Hamilton Wilcox Pierson

Background

He was born on September 22, 1817 in Bergen, New York, United States, the son of Rev. Josiah Pierson, grandson of Samuel and Rebecca (Parmele) Pierson, and a descendant of Abraham Pierson.

Education

After graduating from Union College in 1843, partly for his health he traveled in Virginia for two years as an agent for the American Tract Society. He then entered Union Theological Seminary, New York, from which he graduated in 1848.

Career

Impressed, during a visit to the West Indies, with the religious tolerance in the recently established Dominican Republic, he became agent for the American Bible Society, and distributed Bibles in the French language to schools and individuals. He returned to the United States in 1850, and spent the next three years in travel and literary work.

On November 13, 1853, he was ordained by the Presbytery of New York. He had hoped to become a foreign missionary, but physicians had informed him that his physical condition would not permit, and that neither would he be equal to the duties of a permanent pastorate. Accordingly, he went to Kentucky as agent of the American Bible Society. In this capacity, for five years, he traveled through the back country, covering several thousand miles annually on horseback, holding religious services, and distributing Bibles. From the knowledge thus gained he published some time later, In the Brush; or, Old-Time Social, Political, and Religious Life in the Southwest (1881), a lively narrative which gives a valuable portrayal of pioneer conditions and habits. In 1858 he became president of Cumberland College, a Presbyterian school at Princeton. In addition to his administrative duties he traveled extensively "electioneering for students" and collecting funds.

The outbreak of the Civil War compelled the closing of the institution and Pierson returned North. During the war he served as agent of the American Tract Society in Washington, and as secretary of the Christian Commission at Toledo, Ohio. From 1863 to 1869 he did religious work among the freedmen in Virginia and Georgia.

His activities in Andersonville, Georgia, caused him to be driven from the city, and in 1870 he published A Letter to Hon. Charles Sumner, with "Statements" of Outrages upon Freedmen in Georgia and an Account of My Expulsion from Andersonville, by the Ku-Klux Klan. The remainder of his life was made up of periods of illness, travel, and literary work. From 1885 to 1886 he was state librarian of Ohio. The last two years of his life were spent in Bergen, New York, where he died.

Achievements

• Hamilton Wilcox Pierson was well-known as the president of Cumberland College, during his term of service an additional building was erected, he widely collected funds, organized religious work among the freedmen. He was the author of the famous works American Missionary Memorial, Including Biographical and Historical Sketches, and Jefferson at Monticello: The Private Life of Thomas Jefferson.

Works

More photos

• book

  • In the brush:

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • American Missionary Memorial: Including Biographical and Historical Sketches

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • A Letter to Hon. Charles Sumner, with 'Statements' of Outrages upon Freedmen in Georgia

Membership

He was a member of the New York Historical Society.

Personality

Throughout his life he had to contend with a weakness of the lungs which more or less determined the course of his whole career.

Connections

There is no information about his marital status.

Father:

Josiah Pierson

Grandfather:

Samue Pierson

ancestor:

Abraham Pierson

grandmother:

Rebecca (Parmele) Pierson