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From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article.
Past History and Present Stage of Development of Texas
Published by The Forrister History Company
Regan Printing House, Chicago, Ill.
I. G. Forrister, Publisher
(No date given. 1912??)
James Knox Pierce was born Feb. 10, 1845, his parents naming him in honor of James Knox Polk, who had the year previous
been elected President of the United States. The scene of his birth and boyhood days was on a farm near the confluence of
the Hiawasse and Tennessee Rivers, in Meigs County, East Tennessee. Mr. Pierce worked on a farm, and went to school in
the old-fashioned log cabin in the mountains until he was seventeen years of age, when, as a mere stripling of a boy, the
civil war being on, he went to Knoxville and tendered his service to the Confederate cause in June 1862, enlisting in Co.
D, 1st East Tenn. Cav., commanded by Col. J. C. Carter. His regiment was used as scouts in the mountains of East
Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, in which rough territory they participated in, approximately two hundred engagements,
numbered among which were the Siege of Knoxville, Morristown and Rogersville, East Tennessee. In the last named battle
his brigade captured 2,000 men, artillery and all supplies. A short time before the war closed, Mr. Pierce obtained a
furlough to go home and get some clothing of which he was in dire need, and being cut off, peace was declared before he
was able to rejoin his command.
In 1867 Mr. Pierce turned his face to the setting sun of the West. Traveling by steamboat to Arkansas, DuVall’s Bluff,
hence by rail to Little Rock, thence on foot twenty-five miles to Saline county, where he planted a crop in the early
spring of 1868. However, he soon disposed of said crop, purchased a horse, saddle and bridle, and arrived in Hopkins
county soon afterwards, in the spring of 1868 (sic.) When he came to Sulphur Springs he found one hundred Yankees in
control of the place, intimidating and murdering its citizens at will. Mr. Pierce and a small coterie of brave citizens
met at Old Tarrant, then the county seat, to join Farr’s company and assist in carrying out a program on a given day to
massacre these riotous one hundred Yankees. The Yankees afterwards learned of this movement, minimized their dastardly
work, and the more sober-minded citizens advised against their destruction pending their proper behavior, and they soon
afterwards moved their headquarters from this place. A few months after this episode began the uprising of the Comanche
Indians, and Gov. E. J. Davis (carpetbagger) ordered the state militia to form for their suppression. Armed with
commissions from the Governor, Mr. Pierce, Capt. Joe Bartley and "Doc" McFall raised in independent company of soldiers
in Hopkins county, but the same was never called into active service. Acting under orders and with seven men under him,
well armed with shotguns and six-shooters, Mr. Pierce on horseback, set out with an ox wagon train to convey commissary
supples from Jefferson to Jacksboro, the army fort. It was the understanding that soldiers would meet him fifty miles
east of the fort to guard the train. Ten miles before reaching this point, to his surprise, he came in contract with the
Indians. Preparing for defense to the best of their ability, while he and his men were awaiting the Indians to attack,
again to their surprise firing was heard a short distance away, which later proved to be a company of cowboys following
the trail of the Indians. The cowboys rushed unto the Indians yelling, and repulsed them with a loss of one killed and
sixty head of horses.
Returning to Hopkins county, Mr. Pierce, as he states, settled on the poorest farm he could find, and was married Feb.
15, 1871, to Miss Belle Wallar, daughter of A. W. Wallar, an old and honored Texan, who came from Kentucky and settled
here in 1853. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, having no children in their home, took into their charge for rearing and educating an
orphan girl, Miss Beaulah Brannom, who is now the wife of Prof. Oscar L. Guy, in charge of public schools at Italy, Ellis
County. Throughout the intervening years Mr. Pierce has been unusually successful in farming, stock-raising and
speculating in land, with the result that he is today in a position of affluence and ease, owns about 3,000 acres of
Hopkins county’s choicest farming soil and pasturage lands, and is probably the largest taxpayer in the county, besides
owning highly improved town property at this and other points. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant faith.
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