George Foster Pierce

Background

George Pierce was born on February 3, 1811, in Greene County, Georgia, United States. His parents were Lovick Pierce, a well-known Methodist preacher, and Ann Foster Pierce.

Education

In 1826 George entered Franklin College (present-day University of Georgia), Athens, where he was graduated with honors in 1829. He began the study of law in the office of his uncle, Thomas Foster, but feel called to preach, abandoned his legal studies.

Career

George Foster Pierce was admitted on trial to the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in January 1831. His ability as a preacher was immediately recognized and within the next five years, he served such leading stations as Augusta and Savannah and Charleston. At the age of twenty-five, he was presiding elder of the Augusta district.

In 1838 Pierce was elected president of Georgia Female College (now Wesleyan College), at Macon, the first American college for women empowered by charter to confer a degree. Endeavoring to arouse public sentiment in favor of female education, he presented his views in the Southern Ladies' Book, which for ten months in 1840 he edited. It cannot be said that he made a success in his initial attempt as a college executive; he refused to discontinue his evangelistic activities even while president, and as a result, the work of the college was somewhat neglected. In 1840 he resigned the presidency, although he served for two years thereafter as the financial agent of the institution.

Upon his return to the itinerancy in 1842 Pierce became recognized as the leading preacher of the Georgia Conference. He was a delegate to the General Conferences of 1840 and 1844, and at the latter conference, which marked the division of the Church, Pierce, although only thirty-three years old, was one of the outstanding leaders in the defense of Bishop J. O. Andrew. He was a delegate to the General Conferences of 1846, 1850, and 1854.

In 1848 he returned to the educational field as president of Emory College, Oxford, Georgia. Here he remained until 1854 when he was elected bishop. Upon his elevation, to the episcopacy, he moved to his plantation, "Sunshine," near Sparta, Georgia, which with the exception of one year was his home until his death.

Prior to the Civil War, he took little part in politics, but at the outbreak of armed hostilities, he held that the Southern states were justified in secession, and during the war, he devoted a large part of his time to the raising of food supplies for the Confederate army.

Pierce's writings consisted mainly of open letters to the religious periodicals of his denomination. Much of his work as bishop was done in the Western conferences, and his experiences on these trips were related in a series of letters published in the Southern Christian Advocate. Some of these were collected in 1857 under the title Incidents of Western Travel, edited by T. O. Summers, and in 1886, Bishop Pierce's Sermons and Addresses appeared. He kept a diary between the years 1836 and 1866 and left in manuscript an account of the early life of his father.

Achievements

• George Foster Pierce was a member of the convention held at Louisville in 1845, which organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, S. He also helped to organize the M. E. Church, South, and was the author of well-known work "The Southern Methodist Church and the Proslavery Argument." Besides, he was one of the chief spokesmen of the viewpoint of the Southern clergy on the slavery issue.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Incidents of Western Travel: In a Series of Letters 1857
  • Bishop Pierce's Sermons and Addresses: With a Few Special Discourses by Dr. Pierce

Religion

George Foster Pierce was often in conflict with the progressive groups in his denomination. He believed in retaining the characteristics of early Methodism. He fought against granting lay representation and opposed the pew system, long pastorates, choirs, and the establishment of a theological seminary for the Southern church.

Politics

Pierce supported Georgia's secession.

Views

Quotations: "It is my opinion that every dollar invested in a theological school will be damage to Methodism. Had I a million, I would not give a dime for such an object."

Personality

As a bishop, George was noted for his pulpit oratory and his kindness to the preachers.

Connections

Pierce had seven children by his marriage to Ann Maria Waldron on February 4, 1834.

Father:

Lovick Pierce

1785-1879

Mother:

Ann Martin Foster Pierce

1790-1850

Wife:

Ann Maria Waldron Pierce

1811-1889

Sister:

Julia Elizabeth Pierce Mann

1813-1863

Sister:

Ann America Pierce Gambrill

1815-1859

Sister:

Mary Flournoy Pierce Schley

1818-1865

Brother:

Thomas Flournoy Foster Pierce

1825-1904

Son:

Lovick Pierce

1839-1930

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977