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Author: Peirce, Thomas

Biography:

PEIRCE, Thomas (1786-1850: WBIS)

Peirce's parents, Priscilla and Caleb Peirce, were Quakers resident in Chester County PA. His father died when he was five. Thomas worked as a farm labourer but managed to stay in school until he was sixteen. He then apprenticed himself to a saddle- and harness-maker, but after five years chose to teach school instead. In 1813 he emigrated to Cincinnati and in 1815 married Elizabeth Neave, with whom he had at least five children. In partnership with his father-in-law, he prospered in business until 1822, when he decided to change course and study medicine. Just as he was about to begin practice in 1827, however, he was persuaded to return to business. He stayed in Cincinnati, becoming a valued citizen and sponsor of the arts. He had begun contributing poems and to newspapers and magazines, notably the Western Spy and Literary Cadet, soon after arriving in the city.  In 1818 a group of students at Cincinnati College formed a literary society, the Philomathic, and invited a few gentlemen to join them; Peirce was one of them. He won the Society's first prize medal for a poem, "The Muse of Hesperia," that he offered anonymously and did not acknowledge as his for more than a decade. Peirce's periodical contributions also included translations from French and Spanish. Among his occasional poems is an Ode to Science (1820) that is worthy of note but too short to be included in this bibliography. Coggeshall provides a useful biography and extensive extracts. (William Turner Coggeshall,The Poets and Poetry of the West [1860]; Appleton; ancestry.com 17 June 2020; "LiBlog" U of Cincinnati Libraries libapps.libraries.uc.edu/liblog 17 June 2020)  

 

Other Names:

  • Thomas Pierce
 

Books written (4):

Cincinnati [OH]: the Philomathic Society, 1823