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SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida.
St. Lucie Tape 13A
Marge Silver
April 20, 1967
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I got in the front door. Then I got to be late. I had heard about
that line, but I didn't believe it. Now I believe it.
I found this out in politics. I don't really feel qualitied to make a
speech to you about the history of Fort Pierce. I feel that there are
many of you here in this room much better qualified, who know much more
about it, and to them let me say, if I'm telling you things you already
know, please be pa tient with me. I'm glad to know that there are some
people in the room who are relatively new commers to our area. And to
them I am probably saying something new. The reason I stand here before
you tonight is, first always a joy to join you and to have supper with
you, even if I have to hurry a bit at the supper, to see old friends
I don't get to see very often and I regret that, but it's very
pleasant to be with you. But I still wouldn't be standing here and you
wouldn't have asked me to come unless I had gone on a holiday last
summer which ended up in New York City where I got in touch with
a young man, to me he's a young man. To some people he wouldn't be
so young. A young man who started his journalistic career at the
radio station WIRA. Banty mentioned I used to be Mrs. WIRA, which is
kind of a glorified title and I never deserved that, but I was connected
with WIRA at the time when Jim Halvy was cub reporter. The first
reporting job Jim ever had was with WIRA and I'll never forget his
first story that he gave to Doug to put on the air on the news. It
started out, "On Fort Pierce Beach today there were three hundred odd
people." That's just the way it came out, too. Well I followed the
career of this young man and it has been a very interesting career. He
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was with the Army Times for quite a long while in Germany and traveled
extensively in Europe and then he came back to New York City and
became an editor of the magazine, Pageant, and from that step he
went on to become what he is now, an editor of Business Week, which is
pretty glorified for a Fort Pierce boy, who wrote, "There were three
hundred odd people on the beach." He's doing a lot better. But he's
doing very well and I know that you all would like to be proud of him as
I am for his accomplishments. During all this rather glamorous life
that he has lead he has never forgotten his real passion for the history
of Fort Pierce and he has continued to not only be interested in it
but to do a great deal of research about Fort Pierce. You may remember
if yiu've visited the museum, seeing the book that he's wrote called
Tale of the Seminole War. He wrote that quite a long time ago when
he was still a young man in the "three hundred odd people" stage.
The writing is not terrific but the history if very good. He's a
very careful reseacher and so devoted to it that he and his wife,
Hoyce spen their very short vacation times in summer going around the
country and finding documents that will back up his research for the
history in our area, even though he, of course, lives in New York all
the time, now. This is the second time that I learned about my
own community by going to New York. The previous time I found out
what St. Lucie was all about by going to the library, the New York
Public Library, on Fifth Avenue, and I found some fascinating things
about the background of St. Lucie and the St. Lucie River. Incidently
I found a map dated 1513 which shows the St, Lucie River right in the right
place. It's practically the only thing on that map of Florida that
is in the right place. And a kind of funny little blob that's supposed
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to be Lake Ockeechobee. That was an interesting trip, but let me get
to the one that you're waiting to hear about and that was visiting
Jim and learning something about the man for whom the fort was named,
and for whom the city of Fort Pierce is named. Jim and Joyce Halvy found
a real rare treasure find about Benjamin K. Pierce who's the man in
question- on a holiday the summer before last 'when they went up to
Concord, New Hampshire where the Pierce family came from and came across
some letters from Benjamin K. Pierce to his father, Benjamin Pierce
and to his brother Franklin Pierce, who was, of course the fourteenth
president of the United States. These letters Jim is collecting and
compiling and eventually we'll get another book from Jim Halvy. And
certainly the last thing I want to do is ruin his book by telling
you too much. But when Jim starts talking about Benjamin K. Pierce
he almost can't stop him and I've spent a very fascinating afternoon
and evening at his home just listening to him talk about Benjamin Pierce.
Some of what I'm going to tell you is contained in a letter that he
sent to the historical commission through me about the descendents of
Benjamin K. Pierce that he has found and some else that I'm going
to tell you is a transcription of a letter that Benjamin K. Pierce wrote
in 1812, which I have here and which I'll circulate. It's kind of
hard to read so I got it transcribed and I'll read it to you. Other-
things I'm going to tell you I simply remember from the conversation
with Jim. Now this part of my talk to you is going to be highly inaccurate
because I'm famous for having a bad memory for little things like facts.
