Daughter of Union Veteran Dies at Age 94

From the June 14th San Diego Union-Times by John Wilkes.

It is amazing that there are still folks alive just one generation removed from the war, but it is true.  Stella Mae Case, 94, died June 10th.  Her father was John Harwood Pierce who was 70 when she was born and died seven years later.

She only has a few memories of him but remembers seeing him in his Civil War uniform at Memorial Day parades and staying with him at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles where he was the resident Santa Claus.

Mr. Pierce was born in Canada on Leap Day 1848 and was turned down twice from entering the Union Army because of his young age.  He finally joined the 11th Illinois Cavalry despite being 14 and under five-foot tall.  Because of his youthful appearance, he once dressed as a woman while spying.

After the war he had a series of jobs: teacher, newspaper reporter, mechanical bell inventor, lecturer and minister.  He married five times and had five children with some of them born out of wedlock.  Stella was the last one and born in Oakland in 1918.  Her mother, Jennie, had a nervous breakdown after she learned Pierce was still married to someone else.

One of the Vanishing Links to This Old War.  --Old Secesh