"Mr. Pickett's estate was appraised at £1,140. This was sufficient to rank him, at that period, as one of the wealthiest merchants of the place."

Died at sea unmarried.

Valson Pickett, was born August 16, 1814, and the mother, Eliza Ann Thorn was born April 4, 1815. Valson Pickett was the son of David and Phebe (Townsend) Pickett, who were married December 28, 1811. David Pickett was a soldier in the War of 1812. Mrs. Noyes' great grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution.

Valson Pickett was a member of Co. D., 27th Michigan Infantry and was in most of the engagements of his regiment, was also in the commissary department. He contracted typhoid fever and was in the hospital at David Island, New York, and from there sent to Detroit, where he served as nurse in a hospital until discharged. Mr. Pickett came to Michigan in 1857, settled in Plainfield, Livingston county and worked out one year. In 1858 he commenced working a farm on shares and continued at this until 1861 when he enlisted, at which time he moved his family to Stockbridge village. Mrs. Pickett bought a small piece of ground and a house before the husband's return from the war and afterward the family lived on this place until 1872. At this time Mr. Pickett bought two hundred and forty acres on section 18, Stockbridge township. He improved about twenty-five acres and in 1883 traded the farm for village property in Stockbridge, where he moved and lived until his death, March 3, 1888, while the mother passed away October 23, 1886. Mrs. Noyes was the fourth of six children, three of whom are living: Phebe J., October 24, 1836, died February 28, 1847; Betsey M., born October 28, 1838, is single and lives with our subject and wife; Arvilla, March 31, 1841, married Obadiah Force, May 2, 1866, she died September, 1899, they were the parents of three children: Clara (dead); William and Frederick (dead).

Unmarried.

The subject of the sketch to which the attention of the reader is now directed is one of the leading business men of Little Sioux, Iowa, well and widely known throughout this section. The career of Mr. Pierce clearly demonstrates that perseverance, industry and sterling worth are sure to win conspicuous recognition. He is a man of vigorous mentality and strong moral fiber, possessing that genuine friendliness which is a necessary asset for one who caters to the public's need in any way. Mr. Pierce is an excellent example of a successful, self-made man and is eminently deserving of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow-citizens.

Harmon L. Pierce was born on December 18, 1852, in Iowa county, Wisconsin, a son of Philetus and Louisa (NOYES) Pierce, natives of Illinois and Ohio, respectively, who, shortly after their marriage, became pioneers in Wisconsin, being among the very earliest settlers of their locality. They remained there until 1860 when they removed to this state, locating at Little Sioux in this county and owning and operating a valuable farm located about four miles southwest of the town mentioned. Harmon L. Pierce was one of a family of fifteen children, being the second in order of birth, and he remained under the parental roof until the time of his marriage at the age of twenty. He put in several years at farm labor, hiring out by the month to farmers in the vicinity of Little Sioux, but he later mastered the carpenter's trade, at which he worked until 1885. Several of the store buildings in Little Sioux show evidences of his skill and he later did much work in the contracting line. Among the examples of his work in this connection are three school buildings in Jackson township, for the building and remodeling of which he was awarded the contracts. Among the finer residences to which he gave his attention is that of Judge Whiting, located in Monroe county, at which place he worked for seven months. In 1885 he discontinued his work as a carpenter, and went into the pump and windmill business and succeeded so well in this undertaking that three years later he felt justified in adding a line of farm implements. Again, in 1900, he branched out and in addition to the business then in operation, he put in a stock of hardware and opened up a tin shop, adding a five hundred dollar stock in this latter line. His business has steadily increased, owing to his excellent management and his manner of dealing with patrons; other lines have been added and at the present time he carries between four and five thousand dollars in his enterprise.

Mr. Pierce's marriage took place on December 25, 1872, when he led to the altar Laura M. FARBER, born in Illinois on May 30, 1853, a daughter of George and Sarah (WELSH) Farber, one of a family of eight children, the family having come to this county in 1870. To Harmon L. and Laura M. (Farber) Pierce have been born two daughters, Sadie M. and Jessie M. The former is the wife of N. J. Bryan and is the mother of three children, Vera, Pearl and Kenneth. The family resides in Little Sioux. Jessie M. is Mrs. H. D. Hollins and resides in Sioux City. She has one child, Loren Dale. The family always has been considered among the leading people of the town and each member in his or her own way has raised higher the standard of right and proper living.

