Pierce, John Wesley

John Wesley Pierce, father of John Gourley Pierce, was born in 1886 in Eaton, Quebec, the son of Reverend Barry Pierce and Catherine Farnswoth. He attended University of Toronto and was a member of both the Dominion and Ontario Land Surveyors Associations. He was responsible for the definition of the Ontario-Manitoba boundary, begun in 1921 and finally completed by his son in 1947. Until 1932, he worked for the Topographical Survey Branch of the Dominion Department of the Interior and traveled from New Brunswick to the North-West Territories. In 1932 he settled in Peterborough, Ontario and started the survey firm which would become Pierce & Pierce Land Surveyors. (Biographical account supplied by Catherine Cramer).