But I'm going to try to give you an impression of the man that I got
from JIm. First I would like to give you the history. This is tru what
I'm going to tell you now and it's written down so I can't forget it or
get it mixed up. Benjamin K. Pierce was the oldest son of Benjamin Pierce,
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who was quite a political figure even before his son Franklin became
president. He was twice governor of the state of New Hampshire. It
was a political family all the way around. Benjamin K. was the older
brother and Franklin, his younger brother, was the president. Benjamin
K. went into the army as a career and he was involved in the war of 1812
as you'll see from his letter and he was also involved in the Seminole
War. He was stationed in St. Augustine and from St. Augustine he was
with the army group that founded Fort Pierce. How much time he spent
here is unknown at this time. Jim is still researching his experience
in Fort Pierce. But just to give you a quick sort of picture of the
man. first the fort as you probably know most of you was built originally
in Fort Pierce in late 1837 or early 1838. This is about the middle of
the career of Benjamin K. Pierce. Most of the family papers as I said
are in Concord, New Hampshire. Jim found a letter dated January 1838.
He knows of such a letter. It was written from St. Augustine by
Benjamin K. Pierce. It was written to his brother Franklin who was
then a U;S. senator in Washington. This letter doesn't mention Fort
Pierce but it's the only letter that Jim had found up to the time I
talked to him that came from Benjamin K. Pierce in Florida. And it
describes a military action on the St. Lucie River, so obviously it
must have been the expedition that resulted in the founding of the
forBenjamin K. Pierce died in New York on April the first, 1850 and he
was buried on Governor's Island, but in 1888 the body was removed to
Cyprus Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn and Jim and Joyce Halvy had
visited the grave there. Now Halvy has located a direct descendent of
Benjamin K., his great. great grand daughter, and she's Mrs. Nita
Bourage Meyers Bouchette of Ottawa, Ontario. The Pierce story quite
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often touches Canada and certainly in this case it does. B.K. was
that. B.K. is Benjamin K. Pierce. He signs himself in his letters,
e ven to his father and to his brother B.K. Pierce, which is pretty
formal but you get the habit after you've seen a few of these letters
of calling him B.K., which is probably a little bit taking liberty
but I will do it because it's automatically what you do. He was married
and widowed three times. His first wife was an Indian girl. Her name
was Josette La Frambrose. And that's sort of interesting because those
of you who know french, and I'm sure that many of you do. know that
frambrose is raspberry and there are a great many raspberries in Canada
and probably she got her name from her occupation, which might have
been picking raspberries. The issue of this marriage which was in 1818
he was married, that was when he was stationed on Mackinaw Island in
Michigan. Now that's particularly interesting. The date of 1818 was
just after the war of 1812 and Jim Halvy believes that Pierce was one
of the army group who were engaged in surveying the border between
Canada and the United States and that was figured because Mackinaw Island
is right on that border and that's probably what he was doing at this time.
They had one daughter who'd name was Harriet. That's a name to remember
in this. His second wife was Amanda Borkin, whom he married in 1823.
and she came from Alabama. He went from one extreme to the
other. In that day and age it was quite difficult to get from Canada
to Alabama and it isn't known how he did it but he did it. There were
four children of that marriage. Elizaveth, Amanda, Charlotte- and William.
t:e one son he had who died in infancy. And Amanda. wth wife died in 1831.
And I'd like to interpolate right there one of the stories that I recall
Jim telling me from one of the letters that I did not see. He simply told
me about. Now here's where my facts may be a little bit scrambled, but
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it was such a fascinating story I thought I'd tell it to you as I
remember. This wife died and it was a very tragic circumstance, and in
that day it was customary in case of death for the deceased to be played
out at the home of the family instead of at a funeral home as we usually
d o now. And the body was lying in state as it were in the home and
apparently Benjamin K. was not in the house that night but was somewhere
else, but the four children were there. The house caught fire. It was
a terrible thing and the house burnt to the ground, the coffin with it,
I am told and the children were barely saved from the fire so that it was
a double tradegy. The third wife was Louise Reed of Portsmouth, New
Hampshire so he had a real variety in his domestic life. In 1840
his eldest daughter, Harriet, who was the daughter of the Indian girl and
Mr. Pierce, married an army officer named James Brooster Rickett. Their
daughter, Mary Graham married a navy officer named Guy Hamilton Bourage.