In addition to his established business in town, Mr. Pierce is engaged in an unusual venture in which he is highly successful. This is his pigeon ranch, the only one in the county. He raises squabs for the market and ships annually to Chicago from eight to eight and a half thousand. He has all full-blood birds of the Homer and Carneaux breeds and while he has not been selling his birds for breeding purposes heretofore, he expects to do so in the future, owing to the fact that he has been paying considerable attention to this phase of the business. At the present time he has from eighteen hundred to two thousand birds and has so mastered the various ends of the business, that he is finding it a most interesting and lucrative investment.

Mr. Pierce holds his fraternal affiliations with the ancient order of Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and both Mr. and Mrs. Pierce are active members of the Daughters of Rebekah. Mr. Pierce takes more than a passive interest in the workings of his fraternal orders and has in his time filled the chairs in both the Masonic and Odd Fellow bodies. Politically, he is aligned with the Republican party and while not an active politician, he takes a keen interest in party affairs and has been a member of the town council for a number of years.

Mr. Pierce owns his own town property, a comfortable and hospitable home, located in the south part of town and is also a stockholder and director of the Little Sioux Savings Bank. Mr. Pierce is descended from sterling English and German stock and has combined in his personality many of the admirable traits of both nationalities. The best of his life he has given to his home and business interests, but he has not been so wholly engrossed in these laudable pursuits as to preclude the proper discharge of the duties devolving upon him as the citizen of a great commonwealth, and has in his place met the obligations falling upon him. His is the wholesome, well-balanced life found in its fullest flower in this great land of ours and which in the aggregate forms the solid foundation of the nation's prosperity and peace.

Lanson and Mary Pierce had five children. They emigrated west from New York, locating in Illinois or what was then known as the Western frontier. He followed farming and was a sawyer by trade.

He lived in Illinois until nineteen years of age, during which time he attended school and labored on the farm. He was a staunch Republican.

Aug.22,1796, Samuel Peirce, in a fair, round handwriting, receipts a bill against the "Baptist Meetinghouse Committee," for £1, 8, 0, for making 8 window-frames; another in the same year for himself and Solomon Raynes, for windows, £3, 14, 11.

She was sister-in-law of the wife of the celebrated divine, Jonathan Edwards.

She was born in Woodland, Maine as the township was later called. At the
time
of her birth, it was called "Number Fourteen". She learned dress making
and
for a time had a room at the parsonage (Baptist) which served as a shop
for
her and another young woman. Later, she went to Lowell, Massachusetts and
secured a position with one of the fashionable dress makers. The pay was
small and the work exacting, and she sought other work. Aunt Ellen Getz
offered her what seemed a better opening in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, but
this
too had some drawbacks and she returned to Lowell, at last finding work
in a
factory for women's underwear. In such a factory she worked until
September
1904 when she married Rev. C. R. Upton, then pstor of the Baptist Church
at
North Conway, New Hampshire. A woman of exceptionally good disposition,
patient with the foibles of others, and helpful in all places. In 1927,
while
living in Guilford, New Hampshire, she suffered an attack of Angina
Pectoris
and although she rallied from the attack, she never regained her full
powers.
She died in Raymond, New Hampshire near the village of East Candia and is
buried in the Edson Cemetary, Lowell, Massachusetts in the Upton plot.

He is a self-made man, and early displayed the same business energy and courage of his father. Before he was of age he bought out his father's store and carried on the business for himself. At the time of Isaac Pike's death the whetstone business was in a very unsatisfactory conidition, and the estate being very much entangled, Mr. Pike, at the earnest solicitation of the mother and family, consented to act as administrator of the property, and by careful and wise management he succeeded in unraveling the entanglement, and settling the estate. Although his plans had been formed to engage in business in the city, he now abandoned his purpose and entered into the business of his father. At that time the whetstone business was comparatively limited, but by great energy and industry it has now (1888) grown to be one of the most extensive plants in the state. Mr. Pike has been an earnest, indefatigable worker, and by close attention to his affairs, careful and prudent direction of his plans, and punctuality and integrity he has risen from a meagre beginning, and in the course of twenty-five years of his business life finds himself one of the most successful business men of the state. He has a sound and trustworthy business judgment. He is president of the A. F. Pike Manufacturing Company, and one of its principal owners. He resides at Pike Station, in a beautiful and sightly home which looks to the east on one of the finest scenes in all this region, having for the fore-ground the charming valley through which the Oliverian winds, with the foot-hills of Benton beyond, and back of these the grand outlines of Moosilauke.

