When John David Lafayette Pearce was born on 5 April 1837, in Fulton, Itawamba, Mississippi, United States, his father, Harrison Pearce, was 18 and his mother, Henrietta Louise Cromeans, was 22. He married Martha Elmina Pace on 2 April 1857, in Payson, Utah, Utah, United States. They were the parents of at least 7 sons and 5 daughters. He lived in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States in 1839 and Utah, United States in 1870. He registered for military service in 1857. He died on 7 February 1909, in Washington, Washington, Utah, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Washington City Cemetery, Washington, Washington, Utah, United States.
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By 1829 Venus, Illinois had grown sufficiently and in 1832 was one of the contenders for the new county seat. However, the honor was awarded to a nearby city, Carthage. In 1834 the name Venus was changed to Commerce because the settlers felt that the new name better suited their plans. But during late 1839, arriving members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought the small town of Commerce and in April 1840 it was renamed Nauvoo by Joseph Smith Jr., who led the Latter-Day Saints to Nauvoo to escape persecution in Missouri. The name Nauvoo is derived from the traditional Hebrew language. It is notable that by 1844 Nauvoo's population had swollen to around 12,000 residents, rivaling the size of Chicago at the time. After the Latter-Day Saints left the population settled down toward 2,000 people.
After the Saints had been chased out of Missouri they moved to a swampy area located next to the Mississippi River. Here they settled and named the place Nauvoo which translates into the city beautiful.
William Rand opened a small printing shop in Chicago. Doing most of the work himself for the first two years he decided to hire some help. Rand Hired Andrew McNally, an Irish Immigrant, to work in his shop. After doing business with the Chicago Tribune, Rand and McNally were hired to run the Tribune's entire printing operation. Years later, Rand and McNally established Rand McNally & Co after purchasing the Tribune's printing business. They focused mainly on printing tickets, complete railroad guides and timetables for the booming railroad industry around the city. What made the company successful was the detailed maps of roadways, along with directions to certain places. Rand McNally was the first major map publisher to embrace a system of numbered highways and erected many of the roadside highway signs that have been adopted by state and federal highway authorities. The company is still making and updating the world maps that are looked at every day.
Welsh, English, and Irish: variant of Pierce .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
Possible Related NamesHarrison and Henrietta and their five young children moved from Mississippi north some several hundred miles to Nauvoo, Illinois in March 1846 to join the Mormon community. Within the year, the young …
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