Bishop George Foster Pierce (1811-1884)
Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Bishop George Foster Pierce (1811-1884). Born February 3 in 1811 near Greensboro, George Foster Pierce was converted while at the University in Athens; in 1830 he followed his father, Dr. Lovick Pierce, into the Methodist ministry. He was first assigned twenty-two preaching stations on the Oconee Circuit, later he served pastorates in Augusta, Savannah, Charleston, and Columbus. He may have preached ten thousand times. His life with his family on his farm "Sunshine" near Sparta was idyllic. He was in 1834 the first president of Wesleyan College, also editor of the "Southern Ladies' Book", then president of Emory (1848-1854). In 1844 at the New York Conference he defended Bishop Andrew as a slaveholder; and in 1845 at Louisville, Kentucky he helped organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Elected Bishop in Columbus, Georgia, 1854. He was without a peer as an orator. As a Methodist Bishop, he suffered with his people the hardships of the Civil War. He died in 1884 in Sparta and is buried there.
The Story
George Foster Pierce, born near Greensboro in 1811, followed his father into the Methodist ministry and became one of the South's most celebrated pulpit orators—by tradition preaching some ten thousand times. He served as the first president of Wesleyan College and later president of Emory, and in 1845 he helped organize the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, after the denomination split over slavery. Elected bishop in 1854, he shared his people's Civil War hardships until his death in 1884.
Why it matters
Pierce's career illuminates how the slavery question fractured America's largest Protestant churches years before the nation itself divided, and the founding of Georgia's early colleges.
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Related people
- · George Foster Pierce
- · Lovick Pierce
- · Bishop James Andrew
Themes & tags
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