Loses part of three fingers in sawing mishap 9/20/1912
Carl Zachariah Pierce, my great
grandfather, was born in 1872. He was a handsome young man who
played baseball on the Middleboro, MA town league. In 1897 at the age of
25 he married 16 year old, Mary Catherine Wilbur just before
Christmas. Six weeks later, on February 2nd, she
gave birth to their daughter, my grandmother, Mary Ann.
According to divorce records, the marriage ended in April 1909 due to gross and
confirmed habits of intoxication that began on or about December 1, 1898.
This addiction held on tightly for the rest of his life, causing many
confrontations with police and acquaintances. It also caused him to not
only lose his job in his father's hardware store but also caused him many
health problems.
In 1912, Carl was earning money by sawing blocks of ice out of the Carver pond
in Bridgewater. The pond sat at the bottom of hill surrounded by
trees and accessible only by a path from the road. One
day while Carl was sawing out a block of ice he accidently
amputated part of three fingers.
Carl Z. Pierce died on July 29, 1927 at the age of 55 of a root
canal pharysurgical abscess, myocarditis acute while incarcerated at the Bridgewater State Hospital for
alcoholism. Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle
(myocardium). He died from inflammation of the heart muscle caused
by an infection, namely his abscessed tooth.
He is buried at Hillside Cemetery, Auburn Street, Bridgewater, MA. He has no
marker but was told he rests to the right of his daughter, Mary Ann.
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