Mr. Pike married Ellen M. Hutchins, and has a family of five children living, and he owes much to a thoughtful and faithful wife for the large measure of his success. He takes a deep interest in all matters of public concernment, and is a generous and public-spirited citizen. He is a trustee of Haverhill Academy, and a liberal supporter of the church. In looks he resembles his father, dark complexion, black eyes and hair, stocky in build, square shouldered, strong and firm mouth, full head, the whole man in his physique indicating energy and force of character. He is a most kindly and genial man, and hospitable in his home, still in the prime of life, turned a little of fifty-three years.

Twin to Amy. Died at birth.

Twin to Amasa. Died the day after her first birthday.

Most of her life was spent in Caribou and there she died and is buried. When 18 or 19 years old, she went to Lowell, Masschusetts and worked for a time in one of the factories. Later she worked in Wakefield. Soon after returning to Caribou, she was married to John Jacobs. They owned and carried on a large potato farm until he died 35 or 36 years old. She tried to carry on the place with hired help, but after a short time she married George Lawson. The uncertanties of the crops and other complications which they could not control brought them into financial difficulties and it is propable that this trouble brought on the heart attack from which she died. The farm was foreclosed on the same day she died, 10 April 1924. Of this marriage the first child, a daughter, was stillborn.

Married and had a family.

Lived at Unity, N.H. where he deeded land in 1800, 1805 and 1806.

Twin to Bret

He served in the Revolutionary War.

Lived in Amherst, Mt. Vernon, NH; and Burlington or Montpelier, VT.

Lived in Boston, MA - no children.

From the Pike Family History Records by Miriam Enid Pike Howard. "Benjamin Franklin Pike and Harriet lived in New Sharon, ME on the left side of the old road as it swings left at the top of the hill going toward Mercer. There was a story that he had quarrelled with a man who lived across the road. He was arrested and fined $10.00. After paying the fine he said, "Cheap Enough". He is buried in New Sharon, ME. A White Marble stone about 6 (Correction Block 8- Lot 5 - from the cemetery Map seen be me on 21 Sept. 1999. REP - [Picture of stone in Scrapbook] ) lots from the road, near a tall, square shaft with a flat top. Harriet went to live in Augusta after his death, after being a housekeeper for Captain Thatcher in Mercer for awhile. In Augusta she kept house for Charlie Cobb, a barber, and his son Archie. She is buried in Maple Cemetery at Winthrop, ME in the center of town.
[See also gravestone pictures of 1994 from Maple Cemetery, Winthrop, ME. "Benjamin Franklin Pike, 1809-1848]REP Note: While his name is on the stone in Winthrop I believe that he is buried in New Sharon, Maine with his two infant children. On Tuesday September 21, 1999, I, Roy Escott Pike, found the gravesite and stone of Benjamin Pike. It is a large White Marble stone which gives the date and says "Benjamin Franklin Pike. I have taken a picture on September 23rd and put it in the FTM Scrapbook. REP
I (REP) have in my collection of Genealogy materials a small book called "Juvenile Instructor", that has the following inscription in the front, "The property of Benjamin F. Pike of Sommersworth - Steal not this book, for fear of shame, for here you will, find the owners name."
In the back of the book is his name written again, "Benjamin F. Pike- Property - Boston."
There are no dates in the book but I have deduced from the information about the number of states in one of the articles that the date is between 1796 and 1812.

Bennett resembled Henry Clay in person. He was tall and spare and remained spare all his life; but spare as he was, he was the champion wrestler of all the country around in his youth, and many stories of his prowess are yet extant. He was a bright, nimble witted man, intellectually superior to every other man in the settlement, Deacon Jewett and Elder Remick not excepted. He was thrifty , too, and became the most wealthy farmer in town, albeit "Squire Pease and Cotton Lincoln" had more of this world's goods. I remember him as a pleasant old gentleman in a swallow-tail blue coat with bright buttons, the collar of the coat coming well up to the top of his head and with a huge puff on each shoulder as the fashion once was. A rare man was Bennett. He died in old age, and now sleeps in the little graveyard at the mouth of the road.