He was particularly interesting because he was the admiral in charge and
command of the cruise in Memphis, whcih in 1927 went to France to pick
up Charles Lindbergh and bring him back to this country for his triumphal
parade after having flown over to in the Spirit of St.
Louis as you remember of course. Now their daughter, that's the daughter
of Guy Bourage and Marie Graham, was Nita and she is the present descent
whom Jim Halvy has met and talked to. She is now married to a Mr.
Bouchette. Mrs. Bouchette has a portrait of B.K. painted when he was
a young lieutenant on Machinaw Island. And the portrait is in full
dress uniform. Halvy suggested that the historical commission make an offer
to Mrs. Bouchette for a copy to be made of this painting,-a photo to be
made in the exact size of the original painting, then colored in oils so
that we down here may have an exact replica of the painting that was made
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of Mr. Pierce at this time in his life and I'm happy to say that the
historical commission was willing to go along with that and to make
an offer. This is being accomplished right now. I had a letter from
Jim in the past few days. He's to see Mrs. Bouchette again. She's coming
from Canada to NorfolK and they're to meet there and he's going to see
if they can't get this done. Besides the portrait Mrs. Bouchette has a
letter of B.K. Pierce's that was written from Albany to father in
Hillsborough, New Hampshire. That's the family keep,,Hillsborough, dated
1812. It's the earliest Benjamin K. Pierce letter on record. Now Jim
has an interesting proposal fo r this,too. He proposes that the historical
commission here buy this letter. The letter is not particularly, directly
related to Florida or to Fort Pierce or to his military activity here
becasue t. of course he took, this letter was written long before the
Seminole War portion of his life, but it being the first letter and it
having reference in a very important historical way to the war of 1812
which concerns New Hampshire. Remember Concord, New Hampshire has the letter
from St. Augustine so what Jim wants to do is to buy the 1812 letter about
the war of 1812 and exchange, make an exchange with Concord for the
letter written by B K. Pierce from St. Augustine referring to military
action on the St. Lucie River and the St. Lucie County Historical
Commission also thought that would be an excellent idea and it has
budgeted funds for a proposal to accomplish this. There is still to be
examined and Jim and Joyce are going to spend this summer's vacation examining
what they call the McNeal letters. Benjamin's oldest sister married a
Gen. McNeal and during all of Benjamin K.'s resisitudes when he was widowed
three times in a row and when he was away on campaigns for the Seminole
Wars the McNeal family took his children and brought them up so there was
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a great deal of correspondence between McNeal and Benjamin K. Pierce.
So that Jim is very hopeful in this correspondence which he hasn't
touched yet, but he has it located. In this correspondence there will
be some very definite references to the port of Fort Pierce. As Jim
says Benjamin K. Pierce is anything but a modest man and he's very
sure that he would not have a port, a fort named for him without mentioning
it in a letter somewhere. But there is one other thing to remember about
1838. You remember that was the probable date when the date was
established. It was also the dd=e of his third marriage so he might
have been distracted vy other things around him. Now. I know that you
would like to have a word, pardon, was there a question? I know y9u
would like to have a word sketch of BEnjamin K. Pierce and the best
way to get a thumb nail sketch of man or a woman or anybody is to read
something they had written to an intimate friend or relative when their
guard is down and they're simply expressing themselves as they would if
they were in the bosom of the family, some of the letters that Jim lwt
me read of Benjamin K. Pierce has given me a very, very clear picture of
the man. He was a definite man. He was not wishy washy in the least. He had
a temper,#had a sense of humor, he was impatient with things that he
didn't think were right and he expressed himself so. The letter that
I have here Is a zerox-:copy of the 1812 letter. I'm going to just
circulate it around for you all to take a look at,but it's terribly
hard to read because in 1812 they were still using the s's for x and all this.
