Amon McMillon Pierce Family
By Frances Fox
Taken from Ye Olde Ancestors, November 14, 1991
Written permission given by the New Boston Genealogy Society
to post this information to the Bowie County TXGenWeb site.


Harm Pierce and Mandy Smith were married in Anson County, North Carolina in the early 1800's.  They had six sons born there in North Carolina:  Henry, Bill, Joel, John Madison "Matt", Andy, and Amon McMillon.  The only birth date known was Amon's and he was born in 1832.

In 1838, when Amon was six years old, Harm and Mandy Pierce decided to move to Henderson County, Tennessee.  Mandy and the children traveled in a cart pulled by a spotted horse and Harm followed in a covered wagon containing the household goods.  This was a trip across the Appalachian Mountains and more than 500 miles in length.  Seven years later Harm Pierce died and his body was taken in that same cart to the cemetery at Center Point.  Harm Pierce died in 1845.

In 1861 when the Civil War started, one of the older boys, Bill Pierce, had already moved to Arkansas.  Amon and one of his friends went down to visit and begged Bill and his family to move back to Tennessee where they thought it was safer.  Sometime during the war, Bill was killed.  He was killed by bushwhackers who came to his house one night and called him to the door.  Bill Pierce was killed at his home in Arkansas.

In Tennessee Amon and his brother Henry joined the Confederate Army.  They were together part of the four years that they served.  During this time, their mother died.  She was buried in the Barn Springs Cemetery at Reagen, Tennessee.

Amon fought in Shilo Battle two days on the Tennessee River under General Albert S Johnson, a Texas General.  General Johnson was killed in the battle.  A General Beaugard took command and the men did not like him very much and did not fight well under his leadership.  At one point Amon was captured by the Union Army and taken to Chicago, Illinois where he was treated well.  After eight months in prison, he was exchanged for Union soldiers and returned to the southern side.  This time he was in the Calvary under General Joe Wheeler who was only twenty four years old.  Amon liked him and spoke of him often.

The winters were so cold that one time Amon's feet began to freeze.  His toe nails turned black and remained that way the rest of his life.  One time he stole some hand-knitted socks off the clothes line where a woman had washed them.  He gave one pair to his brother, Henry, and another pair to his friend who had no socks under his boots.

When the Civil War was over, Amon was thirty six.  In 1866 he married Sara Jane Larue, the daughter of W C Larue.  They started their family there in Tennessee.  They had six children: Billy, Elizabeth "Lizzy", Jim Henry, Jasper, Hubert, and Robert.

In 1882 when Robert was only eleven months, they decided to move to Texas where the land was better for farming.  They boarded a train in Henderson, Tennessee bound for Bonham, Texas in Fannin County.  They spent the night in Texarkana on the depot floor.  They were advised that one person should stay awake at all times for fear of robbers.

While they lived in Fannin County, Texas, they had three more children: Ida, Walter Ray, and Glenmoore.  In 1886 three of their children died.  She did not give the cause.  Jim Henry died at age twenty one; Walter Ray was seven years old; and they lost baby Glenmoore at age eight months.  These three sons were buried in the Old Caney Cemetery near Bonham.

In 1898 they decided to buy a 100 acre farm in Bowie County, Texas.  The land was bought from T J Whaley in the Whaley Community for three dollars an acre.  Mrs Pierce and the daughter Ida came by train.  Lizzy had gotten married to Henry Waldrum.  Amon Pierce and the boys came by covered wagon.  The weather was very cold and they had sleet and snow on the way.

All the Pierce children grew up and settled here in Bowie County, Texas.  Mrs Sara Jane Larue Pierce died in 1910 and was buried on the farm at Whaley.  Amon Pierce lived to be ninety two years of age, died in 1922.  Even in his older days he liked to go barefooted, and he still had his black toe nails from the frozen feet in the Civil War.  He often walked in the yard saying, "This sure is quare, quare times."  Ida Kyles Pierce died in 1950 and Jasper "Jap" who lived in Redwater died in 1954.  Lizzy Pierce Waldrum died in 1959.  Hubert Pierce moved to California and lived a long life.  Robert Lee Pierce remained at the home place in Whaley the rest of his life and died in 1970.  Robert lee was married to Dovie Mae Young.



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