Joshua Pierce (or Peirce) (March 1795 - April 11, 1869 Washington DC)
[According to Pierce Genealogy, by Frederick Clifton Peirce, 1880, the descendants of John Pers of Watertown, New England spelled their name as Peirce or Pierce, pronounced like pears]
[From The Gardener's Monthly, January 1870, p. 21:] Obituary Joshua Pierce....His father came from Chester County, Pennsylvania, about the time when the seat of government was established at Washington, and settled on Rock Creek about 3 miles from the city; attracted there by the fine water power of that stream; and carried on the milling business in connection with his farm. He was born in March, 1795. It was, as I have understood, his original intention to study law, but his academical studies were interrupted by the war of 1812, when he was kept home at to attend the mill, the miller having been drafted into the army. His studies were never resumed, and in the year 1820, he married, and settled in 1823 at Linnæan Hill upon a part of a homestead given him by his father, where he lived in sight of the house in which he was born, until his death at the age 74, April 11, 1869.
[From Tilton's Journal of Horticulture, February 1870, p. 110:] We have only recently learned of the death of Joshua Pierce, of Washington, D. C., which occurred at his estate of Linnean Hill, April 11, 1869, at the age of seventy-four.
[From Modern Roses 10, p. 728:] Joshua Pierce, Washington, DC
[From the website nps.gov:] Joshua Peirce was the youngest child of Isaac Pierce and Elizabeth Cloud Peirce. He grew up in what is now Rock Creek Park in the new District of Columbia.
Joshua experienced loss at a young age when his eldest brother, Job, died in 1804. Job's widow and daughter came to live with the rest of the Peirce family in the Rock Creek Valley. His older sisters and brother Abner also lived at home at the time. Joshua took a keen interest in horticulture and in 1823, he left his father's home to build his own estate. His father gifted him a significant tract of land adjacent to the family homestead and Joshua began his business there. There is some question as to whether Joshua had the stone mansion built or if he added to an existing structure. The house sat atop a hill and overlooked the Rock Creek Valley and the distant city of Washington. He called his estate Linnaean Hill, after the Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus, who formalized binomial nomenclature and was a noted botanist.....Peirce was paid by the DC government to manage trees along avenues in the city and was responsible for beautifying many of the early streets. Many of his plants were also installed in the garden of the White House. .....Joshua Peirce continued to employ William Beckett on his estate and relied on him to run part of his nursery business. Acquaintances who knew him stated that he did not want his nephew (and heir) Joshua Peirce Klingle bothering William Beckett in the running of the business and that William's salary was to be several hundred dollars a year.The nursery on 14th street proved to be too much for Peirce and he sold it in 1868. Joshua Peirce died in 1869.