So I've simply transcribed it and I'll try to read it to you now. This
letter was written to his father, Benjamin. And he goes: A short time
since I wrote to you from Cyprus Harbor on Lake Ontario. soon after the
date of that I unexpectedly received orders from Col, McComb to attend
St. Lucie Tape Vat 51N
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him on a route to this city,(that's Albany) where I now am. We left
Cyprus Harbor on the ninth and arrived here on the eve of the fourteenth
instant. I'm in goodhealth and pass the time agreeably. I have nothing
new to communicate.( He immediately proves this untrue.) The war news,
I suppose (his grammar falls down every now and then, too, I must tell you)
The war news I suppose reach you as soon in the public vehicles as they
would by private letter. The Proclaimation of Brigadeer
General Smith has brought ridicule and contempt upon himself, and disgrace
upon the army. A strange fatality seems to attend the General's army. The
troops here generally repair to winter quarters. There will therefore.
be nothing done towards -the conquest of Canada, only to keep up the
recruiting service to keep the regualr forces and preparing for a spring
campaign. Our navy has had a very different success than the army has'
had. The r brilliant achievements have covered them with immortal honor.
The capture of the by Captain the __
by Captain Jones, and Macedonia by Commodore DeCateur has exceeded
anything record in the battles of the world. I shall proceed tomorrow
on my way to the city of New York with Co\. McComb. I shall probably
remain there the greater part of the winter, but as I am
a bird at flight and passage resting but a short time at any particular
place. On my arrival at New York I shall write you and from them
probably determine whether my abode there will be long or short. I send
my love by Aiken, James and this is as neat as I can come to decifering
that name. But it's a very odd name as you can see for what it represents.
I send my love by James and wish to have particular care taken of him as
he is a most beautiful animal. I would by no means have him tode by any
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person except yourself and don't wish to have him hacked until he gets
recruited. (I don't know what that means. I hope I've read it right.
You can look at the letter. Maybe you can make more of it than that.}
When he arrived at Hillsborough that will make eight hundred miles that he
has rode with scarec ly resting. If his eyes could be helped it would make
him still more valuable (and then the copy is too pale. I can't read
e exactly what it says.) But something might be tried upon him without
injury at least. Please give my love to the family and receive the
same from us. Your affectionate son, B.K.Pierce"'. Now I don't know
what your reading of the man might be from that letter but it's as typical
of a letter as you'll find. What interested me very much was his daring
to criticize his superiors. He was a lieutenant colonel and he was calling
the brigadeer general names there. And his confession that the navy
was doing better than the army at the time. Also he spent three or
four paragraphs of concern about the wonderful, beautiful horse and
he sort of tosses off the family like that. But then, maybe it was
typical of the time but it does give you something of a picture of the'
man. I'd like to spend just a moment or two if you will be patient with
me another moment or two on Franklin Pierce, his brother. Again you
can get a picture of a man from his relatives as well as from his letters.
Usually a family's thinking goes along in more or less the same groove.
And I'm sure that I'm telling you things that many of you know already.
But let's review it anyway. Franklin Pierce was the fourteenth president.
He was born in Hillsborough, was the son of Benjamin. He graduated
from Boden College. He was a nationalist and a Jacsonian democrat and
I'm glad to say it. So presumably, Benjamin K. was also a Jacksonian
democrat. He was speaker of the Ftate House of Representatives. He
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was also elected as Congressman from New Hampshire which he served for
two terms, I believe. Also he served a term in the senate before becoming
president. Another interesting note incase y6u have forgotten who
composed the cabinet of Franklin Pierce. ones of the cabinet members
was a man named Jefferson Davis. So he was a New Hampshire man with a
great deal of empathy for the south land. I think it's most appropriate
for his son, the founder of Fort Pierce. It's been a joy to tell
you a little I know about Benjemin Pierce. I hope that it's give you
a new insight into him and maybe a new interest in preserving our
fort for the information and the educatioAand the inspiration of
our children. Thank you very much.
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