Nathan Pierce Jr.

Nathan Pierce Jr. was born in 1840 in Wayne County, New York, the son of Nathan Sr.

Nathan Jr. left New York, eventually settling in western Michigan by 1860 when he was a miller living with and/or working for “Squire” Wilder in Lyons, Ionia County.

Nathan stood 5’9” with black eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 21 years old and probably living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. He was discharged September 30, 1861, for chronic endocarditis at Arlington, Virginia.

After he was discharged from the army Nathan returned to West Michigan -- he listed Lyons as his mailing address on his discharge paper.

He was married to Harriet A.

He was a widower (his wife had died of dropsy in 1870 in Lyons) working as a lumberman and residing in Muskegon, Muskegon County when he married Mary Ann Cope (b. in Canada, 1859-1929) on April 1 or 2, 1879 in Muskegon, and they had at least two children, Ella May (b. 1884?) Jennie L. (b. 1887).

Nathan was working as the Chicago agent for the firm of Sirvet, Canfield & Co., when he died on December 17, 1889, at Marinette, Wisconsin. He was buried in Forest Home cemetery in Marinette.

In 1877 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 442,472). In 1903 one of his daughters, Jennie applied for and received a minor child pension (no. 462,432).

By 1892 his widow Mary was living at Box 248 in Muskegon. She eventually remarried in 1897 to James Naracong and was subsequently dropped from the pension rolls in 1897 because of her remarriage. However, after James died in 1899 in Sheep Camp, Alaska, Mary was eventually restored to the pension rolls. By 1917 she was living with her daughter Ella at 1624 Great Highway in San Francisco, California; she was still living on Great Highway in 1929, drawing $30.00 per month on her widow’s pension.