Pierce, John Foster

John Foster Pierce was born on March 16, 1863 in Madison, Georgia to Amelia Augusta Roberts Pierce and James Lovick Pierce, D.D. While attending Emory College in Oxford, Georgia John Foster Pierce joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Upon graduating from Emory College in 1884, Pierce moved to Fannin County, Texas. He taught school at Lannius, Texas for two years while studying law. After being admitted to the bar, Pierce practiced law in Dallas, Texas for three years.

Sensing a call to the Christian ministry, John F. Pierce was licensed to preach in 1890, ordained a deacon in 1892, and ordained an elder in the North Texas Conference in 1894. His appointments included Texarkana Mission (1890-1891); Queen City Circuit (1891-1892); Denton Station (1892-1895); Terrell Station (1895-1896); Kavanaugh Station, Greenville (1896-1898 and1908); Denton Street, Gainesville (1898-1901 and 1916); Centenary, Paris (1901-1903); Travis Street, Sherman (1912-1916); and Oak Lawn (Assistant Pastor 1917-1923). Rev. Pierce also served as Presiding Elder of the McKinney District (1904-1908) and Gainseville District (1908-1912).

Rev. Pierce married Lloretta “Llora” Cullum (1866-1956), the daughter of Rev. Marcus Hiram Cullum and Elizabeth Jane David Cullum, on December 16, 1891. Their six children were Richard Lane, Charles Gillespie, George Foster, Graham Lafayette, Llora Jean, and Ella Kathryn Pierce.

Rev. John Foster Pierce died at his home in Dallas on March 3, 1923. In Pierce’s 1923 North Texas Annual Conference journal memorial, Robert Gibbs Mood reminisced:

Source:

Mood, Robert Gibbs. Minutes of the Fifty-seventh Annual Session of the North Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South . [Dallas, Texas]: The Conference, 1923.

It is no exaggeration to say that Brother Pierce was a great preacher. I have heard him on many occasions and never have I heard him preach a sermon that could in any sense of the word be termed mediocre. He was a profound student, his diction scholarly and finished, and he possessed a spiritual insight and vision into the great vital facts upon which our religion is based that is not given to many men. No congregation ever sat under his ministry without having their Christian knowledge broadened and their religious experience deepened.

From the guide to the John Foster Pierce papers BridArch 303. 32., 1879-1980, 1890-1921, (Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University)