The Pierce Family - Chapter 1

100 Years of the Pierce Family

Sidney Record - Enterprise, February 1954

(This history was prepared by Harold Pierce and delivered at a meeting of the Sidney Historical Association on January 22, 1954.)

 

This year, 1954, is the 100th anniversary of my father's birth William H. Pierce was born April 25th, 1854 in Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY].  His father, John Pierce, was sexton of Saint Peter's Episcopal Church in Bainbridge, a church built in 1826 and still used for worship.

In 1861, when Mr. Lincoln called for volunteers, Chenango County responded to the tune of 1,600 strong.  This was known as the 114th Regiment New York Volunteers.  Bainbridge furnished her share.  Bainbridge suffered her share of the casualties.  One of the duties of the sexton was to toll the church bell when news came that a local boy had lost his life in the war.  The bell was struck the number of the boy's age.  It was ten well spaced strokes, then a longer pause, then ten more and so on with a pause at each ten, stopping at the number of years in the soldier's age. This was an event that my dad and his older brother never missed, climbing into the belfry when their father struck the bell with a large hammer on these sad occasion.  Whether it was day or night, when they descended from the belfry and came out of the church there was always a crowd awaiting and asking, "Who did you toll for? Who is it this time?"

 

In 1866 the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, now the Delaware and Hudson, had laid its rails as far west as Bainbridge.  No trains had as yet been run.  Locomotives then were wood burning.  The A&S R.R. was building a large stock pile of wood at Bainbridge in preparation for the opening of the railroad. Bainbridge was now having great prosperity as a great many were hauling their wood to the A&S wood yard.  My father assisted his father in doing this.  Before long it was announced that the first train would run and the grand opening for the western end of the railroad would be held at Sidney Plains, which is now Sidney.  My father came to Sidney Plains for the celebration, as did nearly every one from Bainbridge and the surrounding towns.  My father afterwards lived in Sidney for 50 years, and I often heard him say that never did this village have a bigger day than when the first train went through.  The train went through decorated with flags and bunting and the orator of the day then spoke at length.  This is one thing he said:  "We have just seen the first train go through and according to the schedule of the Albany & Susquehanna railroad, they are to run one train in each direction every day from now on.  We may not see it or our children may not see it, but the day WILL come when they will run two trains each way every day."

 

My father, who heard those words, lived to see 80 or more trains pass through Sidney daily, about 40 each direction.  Between the years 1910 and 1935 that was the daily occurrence.  The freight and coal trains were then 30 to 40 cars.  The same amount of tonnage passes through now, but with greatly increased power most of the trains are from 90 to 125 cars in length. So now one train is what three trains used to be.

 

When the new railroad passenger station was completed and opened in Sidney in 1913, my dad was a member of a committee appointed by the local Chamber of Commerce to have a large sign erected across the track from the station near the rear of the present post office.  It was elevated several feet in the air and lighted at night; could be plainly read from the depot.  The sign read:  "Sidney has what you want--wants what you have.  Thirty-two passenger trains entering this station daily."  Of course half of these trains were of the New York Ontario & Western Railroad.

 

When my father was old enough to go out into the world on his own he had learned the cobbler's trade.  In those days when you needed a pair of shoes you did not go to a store and get a pair of Walk-Overs, Florsheims or Endicott-Johnsons.  You would go to a cobbler who would take your measurements and make you a pair of shoes. They, of course, repaired shoes also.  In 1875 my dad opened shop in North Sanford, Broome County, a then thriving rural community not far from Deposit.  During his three-year's stay there a man from Sidney Plains, by the name of H.C. Weller, often visited relatives in North Sanford and came into the cobbler's shop several times.  He tried to persuade my father to leave North Sanford and locate in Sidney Plains, saying there was no cobbler in Sidney Plains and that they had to go to Unadilla to have their shoes made.  He told of attractions among which was that Sidney Plains is the coming town, they have two railroads there. It all sounded so good that my father did come to Sidney Plains and looked it over.  He decided to try it.

 

To be continued