My Genealogy Hound

ALBERT P. PEIRCE, a leading jeweler and a resident of Westfield for the past fifteen years, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 21, 1842, and is a son of Albert A. and Mary Knox (Stevens) Peirce. Albert A. Peirce was born in Boston and died at Westfield, this county, in 1879. He was engaged for over twenty years in the jewelry business and then (1862) removed from Boston to Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he was an oil operator and dealt in oil, besides conducting a jewelry establishment until 1876, when he came to Westfield, which was his place of residence until his death, which occurred three years later. He married Mary Knox Stevens, whose people were residents of the State of Maine, of which she was a native.

Albert P. Peirce was reared in Boston and fitted for Yale college, which he did not enter, on account of embarking in the steamboat business between Boston and Newport, Rhode Island. He was associated with the firm of Andrew J. Warren & Company, and remained with them five years. He then went to Titusville, where he was in the pipe-line business for three years, at the end of which time he took charge of the Church Run pipe-line, which he managed until he came to Westfield, where he established his present jewelry establishment.

In 1873 Mr. Peirce married Julia Guild, daughter of Joseph O. Guild. To their union have been born four children, two sons and two daughters: James Alfonso, born January 3, 1874, and now engaged in the jewelry business; Clara Guild, Mary Knox, and Albert P., Jr.

A. P. Peirce has served as trustee, school director and member of the board of water commissioners of Westfield. By strict attention to business he has built up a lucrative trade as a jeweler. His establishment contains a first-class stock of jewelry, watches, clocks and everything else in his special line of business. The jewelry trade is a very important branch of commercial activity, and one deserving of mention in a review of the leading industries of any place. Mr. Peirce is a representative jeweler of his village, where he has met with good success.