U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierce, Carleton Custer (1877-1958) --------------------------------------------------------------------- A History of Preston County West Virginia Biographical Department, Supplied by J. R. Cole Kingwood, W. Va., The Journal Publishing Company, 1914 by H. S. Whetsell Pages 706-708, COLONEL CARLETON CUSTER PIERCE. The Pierce family are Irish in descent. Their paternal ancestor was an Orangeman, and was exiled from his native land. He came to America and settled in Delaware. Colonel Carleton Custer Pierce was born in Rowlesburg October 19th, 1877. He is the son of John F. and Amanda E. Pierce, who at this time reside in Rowlesburg, as well as two brothers, Frank R. Pierce and John A. L. Pierce. A sister, Edna Pierce, died in infancy. John F. Pierce was a son of Jefferson Pierce, who died April 23rd, 1863, while serving as a member of Company E, 11th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. He was a grandson of Samuel Pierce, a Revolutionary soldier, who at the close of that war came to Preston county about 1782, from Delaware, leaving many descendants some of whom remained in this and Monongalia Counties and some went to Tennessee, to Wood County and elsewhere. John F. Pierce was born in Wood County, the home farm being some fifteen miles above Parkersburg on the Little Kanawha River. Jefferson Pierce, brother of Wesley Pierce, married Ellen Elizabeth Custer, who was a sister of Emmanuel Custer, the father of the noted cavalry leader and Indian fighter, Gen. George A. Custer. The children of this marriage, in addition to John F., were Mary E., and James L., the latter having been killed in a railway accident near Rockwood, Pennsylvania, while serving as a railway mail clerk. John F. Pierce came to Rowlesburg about 1872, and has resided there since that time. His wife was Amanda E. Moore, a daughter of George D. Moore, of near Newburg. He has served as Mayor and member of the council of Rowlesburg and for many years as member of and president of the Board of Education of Reno District, and it was largely through his careful and efficient management that the splendid new school building has been built in Rowlesburg. Colonel Pierce, the subject of this sketch, attended the public schools at Rowlesburg, working on the saw mills and at such things as came to hand until he began to teach school, his first being the Goff Ridge School in Union District. At the outbreak of the war with Spain, although just recovering from a long siege of typhoid fever, he enlisted in Company H, 2nd West Virginia Volunteer Infantry and served during the war as private, sergeant, first sergeant and First Lieutenant, being one of the youngest officers of the last grade in the 2nd Army Corps. Prior to the war he had been a student at Franklin College, Ohio, and on being mustered out of the service went to Morgantown and took the course in law at the State University. He was admitted to the bar in 1901, and located in Kingwood the following year. On November 28, 1902, he married Mary May Buckner, a daughter of Jefferson M. Buckner of Rowlesburg, and a great-granddaughter of John Anthony Buckner, who settled in Wood County in the early days, coming there from Prince William County, Virginia, where he was born in 1748. John Anthony Buckner was connected with the Lees, Fairfaxes, Fitzhughs and other prominent families of Virginia, his first wife having been a Fairfax, and was a descendant of John Buckner, who came over from England and took up large grants of land in Virginia in 1663. He was a leading citizen of Wood County for over fifty years and was one of the jury summoned at the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. In 1904 Colonel Pierce was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Preston County, which office he filled until December, 1907, when he resigned to go to Charleston as Assistant Adjutant General. While he was Prosecuting Attorney the tax laws of the State were revised and it was due to his careful and watchful work that the coal lands in the hands of the big corporations were properly assessed, thus saving to the tax-payers of the county many thousands of dollars annually. He also stopped the shipment of "C. O. D." liquor into the county and in the prosecution of liquor sellers was vigorous and relentless. While in charge of the National Guard he reorganized that force in accordance with the regulations of the regular army and built it up to a higher state of efficiency than it had ever before enjoyed. In 1910 Colonel Pierce returned to Kingwood where he has since resided. He has two sons, Carleton Custer, Jr., and Oscar Buckner Pierce, the former eight, the latter five years of age. He is largely interested in fruit growing and farming in the eastern part of the State and to this gives a great part of his time. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is active in the Sunday School, is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, the U. S. Infantry Association, the Masons, Odd Fellows, K. of P., and other fraternal societies. He is one of the Republican nominees for representative in the House of Delegates from Preston county. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Death Certificate, Preston County, WV #'50-013323 FULL-NAME: Carleton Custer Pierce BIRTH-DATE: October 19, 1877 BIRTH-PLACE: Rowlesburg, W.Va. DEATH-DATE: October 31, 1958 DEATH-PLACE: Charleston Memorial Hosp., Charleston, Kanawha County, WV MARITAL-STATUS: Widowed OCCUPATION: Attorney FATHER: John F. Pierce MOTHER: Amanda Moore CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Massive anterior myocardial infarction INFORMANT: Oscar B. Pierce, (of St. Albans, W.Va.) BURIAL: Kingwood Cemetery, Kingwood, W.Va. --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Preston County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/preston/bios.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------