PIERCE FAMILY IN MISSISSIPPI

Descendants of Randall PIERCE

(1769-1853)

"SOMEWHERE IN TIME"

"Within these pages there lies the lines of family ties, written each day of their lives with sacrifice and labor; in the hope of finding the peace and rest they so truly deserve. So, I write within the lines of these family ties, to bind our hearts and memories of families past, with all my love to future generations." Leslie Pierce Royce --- July 4, 1999.

The progenitor of the Lawrence, Lincoln and Copiah County, Mississippi branch of the PIERCE family was RANDALL PIERCE. Records indicate he was born in 1769 and died in 1853. A firm conclusion as to the birthplace and parentage of Randall, Sr., has not been determined at this time. It is believed RANDALL PIERCE moved from the Moore County, North Carolina area to Wilkes/Franklin County areas of Georgia. The earliest record of him there I have found is a witness to a deed in Wilkes County in 1788. Then again in a tax defaulters list for Burke County Georgia for 1790. Either because he hadn't paid or moved away. The family of Michal Whatley and some of his children also appear for this same time period in Early Records of Wilkes County Georgia, Vol. I & II. He married Mary/Nancy WHATLEY. They had eight children: five girls and three boys, born between 1791 and 1812. Sometime around 1812/1814 he and many others from that area in Georgia moved to Lawrence County, Mississippi.

They went by the "Three Chopped Way," to the Mississippi Territory and settled on Silver Creek in Lawrence County, Mississippi. And by this time Randall was considered an "Old Man," he was 45 years old, if they moved in 1814. His older children were all married and parents themselves, but they came together through the rough terrain and Indian country to the Mississippi Territory. Many other families came with them; the Bailey Loving family, Nathan Slay and his family & William Burt who was single. This can be proven by 'Passports Issued by Governors of GEORGIA 1810-1820; which documents the moves of Slay and Burt on 14th March 1810 and 31 March 1810. A passport was issued for these families to travel through the CREEK Nation of Indians. None show issued in the name of a Randall or John Pearce/Pierce. Census records for 1820 Lawrence County, Mississippi show Randel Pierce and his brother John Pierce.

In 1824, he deeded his two minor children Martha and James who were ages 14 and 12, their inheritance. In later years Randall & Mary moved west of the Pearl River and settled on Big Bahalia Creek, at that time located in Copiah Co., MS. He and his wife spent their last days near their daughter Mary Pierce Furr. Randall and Mary are buried in the PIERCE-FURR Cemetery just West of the Little Bahala Church, in Lincoln County, Mississippi. The photo below is one of his many grandchildren - my great-grandfather, William Randall Pierce.

William Randall Pierce

13 Oct 1844 - 20 Oct 1906

Wife: Sarah A.H. CALLENDER

1844-1890

These records reflect my research efforts of the past 25 years of our Mississippi roots...that go back to Georgia and North Carolina. My beloved grandmother, Elizabeth Matilda SAXON Pierce (1887-1985), who was born in Jefferson County, Mississippi, sparked my interest in family long ago when I was a child. My grandparents knew each other as children. They often saw each other on Sundays, when folks went to church and visited friends and family. Their families lived in close proximity to each other. She married my grandfather Francis Marion PIERCE (1884-1946), who was from Copiah County, Mississippi, in December 1903 in Jefferson County, Mississippi. They first lived with his father, the gentleman pictured above. They were "Share Croppers" and they farmed a little while with him and then they moved up on Brandywine Creek. By this time, they had three children and it became harder to support a family. In 1912 my grandfather visited Dallas, Texas with friends and family during the Texas State Fair. He saw the outside world; outside central Mississippi and it offered a better way of life for his growing family. They moved from Mississippi to FALLS County, TX. My Granny had two aunts and uncles - Joshua Saxon and his wife Emma Varnado and Wm. I. Clawson and his wife Mary Jane Saxon who had moved to Texas in 1885, also for better living and farming conditions. They worked a farm in Reagan for a while, and then they went up on "Blue Ridge." They farmed there and things were okay for a time and then when the price of cotton fell in 1914; they packed up all their belongings and headed south to Port Arthur, Tx. They travelled by train and were dropped off at the end-of-the-line one night in Nov. 1914. My grandfather rode his own horse to town to find a room for the family that night. He got a job delivering groceries with his horse, pulling a wagon. They soon found a house big enough for their growing family now, which included my father who was two months old. Jobs were in abundance there since the discovery of "OIL" at "Spindletop" a few years before. The refinery was just opening up and jobs paid "A Dollar A Day." Port Arthur was just beginning as a town, and many people began moving there.

Frank, as he was called, got that job at the Gulf Oil Refinery. He was a pumper. They bought a large house with rooms upstairs for their children to sleep and they took in boarders. Mostly family and friends from Mississippi. My grandfather was quick to know a good thing. He saw the advantage to city living rather than the scrapping for a living off the land back in Mississippi. They had a milk cow, and he got some chickens for my Granny to raise for meat and the eggs. They had a garden and they worked a good life in Texas for their growing family that ended up being 2 girls and five boys by 1925. Many were the times they went back to Mississippi to visit family and tell of their good life in the Texas oil country. His brother Corneilus Callender Pierce and his wife and girls came. Also his brother James Zach Pierce and his wife Annie Barnes and children, also from Copiah County, Ms. Some of his cousins and some of my Granny's cousins came for a short time and worked and saved their money and then went back to Mississippi. Frank worked for thirty years at the refinery; from 1915 until Dec. 1945 when he retired. Their family of 2 girls and 5 boys, all graduated from "Port Arthur High" and the youngest two sons serving their country in WWII.

I can remember in the late 1940's that my Granny would phone that someone named cousin "Jessie Frank" or cousin "Willie Neal" was visiting from Mississippi. We would go to her house to see and hear the guests. I learned many of our family surnames that way. After my grandfather, Francis Marion Pierce passed away; my father would take my grandmother back to Mississippi, so she could visit "her people." I was lucky enough to be included in a few of those wonderful trips "home." The surnames stuck with me thru the years. When I began my research of "FAMILY,"it was my grandmother, who was still alive 30 years later, who was my inspiration. A couple of years later, I was able to once again, travel to Copiah, Jefferson and Lawrence/Lincoln counties in Mississippi for a family reunion. I visited those homesteads and cemeteries and I stood on that precious ground once trod by my grandfather and grandmother and their family who came before them.

This web site has been designed to assist those of us who are related to Old RANDALL PIERCE and any other families herein. I've collected information about our family and its many branches for years and like most of you have much work yet to do! Within this database are some 3,500 or more individuals....thanks to fellow researchers like you and the ease with which the Internet allows us to exchange information. As with most labors like this, it remains a work in progress. Please accept it as such. Have fun browsing through our family trees! If you find anything here which you can add to, or is in error, please e-mail me and I will make the additions or corrections. I will be correcting and adding items as time permits...Please come back often. I hope you enjoy your visit to my family pages.

lfroyce@comcast.net

Last Updated 8 May 2006

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