In 1787 - 99 years ago - he married Dolly Morrill, of Epping, and had one son. He then married Hannah Brasbree, the step-daughter of Eben Barker, who when a child was being led to church by her widowed mother at the time Eben fell in love, as I wrote in the sketch of that good man. I will not say that Bennett's second wife was the best brained woman ever raised in Maine , but I will say she was one of the rarest of her sex. Books and newspapers were not common in those days, but she managed to get a fair supply from which she informed herself and then informed her husband, and Bennett would never have been the man he undoubtedly was but for his noble power behind the throne which was greater than the throne itself. Intellectually this couple were not only superior but vastly superior to any other married couple in the little town, and of the two Aunt Bennett possessed the best brains.

Thus we find among Bennet's descendants eight lawyers: Bennett, Ezra, Nathaniel, Edwin, Bennett, Vinton, Alvin and Jack; also two other graduates: Dr. William and his son, Frederick. The entire balance of the town has not turned out as many scholars, and I think not as many graduates. The would-have-been great men of the family, had they lived, were the second Bennett and Ezra. The great scholars were Ezra, Judge Bennett and Martha. The histrionic one was Jack. [Lauriston Ward Small writes, supplied by Robert Taylor].

BLANCHE HAZEL (PIKE) MORGAN
1889-1964
by Dorothy Hazel (Morgan) Barnes
Blanche Hazel Pike was born 27 April 1889, the tenth child of Hiram Pike, Jr., and the fourth child by his second wife, Clara Alice (Merritt) Pike.
She was nicknamed "Bunch" and "Bunny" by her family and friends while growing up, although in my lifetime I only heard her called "Blanche". She grew to be 5Ƌ" tall and must have been very slim at the time of her marriage since she had a waist measurement of twenty-one inches. By the time she reached her late forties she weighed approximately 170 pounds.
From hearing my mother, Blanche Pike Morgan reminisce through the years, I'm sure life was hard for the whole family from childhood. She told of winters when the snow sifted through cracks around the windows and onto the beds as they slept in the home on the Washburn Road (Noble Farm). She also told of how they carried water in pails from the Caribou Stream, some one hundred yards from the house, , to be heated on the cook stove in a "boiler" or tub for washing clothes, cooking baths and all other purposes. She told how they walked from that home to school in what is now the Sincock School--probably two and one-half to three miles, sometimes arriving with sodden clothes. She told of having to stand in the corner by the stove for being late for school and feeling so sick from the heat and the smell of wet clothes.
My heart always aches a little for a little girl of 13 years left with the responsibility of cooking and cleaning for a family. She told me of scrubbing bare pine floors until they came white and clean and how bad she always felt when "the boys would come in with muddy feet" getting them dirty again. She told us of her inexperienced cooking and of how her father coming home from his work tasted and seasoned the food, and of doing the family wash by hand.
Apparently theirs was always an industrious family, because Mother told of their digging dandelion greens, a spring delicacy in this area, and selling them from door to door to the townspeople. She always chuckled when she told us of how they would wash them well in the Caribou Stream, thus keeping them crisp and filling their containers which would have held more greans if they had wilted. They also picked wild berries and she told of asking her father to "make Jennie help pick" but that Jennie was the baby and wasn't required to help. When Uncle Charles Pike came to visit our home in 1937 after being gone for many years, he remarked upon that fact and said how unfair they had been in giving all their loving attention to the baby without appreciation for Blanche's heavy burden. Knowing her sweet and loving nature, I cannot believe that my Mother ever showed or even felt any jealousy over that fact although she surely must have been very discouraged at times.
I suppose her school days ended when she took over as homemaker because her formal education ended with the eighth grade. However, her education never stopped. She was a prodigious reader and very interested in what was going on in the world.
I'm sure they must have been a loving family, because as they all grew older we could feel their affection and concern for one another. I also think they were happy people although their amusements were simple. Mother always took part in church activities and probably that is where most of their social life was spent although she did tell of skating on the Aroostook River and of having "box socials", probably in a schoolhouse.
After her father Hiram died, Blanche went to Lowell, Massachusetts to work in a garment factory making underwear. The hours were from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and she told of how tiring the days were spent at the sewing machine. During this time she lived with a family named Fisher with whom Annie her sister had also lived.Apparently she was treated as one of the family because she always spoke of them all as close and loved friends. She also worshiped with them at their church.
