence in its industrial, civil and political history. His son, Thomas Jefferson Pierce, the father of Charles C, was born in Marion county, Kentucky, in 1806, and was reared and educated in that county. He was also married there to Miss Martha Hart, a native of Mercer county, the marriage occurring in 1835. After passing a number of years of his mature life in Marion county, the father moved what family he had left with him to Daviess county in the same state, and there he died in 1851, passing away at Owensboro at the early age of forty-five. He was a physician and farmer. He and his wife were the parents of three children: A son named Thomas Benton, who died; and Ellen, the widow of T. C. Johnson, who is now residing at Billings, Montana, and Charles Curtis, the immediate subject of this writing, who are living.
The last named obtained a good education at a select school in Greenville, Muhlenberg county, Kentucky, and on completing it came to Missouri to make what was then the farther West his home and grow to greater consequence with its development. He located in Randolph county and during the next four years taught school there. At the end of the period mentioned he moved to Macon county and became a farmer, but still continued to teach in the winter terms of school until 1876, when he gave up the professional line of his activity, and since then he has devoted himself wholly to the industrial line. He has been very successful in his operations in both farming and raising live stock, and is regarded as one of the most progressive and substantial men in the township of his residence. His fine farm comprises 160 acres of laud, is well improved with commodious and comfortable buildings and has been provided with all the appliances necessary for its progressive and profitable cultivation. The stock industry that is carried on in connection with the farming operations is an active and flourishing one, and, as it is managed with skill and intelligence, it yields gratifying returns for the labor and care bestowed upon it.
Mr. Pierce has taken a very active and helpful part in the public affairs of the township in which he lives. He has served as a justice of the peace for upwards of sixteen years, and as a member of the school board equally as long. In matters affecting the progress and enduring welfare of the county he has been an active and effective factor. His church affiliation is with the sect known as Christians, while his present wife is a Baptist. She is a native of Macon county and was a widow when their marriage occurred in 1905, being Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Epperly.
Mr. Pierce’s first marriage was with Miss Nancy L. Summers, a daughter of Joseph and Martha Summers, esteemed residents of Macon county, in which she was born. They had four children and all of them are living: Rosa J., the wife of W. A. Hart, of Macon county; Lulu M., the wife of C. A. Dunkard, of Lewiston, Montana; Mittie, the wife of John Miller, of Macon county, Missouri, and Charles A., who also resides at Lewiston, Montana. The father is a Democrat and at all times zealous and effective in the service of his party.
Source: General History of Macon County Missouri, Henry Taylor & Company, Chicago, 1910