manufacturer politician statesman
He was born on August 23, 1825 in Stoughton, Massachussets, United States, the son of Jesse Pierce and Elizabeth Lillie and a descendant of John Pers (or Peirce) who emigrated to New England in 1637. Edward Lillie Pierce was his younger brother. The father was ultra-conscientious and sensitive; the mother was more forceful, plain-spoken, and with strong prejudices.
He was educated at home and at Bridgewater and Milton academies. At seventeen, Pierce suffered an illness which ended his formal education and from which he never fully recovered.
By 1848 he was serving as a member of the school committee of Stoughton and was working hard for the Free-Soil party in the national elections. This interest in freeing the slaves was for some time the dominant note in his outlook on public affairs.
For a number of years he engaged in light farm work but in 1849 he moved to Dorchester and there worked in the cocoa factory of his uncle, Walter Baker. Save for one short period, this association continued till his death. In 1854, after the death of Baker and his partner, Sidney B. Williams, the trustees leased the plant to Pierce. From that time till his death he worked to make and then to keep his factory the leader in its field, and saw its business grow forty times over. In 1884 he became full owner of the plant. He was progressive in his methods and constantly alert to discover and introduce improved processes. In all the years he never had any trouble with his employees. He took particular pride in the fact that his products were awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867.
Pierce's political career included four years as representative to the General Court, where he served as chairman of its committee on finance in 1862; three years (1869 - 71) as alderman of Boston; two years (1872, 1877) as mayor of Boston, and two terms, from 1873 to 1877, as a member of Congress. In the Hayes-Tilden controversy, he and one other Massachusetts Representative were the only Republicans to vote to throw out the Louisiana electoral vote which the electoral commission had counted for Hayes. His voluntary retirement from Congress soon followed as he found himself in many ways out of harmony with his party. In the 1884 campaign he refused to support Blaine and from then till 1896, in presidential elections, he voted with the Democrats.
In 1887 he became president of the Massachusetts Tariff Reform League, which was formed to secure general reductions in the tariff.
At his death in 1896 more than half his large estate was carefully apportioned to various charitable, educational, and religious institutions.
Henry Lillie Pierce was the ownership of Baker Chocolate Company, increased business greatly, adopted La Belle Chocolatiere as his trademark. During his service as a mayor of Boston, he opposed the Know-Nothing movement at the height of its power, Namely, he strongly reorganized the health, fire and police departments, they became responsible to the mayor, he also restored to that office its former prestige. In Congress his chief service was as a member of the committee on commerce and was directed toward relieving coastal vessels from state pilotage fees.
Particularly in his later years, he became a liberal giver, especially to struggling colored schools in the South and to small Western colleges.
Pierce was a man who acted upon impulses, often odd ones. He masked his keen judgment behind a kindly and innocent-appearing exterior. He was obviously a hard worker.
Quotes from others about the person
Wendell Phillips said of him that "if Diogenes came to Boston he would find his honest man in the mayor's chair. "
He never married.