After about a year spent in Lowell, Blanche returned to Caribou and married Clyde Morgan on 26 October 1910. Clyde worked for his father, George Melvin Morgan, in the furniture store and as an embalmer and undertaker. They lived with Clyde's parents on Sweden Street in Caribou for the first two years of their married life and produced Regna Louise on 11 June 1911. They then built a house on Washburn Street with the Aroostook Valley Railroad tracks running nearly parallel with the house. Arline Blanche was born in that house on 13 June 1913. It was from that fenced-in yard on 24 May 1915, that Arline either walked through an unclosed gate or under a gap in the fence and onto those railroad tracks to be run over by the train and maimed for life. There followed a terrifying and anxious time spent tending a small paralyzed body at home and finally in Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine before they brought their baby home to learn again to walk in high laced shoes--the left one stuffed with padding in place of toes and a left hand with only one finger and thumb. After this trying time, they brought suit against the Aroostook Valley Railroad and after hearing that the brakeman and the engineer had been angry at each other and not speaking so the brakeman didn't tell the engineer he could see something on the track, they received judgement--the princely sum of $4,500.
Washburn Street was no home for them now so they built another house on Page Avenue which was home to all of us until her death. In that house I was born, Dorothy Hazel on 8 June 1919; Ruth Avis on 22 August 1921 and Marjorie Lillian on 24 January 1925.
I believe that where my mother was, was also home to her brothers and sisters and why wouldn't it have been, since she had been like a mother to them most of her life. My earliest memories were of Aunt Annie Pike Jacobs being in our home and when Aunt Annie died it really became home for Hollis Jacobs who at the age of 11 came to live with us. He lived with us the next five or six years sharing our life as the brother we never had through the lean depression years when another child to feed and clothe must have made things a little harder for my parents. I'm sure they never begrudged anything they gave to anyone. I remember the summer months through the 1930's when men and boys from all parts of the country followed the harvest hoping for work. Many times Mother fed them on the back porch of our home, sometimes as payment for odd jobs but more often because they were hungary. She would say, "I feel so sorry for that boy, so far from home and with nothing to eat."
Alda and Clara Jacobs also considered our home their home after their mother's death since they no longer had a home of their own. They would find work for awhile or spend time with Uncle William Pike's family or Aunt Jennie Farley's or some of the Jacobs family but seemed to gravitate toward our home.
Through our growing years we had many who stayed with us. Some girls from New Sweden who boarded with us while they went to high school (one paid board--$3 per week). Earl Robinson also stayed with us and went to school one year although I do not know the circumstances that brought him.
It seems there was love enough to go around because through the years they all came back to visit and were always greeted with joy and affection.
Mother's sincere religious beliefs showed in her daily life and the love she had for her family and friends flowed back to her. To me it shows in one little way--her neices, Alda Blanche Jacobs, Shirley Blanche Pike, Blanche Lillian Pike, my sister Arline Blanche (surely my father's doing), and her granddaughter, Coralie Blanche Todd.
Blanche and Clyde Morgan were members of the Free Baptist Church and when that church united with the First Baptist Church they became members of Caribou's United Baptist Church. Blanche was one of the members honored during the laying of the Cornerstone of their new edifice on High Street in Caribou during the 1950s. Many times I walked past her bedroom door as she knelt by her bed to pray before retiring. I can still see her in her long nightgown and her dark hair in a long braid down her back.
Blanche suffered her first heart attack in 1943 but recovered after a long period of tender nursing by her daughter Ruth, to carry on a fairly active life for the next ten or fifteen years. Through the late 1950s and until her death she had several smaller attacks and a slight stroke. Her indomitable spirit survived her loss of many loved ones through those years but when she lost her beloved Clyde on 22 November 1962, she seemed to lose interest in living. I joined her for lunch nearly every work day since my work as Clerk of Court is almost across the street in the County Courthouse. It seemed to me that as I ate with her in hopes to encourage her to eat, I gained weight and she got thinner. We, her daughters, asked her if she ever thought we'd call her "Littla Mama". Another heart attack came in March of 1964. Seemingly, she had recovered and her doctor had told her she could be discharged from the hospital on 6 April 1964, which was a Sunday. Thoughtful of others as she always was, she told him she would wait until Monday when her housekeeper would be back and we, her children, would not have to leave our homes to spend the night with her. She died that night while still in the hospital--6 April 1964.