The following is a transcription of the handwritten "History of Francis & Rebecca Pierce" located at the Wells County Public Library in Bluffton, Indiana. The document is located in their genealogy section in the family files under Pierce.
The document was all in the same handwritting, and appears to have been taken from an interview of India (Pierce) Leavell.
History of Francis & Rebecca Pierce
Written 1939 by grand-daughter India Pierce Leavell whose parents were Henry E. Pierce who was born oct 10, 1833 and died July 1, 1901. He Simeathy Smelser, born April 10, 1834 and died Jan 29, 1918.
"From my earliest recollection until about years of age we lived within about one half mile of their home which was on a farm. The frame home in which they lived consisted of four large rooms with a front portico, a back porch covering the well. They must have been in their seventys when I knew them best. Their seven children were all married and had families of their own. William Hickey, a foster son resided with them until he married.
Their childrens names were Henry, Frank, Edmond, Albert, Margaret (Burr Simermans grandmother), Minerva and Elmira. Grandfather Pierce always called the children by their full name. Grandfather Pierce was a tall slender man and was rather round shouldered, and was never very strong. He had a smooth face with the exception of side burns. He was a cabinet maker by trade. He was a well educated man. He was born May 9, 1805 in New Jersey and died ____ near Greensfork in Wayne county Ind.
Grandmother Pierce' name before marriage was Rebecca Page. She was rather low (short) and not heavy. She had very black hair that never turned gray. She was a graduate of a Philadelphia Academy. She had a wonderful memory and remembered all important dates. During the Civil War she would read the war news to people who come on horse back for miles to hear the news, as they were the only ones in the neighborhood that received a newspaper. She was born in Greenbrook Pa. Aug 18, 1806.
Her own father's given name is not known, but her grandfather was Dr. John Page. She had 2 sisters and 3 brothers, one of them was John, noted detective of Richmond. She was a Graduate from a college in Philadelphia, and a great reader. She had the habit of combing her hair afresh, changing to a clean dress, and sitting, each day, down by the window - to read. She was an expert in yeast rolls and bread, and they were very fond of tea. (May have been of English origin)
Grandfather Pierce was a great reader, well informed. After their marriage, they resided in Piqua, Ohio where their first son was born Oct 10, 1833. His name was Henry Aldred Pierce. Margaret Pierce (Burr's grandmother) was born Oct 17, 1840. She was married to Wm. Henry Summers Sept 3rd, 1868. They were the parents of nine children, Lulu (Burr's mother), Park, Edwin, Gurdon, Florence, Chancey, Mina and Ira. She died Dec. 17th, 1930.
When the foster son, Wm Hickey, left them, they broke up their home and went to live with son, Albert. Soon after, they all moved to Wayne county, Indiana. India says that in all the times she was with them, she never saw either of them out of humor or speak a cross word. Francis died first, of tuberculosis. She lived a few years longer.
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At the bottom in another handwriting : Burrs Great Grandfather Abraham Summers Home place was the corner of Wells and Allen County line and 750.
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Made a DNA connection with a public match at 23andMe, Raj, who is not currently sharing genomes with me. Because we are not sharing genomes, I'm unable to compare him with others to see where we match. We share 1 segment, or 0.31% DNA and was a predicted 4th cousin. Raj was listed as my mother's predicted 3rd to 4th cousin, sharing 3 segments and 0.59% DNA.
Looking at his profile at 23andMe, there was no family tree listed, but he did list family surnames and locations, though none of them looked familiar to me.
Because he has a rather unusual name and surname (at least to my ears), I decided to see if I could "reverse engineer" a solution to seeing exactly how we were related. With the help of Google, FindAGrave and some genealogical intuition, I was able to successfully tie cousin Raj into the family tree.
Using Google, I located him listed as a survivor in his mother's obituary that had been posted to the Iowa Gen Web. Likewise, his father's obituary had also been posted to the same site. His father immigrated from India, so I made the deduction that we must be related through his mother's line.
I found the listing for his maternal grandmother's obituary that had been posted to Legacy.com and FindAGrave.com I also found his maternal grandfather listed at FindAGrave. There was not much biographical information listed at FindAGrave for his maternal grandfather, but his maternal grandmother's obituary at Legacy.com had her dying in Ft. Wayne, Indiana about 60 miles away from where I live. Armed with that information, I made an assumption that our connection came from the line of his maternal grandmother's side.
Fortunately, his maternal grandmother lived to be 101 years old and her obituary at Legacy named her parents and stated that she was a native of Ossian, which is just south of Ft. Wayne in Wells County. I remembered that I had one branch of the Pierce family that had migrated there.
Through the FindAGrave website, I was able to connect Raj's maternal great-grandfather to his maternal 2nd-great grandparents, John H. Simerman and Mary Lula Summers of Ossian, Indiana. That's when I knew we had a connection. Mary Lula Summers was in my database (though I had the surname as Sommers), the daughter of William Henry Harrison Summers (1844-1911) and Margaret P. Pierce (1840-1920).
Margaret P. Pierce was the daughter of Francis S. Pierce (1806-1881) and Rebecca Page (1806-1893) and the younger sister of my 3rd-great grandfather, Edmund G. Pierce (1837-1875). I had found the connection!
I quickly sent a note to Raj through 23andMe, and he wrote me back. We've begun exchanging information, and I've kick-started my research on these branches of the family that I previously had left blank.
Knowing that I was able to make a connection where one didn't appear possible right away makes me confident that with a little persistence and as complete of a family tree as possible, I can make connections to some of these other DNA matches at 23andMe. There are so many descendants of my 4th-great grandparents that I need to track down, as that is where many of the connections will be found.
