John D. Pierce
| John Davis Pierce | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 18, 1797 Chesterfield, New Hampshire, United States |
| Died | April 5, 1882 (aged 85) Medford, Massachusetts, United States |
| Residence | Near Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States |
| Alma mater |
Brown University, Princeton Theological Seminary |
| Occupation | Minister, state school superintendent, legislator |
| Known for | Michigan public school system |
John Davis Pierce (February 18, 1797 – April 5, 1882) was a Congregationalist minister, public schools advocate, and Michigan legislator. He was Michigan's first superintendent of public schools, a position new to the United States, where he established Michigan's public school system. His work has been compared to that of Horace Mann's.
Before his public service career, he attended Brown University and Princeton Theological Seminary, and became an ordained minister of the Congregational Church. When he moved to Michigan as a missionary, he became involved in Michigan politics and ultimately designed the state's public school system as part of their organization for statehood. After his superintendency, he was elected to the state legislature and served on Michigan's 1850 constitutional convention before retiring to his farm outside Ypsilanti for the last thirty years of his life.
John Davis Pierce was born February 18, 1797 in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. His father died when he was young and the subsequent lack of money limited Pierce's education during his youth. He decided to self-educate at the age of 20. He later attended Brown University and graduated in 1822. Pierce taught briefly before attending Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1825, he became an ordained minister of the Congregational Church and then a pastor in Sangerfield, New York and Goshen, Connecticut. He lost those jobs during the late 1820s Anti-Masonic Movement, as a Freemason himself.
We have started in the race of improvement with the fixed determination of extending the blessings of education to every child in the state. Within the past three years about 2000 districts have been organized.
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Wikipedia