FIRST GENERATION

1. Samuel Pierce Sr was born on 31 Dec 1783 in Hartford Ct. Died 9 May 1864 at Brompton, Quebec

Notes from Mildred Waldron and Etta Greenlay

Here is the whole story of how the migration to Bernardston MA began and how it evolved.

We often wondered how so many of the Clifton people went to Bernardston. There were Pierces, Cairns, Tayoors, Hodgens, MacKays and Waldrons, and they accounted for a great number of people over the years. In 1881 Hugh Egbert Cairns wrote in his diary that he had shipped grass seed to Bernardston by stagecoach. this statement initiated the search for who was down there at this early date, long before his son Justin and Egbert went.

From Etta Greenlay

Samuel Pierce settled as a young man in Brompton Falls later called Greenlay, Quebec in 1797. He was born in Hartford CT Dec 31 1783, three years after the close of the American Revolution, 1780. His mother died when he was a small boy and when his father married again , his home was not a happy one. He knew very little of his relatives as his older brothers were in the war of 1775. When he was 14 years of age in the year 1797, he agreed to work for a man who was driving a herd of cattle to Canada. When they reached Stanstead Quebec he decided to start out for himself to make a living. equipped with an axe over his shoulder, dressed in blue drill cotton suit, straw hat and rough shoes, he traveled through the forest with only a blazed trail to guide him, meeting with Indians and many wild beasts, until he came to Sherbrooke Que. From there he traveled to Brompton Que. which was later known as Windsor Mills, and more recently called Greenlay. Here he took up land and decided to make his home. On the bank of the St. Francis river was a large flat, with hills back of it. He cut down trees , cleared a small piece of land and built a cabin, living on fish & game until other food could be obtained. When he wanted supplies he had to go down the St. Francis river in a canoe to Three rivers or Quebec City. There were only a few houses in Sherbrooke but other settlers came in soon bringing seed grain, stock garden seeds & implements. when he was a young man there was no way to travel but by canoe down the river. He was of United Empire loyalist Stock and took the oath of allegiance as a loyal British subject after coming to Canada and was appointed the first Captain of the Canadian militia at Brompton Que. He was a Methodist and class leader of the services held in the Pierce school house on the Brompton side of the river, the Minister coming from Melbourne.
He married Alice Coswell who was born in Littleton NH Jan 2 1791, She did not come to Canada until 1807, when there were winter roads from Stanstead to Brompton. a number of families came together, coming with Ox teams & big sleds loaded with provisions and such things as they could bring to help make a home in a new country. in passing the home of Samuel Pierce she remarked "that looks the most like home of any place of them since I came" The man said "It may be an old bachelor lives there"> They were married March 23 1809. Their first child was born July 17 1810. The baby died of small pox Aug 31 1810 and was buried in Greenlay cemetery. A head stone was placed on his grave, one of the first in the cemetery. They had a large family of fourteen children. Samuel Pierce, their fourth son taught school in the old stone school house opposite the Wales house where the railroad crosses the river below Melbourne.
Taken from the records
of Etta Greenlay
a descendant of Samuel Pierce
Mildred Waldron

From Mildred Waldron

Mildred has much the same information as Etta except she called the St. Francis River the St. Lawrence. Checking the maps I believe it really is the St Francis River.

the story continues

Samuel Pierce Sr. married Alice Caswell in 1810 and in 1816 they had a son Samuel Jr. This son Sam Jr. married Betsy Chase and moved back to the US in 1873 and after a few years they located in Bernardston, MA. Later they moved to Vernon, VT. and he died in Brattleboro, VT. at the home of his daughter Elizabeth, who was Mrs Alfred Waldron. Samuel died 30 Oct 1908 at the age of 90 yrs, 7months and 19 days. his wife Betsy Chase died Feb. 4, 1891. They had three daughters, Irene Isabell, July, 2 1842, who married Edward R Mayo and after his death Matthew Hamilton; Helen Marie 1844 - 1916 who married William H Taylor of Clifton; and Elizabeth Marietta Dec. 1, 1850-Apr 10, 1912 who married Daniel Waldron of Clifton. Daniel died of exposure after falling off the covered bridge in Bishoptown, Quebec where he was working as a carpenter in 1876. Elizabeth Pierce then married Daniel's younger brother Alfred Waldron.

