Pierce (Henry L.) is born in Stoughton.

The son of Col. Jessie and Elizabeth (Lillie) Pierce, Henry Pierce graduates from Bridgewater Normal School, and comes to Boston in around 1847 to work in the chocolate factory owned by his mother’s half-brother, Walter Baker. He subsequently becomes owner of the factory. A supporter of the Free Soil party, Pierce helps organize the Republican party in Massachusetts, and serves in the Massachusetts legislature, on the Board of Aldermen, as mayor of Boston (1873 and 1878), and in Congress (1874-75). He dies on September 17, 1876.