PIERCE, JAMES JOSEPH (1828-1911)

PIERCE, JAMES JOSEPH, newspaperman and school inspector; b. Chatham, 29 Sep 1828, s/o James A. Pierce and Elizabeth Phelan; m. 1863, Harriet Leah Harding, of Saint John; d. Chatham, 5 Mar 1911.

James J. Pierce was educated locally and at the Wesleyan Academy at Sackville. He was trained in the different branches of the printing trade in his father's shop, in which The Gleaner was published and a commercial printing business conducted. As a young man, he worked for a few years in a store in Fredericton and then returned to The Gleaner. From 1856 to 1865 he was his father's partner in James A. Pierce & Son. After his father's retirement he was the sole proprietor of the business.

The series of The Gleaner which was published by James A. Pierce & Son was terminated at the end of December 1865. On 17 February 1866 the first number of a new series appeared under the editorship of James J. Pierce. This paper was named The Gleaner and Counties of Northumberland, Kent, Gloucester, Restigouche, Gaspe, and Bonaventure Agricultural, Commercial, Political, and Local News Journal. A typical number consisted of four large pages almost entirely filled with advertising. Pierce issued the paper until 1872 and then announced that it would be taken over by Matthew A. Tracey. He continued to be involved with it, however, and to write editorials.

Meanwhile, in January 1872 Pierce was appointed school inspector for Northumberland County, as successor to Donald Morrison, a non-resident inspector. He was the first to fill the office under the new Common Schools Act, but he proved himself to be thoroughly unsuited for the work. He was subjected to a great deal of public criticism, including the accusation that he did not visit a single school in Newcastle during his term of office. In November 1872 he was removed and replaced by Charles S. Ramsay.

Pierce provided editorial assistance to the Northern Herald, which was published by Matthew A. Tracey, and the North Star, which was published by J. Edmund Collins, both from the Gleaner office, but he never did full-time newspaper work again. For many years he served as a supply editor, on call to the Miramichi Advance, the Union Advocate, and The World. During the last thirty years of his life he did not enjoy robust health. He was survived in 1911 by his wife, Harriet L. Harding, and a daughter, Annie Ashburton Pierce. His widow lived to age ninety-four and his daughter, who did not marry, to age ninety-three.