Irene Isabell Pierce's husband Edward Mayo was drowned in the North River near Lennoxville shortly after the birth of his daughter Eva Melinda Feb 1 1864. Eva Mayo married Egbert E. Cairns of Clifton and they moved to Bernardston Mass in 1900. (I believe this is incorrect as I know that Eva and Egbert were living in Sidney Manitoba in 1905 and I believe they left to return to Bernardston in 1907 or 1908 before her Mother and step father and her half brothers moved to Unity Saskatchewan. From the Berndardston photo collection of Eunice Streeter Randall's mother, Ethel Cairns Streeter, came a picture of the Egbert and Eva Cairns' home in Sidney, Manitoba. They were in Bernardston at the time of her Grandfather Piecre's Funeral in W. Brattleboro in Nov 1908 where Egbert acted as one of the pall bearers.) Her mother remarried Matthew Hamilton and they lived in Clifton, Johnville, Sherbrooke, and eventually joined their many children in Sydney Manitoba and went with them to Unity Saskatchewan about 1911.

Helen Maria Pierce and her husband William H Taylor lived in Clifton near Hugh Egbert Cairns. William's mother was Mary P Waldron, and aunt of Hugh Egbert's wife Sarah Waldron, making William a cousin of Hollis and Justin Cairns. Helen and William moved to Bernardston, Mass in the fall of 1890. They had a daughter Etta who married Lewis D. Slate and a son Samuel who lived in Bernardston.

Elizabeth Marietta Pierce and Alfred Waldron lived in Clifton, Compton, and Martenville, Quebec and sometime after 1895 they moved to Bernardston, Mass later to Vernon, VT.

Justin Cairns married Hannah Taylor who was a cousin of William Taylor of CLifton. They married 1882 had a home of their own and then went to live with Hannah's widowed mother, Margaret Bennett Taylor. In 1890 they moved to Bernarston, Mass. taking Margaret with them. Some fo the other Taylor's were in Bernardston briefly. A nephew of Hannah's Watson Taylor attended Power Institute there.

Issac and Ann Magill Hodgen moved from Clifton to the states in 1895. Many of their family were in the Bernardston area. They are both burried in Bernardston. Son Joseph and his wife are burried in Greenfield, Charles in Northfield, George in Greenfiled, Alexander "Sandy" was an undertaker and funeral director in Northfield, Mass.

Abigail Cairns, daughter of Robert Cairns of Sawyerville went to Bernardston and worked for Egbert and Eva Cairns. She became a teacher there and married Leon Nelson, a cousin of Harold Streeter, making a double relationship between her large family and that of Ethel Cairns Streeter.

Agnes Cairns, aunt of Egbert and widow of John MacKay spent her last years in Bernardston, mostly with her great niece Bernice Cairns.

Egbert Cairns had well over one hundred descendants and most of them lived in Bernardston. counting all the members of the other Clifton families it makes a sizeable group who have a strong bond with both places.

He was married to Alice Caswell born 2 Jan 1791 in Littleton, VT USA (daughter of Nathan Caswell and Hannah Bingham) on 23 Mar 1809 at Brompton, Quebec. Died 5 Jan 1876 at Brompton, Quebec.

Notes from Mildred Waldron

First settler in Littleton, NH British North America, Served in Revolutionary War. Moved to Canada 1803. Died Compton, QC Alice Caswell was born on 2 Jan 1790 in Littleton NH. She died 5 Jan 1876 at Brompton, Quebec. Samuel Pierce Sr and Alice Caswell had the following children:

2 i. Erastus Pierce was born on 17 Jul 1810 in Brompton, Quebec. He died on 31 Aug 1810 in Brompton Que. He was buried on 1 Sep 1810 in Greenlay Cemetary. He died of small pox
+3 ii Asahel Pierce born 21 Dec 1811 Died 18 Jul 1831
+4 iii Nathan Pierce
+5 v Caroline Pierce
+6 vi. Samuel Pierce Jr.
+7 vii Hannah Pierce
+8 ix Collins Pierce born 2 Jan 1822 died Sept 1842
+9 x Alice Pierce
+10 xi Roswell Pierce
+11 xii Adaline Pierce
+12 xii Frederick Pierce
+13 xiii Mary Pierce
+14 xiv Lydia Pierce
+15 xv Asahel Gosford Pierce