Pierce - Richard Riley - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

By Karen Zach, Around the County

Thursday, November 5, 2020 4:00 AM

Several census takers have been the topic of my articles this year and today is no exception to the overall aspect. However, I've mainly featured census takers, men and women of 1900 or earlier. This fellow tallied the Wayne Township census of 1940, though.

A youngster (barely 22) compared to others in this temporary occupation, he totaled 17 pages of 211 households and like few, took advantage of the supplemental comment lines at the bottom of the page, writing extra information on several of his people. Examples: Orville Harbath he noted was a cheesemaker in a cheese factory and Sarah Murdock who was listed a stenographer in a bottle cap company. Bless him as that is much improved over “laborer.” Way to go, Richard for the thorough job well-done!

In fact, Richard Riley Pierce entered his own family of father, Virgil T., age 49, township trustee mother Gertrude (Dillard) age 46; a brother and two sisters, plus his grandmother, Mary (Tracy) Pierce, age 80. Richard was listed as an unpaid family laborer, assuming he helped with farm work as much as was physically possible.

Virgil Turvey Pierce was a rural mail carrier (and farmer) for many years, born July 24th in 1890 and passed away June 17th in 1952. At his death at the yet young age of 62 years, he was the Superintendent of the State Highway Department. Virgil and Gertrude were married in Crawfordsville by SG Smith on 11-11 in 1915, with his parents as witnesses. At least in his younger years, Virgil was quite active in presenting comedy-dramas with the Waynetown Dramatic Company and almost always had a leading role, not only presenting to local folks but travelling to the other area towns with the viewers “always getting the full worth of their money!” Virgil was the son of John Pierce and Mary Turvey, thus his middle name. At the death of Virgil’s father, Richard was about a year old, and the last thing John Pierce desired to do was see his only (more born after John’s death) grandchild. Devoted to the boy, John, a “quiet, industrious, unpretentious man,” desired to play with his adorable grandson, Richard one last time. Although I knew neither men, suspicion and details present them as two of a kind.

Virgil, on his WWI draft card information was listed as tall and medium built. His son, Richard on his WWII registration was listed at 6’3” and 190# so guessing they were built about the same. Richard had light complexion, brown eyes and brown hair. Virgil however was listed with gray eyes and black hair.

Richard was born at 3 in the morning on April 12, in 1918, to Virgil, age 27 and “Gurdie” age 24, their first child. Dr. F. D. Allhands from Wingate made the trip in to deliver him. He would later be joined by brother, John W. and sisters Mary and Fern, census taker Clarence Footitt tallying the family in 1930 when they were all together and then for the last time in 1940 when Richard himself entered the family in the federal census records. He had grown-up right there in Wayne Township, active on the Waynetown High School basketball team as well as plays like his father (his senior one “Second Childhood”) and where he was a 1936 graduate (thanks to Jan and Cassi for sending photos).

Not long after their happy last day of high school, he, Merle Sennet and a couple of others packed up the car and headed-out to California on a fun trip, kind of in honor of their graduation. Fun, probably but in the repercussions to his life, not so much! On that trip (or that is fairly sure where) he contracted tuberculosis, which eventually smothered-out his life at the young age of 38. He worked at Alcoa for a short time when he returned from California but soon found he was sick with the dreaded disease when he tried to join the service.

In the meantime, there was a lovely young lady working near her hometown of Spencer, Indiana in the Atkins Saw Company and who also contracted consumption (TB). Both these young people in order to hopefully get well, ended-up in the TB Sanitarium in Rockville, Indiana. They were in and out several times, but in the meantime, they managed to fall in love, and marry on July 14, 1943 in Bloomington. She was the daughter of Isom and Nellie Meadows McGuire. To top off their marriage, they became parents to two fine sons, Jay and Steve who were basically raised by Richard’s mother. They lived north of Waynetown on a farm and the boys were wonderful help to Gertrude.

An interesting item that popped-up in my research was that Richard created hand-made jewelry and sold from his home. Love to have a piece of that! This was something he could do though, and I admire his stamina to persevere even with such physical problems. As is logical for youngsters, the sons didn’t like visiting the sanitarium and had to have x-rays to check if they had contacted it. Certainly, all their young lives were of quite a different nature than most folks.

Richard had a lung removed in February of 1956, which I assume was temporary relief. He then passed peacefully away the day after Christmas that same year at his mother’s home. His death record states pulmonary tuberculosis, signed by long-time Waynetown physician, Dr. Claude Thompson. Freda eventually was “cured” of the disease dying 25 years after Richard; however, her death was related to breathing, stating she passed away with bronchial asthma and other such diseases that she had had for ten years or more. Bless these two!

The deep roots Richard had in Montgomery County are some of the most amazing in our area. John Pierce mentioned above was the son of James and Lydia Tracy Pierce. I believe they built the house pictured (thanks to the Crawfordsville District Public Library’s image database) and James and Lydia lived there for 43 years before his passing. The “sunshine and shadows” of their lives were spent raising their 13 children and enjoying the next generation produced. Lydia’s father, Bazzel Tracy was one of the earliest of the Wayne Township settlers, coming with his two brothers from Fleming County, Kentucky in October 1826 to a town of Waynetown that really didn’t exist – no homes there. He and wife, Elizabeth Price worked together to clear some property and build a home, yet it was two years before they were able to have bread on their table and they made sure to never be without that again after they finally got a crop in and bread abundance! Particularly astute at cattle he would purchase cheap and sell for a good price. They raised 11 children in our community, including of course, Lydia who married James Pierce.

I’ll say one thing about Richard. I began the quest to tell his story simply because he was the taker for the 1940 Wayne Township census but now, I want to pinpoint the fact that he truly has “pierced” my heart!