Pierce family photograph album, circa 1865-1885 (inclusive).
(Mixed Material)

Collection is open for use in the Local History Room, Watertown Free Public Library. Please contact Reference Staff for access.

This collection consists of a single photograph album containing 50 portraits of Goss and Pierce family and friends, likely assembled and/or owned by Almira Putnam "Allie" (Goss) Pierce. All photographs are about 2 x 3 inches. Forty-nine are black and white card photographs; one is a tintype copy. Two of the photographs are duplicates, so that there are only 48 unique images in the collection. Most images have identifying labels written in pencil. Identifications include the surnames Goss, Pinkham, Lovett, Whipple, Hatch, Perkins, Farnsworth, Prince, Lane, Dodge, and Pierce. There are two images completely without identification. There are portraits of Almira D. (Hatch) Goss (also known as Mrs. Ezekial Goss), her older sisters "Aunt" Abbie Hatch and "Aunt" Hannah Hatch, and her daughters Ellen R., Hannah C., Elizabeth K., and Almira P. (Goss) Pierce. There are a couple different photographs of Almira D. (Hatch) Goss's son, Francis Webster Goss, as well as portraits of his wife Helen and their daughter Miriam. There is more than one portrait of Almira P. Pierce's husband, William T. Pierce. One photograph is labeled "Charles I. Pierce"; this may be William T. Pierce's half-brother Charles Q. It is accompanied by a photograph that is labeled "Julia A. Pierce," which may depict Charles Q.'s wife Julia Ann (Davis) Pierce. There are also portraits of Prince family members, including Warren Prince, his second wife Lucy, and their daughter Frances Ellen. There is a portrait of a baby labeled "Claire Farnsworth" which may depict their daughter Clara (Prince) Farnsworth. There are also portraits labeled “Edward Lovett” and "Joseph Lovett" which may depict Lucy Ann (Lovett) Prince's older brothers. The album also includes portraits of Salem, Massachusetts clergy Reverend Brown Emerson, Reverend Israel Edson Dwinell, and Reverend Edward S. Atwood.

Please use the following when citing materials from this collection: Pierce family photograph album, SC205, Watertown Free Public Library, Watertown, Mass.

Pierce family bible, 1882-1940.

Almira Putnam "Allie" (Goss) Pierce (1859-1940) and William Thomas Pierce (1854-1906) married June 6, 1883 in Watertown, Massachusetts. The couple had one daughter, Elizabeth Childs Pierce, on October 23, 1885. The family resided at 38 Russell Avenue in Watertown for over 50 years. William T. Pierce (1854-1906) hailed from Leominster, Massachusetts, the son of John Quincy Adams Pierce (1817-1891), a slipper manufacturer from West Boylston, Massachusetts, and his second wife, Elizabeth C. Whittaker (1824-1862). William had three half-brothers—Charles Quincy Pierce (1841-1915), Henry Bliss Pierce (b. 1842), and Myron Ezekiel Pierce (1848-1883)—from his father’s first marriage. J. Q. A. married two more times after Elizabeth’s death: to Caroline Smith Burditt in 1863, and to Abby Frances Tarlton in 1877. Around 1867, J. Q. A. Pierce relocated with his sons Myron, Charles, and William to Watertown, Massachusetts. He lived on Palfrey Street, near Spring Street, for a few years before building a home at 215 Mount Auburn Street. While in Watertown, J.Q.A. went into business with his son Charles. Charles had been a Corporal of the 53rd Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. He married Julia Ann Davis (1842-1915) in 1865 and joined his father in manufacturing slippers under the name Pierce & Son in the early 1870s. Charles later served as director of the Watertown Savings Bank. After his stepmother’s death in 1912, Charles conveyed the residence at 215 Mount Auburn Street to Phillips Congregational Church, to be used as a parsonage. William did not follow his father and brother into slipper manufacturing. Instead, he joined the firm of Ernest W. Bowditch, a Boston-based landscape gardener and engineer. William had no formal training in civil engineering prior to joining the firm. However, he learned on the job and, in 1880, secured an engineering position with the Mexican Central Railroad. Two years later, he relocated to Quebec, Canada, to survey for a nearby rail project. In 1883, he wed Almira P. Goss and continued work in Quebec. William returned to Boston in 1885 to take up a position as First Assistant Engineer at E. W. Bowditch, where he turned his eye to sewerage systems. Around 1892, when he went into private practice and was appointed Engineer and Superintendent of Streets and Sewers for the Town of Watertown. In 1895, William left work at the Town of Watertown to become the first Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Park Commission. He held this position until 1903, when he retired due to ill health. William T. Pierce died February 26, 1906. Almira P. Pierce (1859-1940) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ezekiel Goss (1814-1884) of Salem, a furniture maker, and Almira Dwelly (Hatch) Goss (1818-1891) of nearby Beverly, Massachusetts. Ezekiel and Almira D. married in 1839 and had five children: Francis Webster Goss (1842-1923), Hannah Cleaves Goss (1846-1877), Ellen Rebecca Goss (1848-1925), Elizabeth King (Goss) Dodge (1855-1929), and Almira "Allie" P. (Goss) Pierce (1859-1940). Almira D. had two unmarried sisters, Hannah Cleaves Hatch (1814-1889) and Abigail Hatch (1809-1892). "Aunt" Hannah C. Hatch lived with Almira D. and Ezekiel Goss for most of her adult life. "Aunt" Abigail Hatch lived in the households of cousins, such as that of Warren Prince (1813-1889), his wife Lucy Ann (Lovett) Prince (1818-1868), and their children George, Charles, Frances Ellen (b. 1847), and Clara Adelaide (c. 1850-1891). When Clara married Frederick B. Farnsworth and moved from Beverly to New Haven, Connecticut, Aunt Abigail went with her. Francis W. Goss, M.D., graduated Harvard College in 1862 and Harvard Medical School in 1869. He practiced medicine in Boston and served as Secretary of the Massachusetts Medical Society for several decades. Francis and his second wife, Helen Young (1849-1914), married in 1878 and raised a daughter, Miriam (c. 1880-1940). Hannah Cleaves Goss and Ellen Rebecca Goss worked as clerks in Salem and did not marry. Elizabeth K. Goss and Almira P. Goss each went into teaching. Elizabeth taught in Attleboro, Massachusetts until her marriage to James Albert Dodge in 1882. The couple moved to California and had a son, Alfred Woodward Dodge (b. 1895). Almira P. graduated Salem Normal School in 1878 and taught at the High School in Watertown, Massachusetts until her marriage to William T. Pierce in 1883. She was a charter member of the Watertown Woman’s Club and Phillips Congregational Church. Almira and her daughter Elizabeth Childs Pierce (1885-1965) lived together at 38 Russell Avenue until Almira’s death in 1940.

Finding aid available on the Watertown Free Public Library website.