Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

themum plants, 200,000 herbaceous plants,
and 500,000 bedding plants.
Mr. Pierson is one of the most demo-
cratic of men, and his great success is the
result of perseverance, enterprise, industry
and good business management. He
knows by experience what is meant by
hard labor, and the great advancement in
business has not spoiled his disposition.
He is the same cheerful, affable man
who began life in Cromwell as a worker
with his hands. While he is too busy to
take any personal share in the conduct
of public affairs, he maintains an intelli-
gent interest in the progress of his
adopted country and the prosperity of his
home town and State. Politically he acts
with the Republican party.
In 1872 Mr. Pierson was married to
Margaret Allison, of Cromwell, daughter
of William P. and Emily (Miller) Alli-
son, a descendant of William Allison, a
native of County Tyrone, Ireland, born
near Omagh, of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Soon after the Revolution he removed to
the United States and settled in Hartford,
Connecticut, where he later removed to
the Holland Patent in Western New
York, where he engaged in agriculture
until his death, about 1830. His youngest
child, Samuel Allison, born about 1786,
served his time as a soapmaker with a
manufacturer named Nichols in Hartford.
In 1807 he settled in Middletown,
where he engaged in the manufacture of
soap and candles, attaining great success
and continuing until his death in 1828.
His eldest child, William P. Allison, born
March 15, 1806, in Hartford, became a
manufacturer of hardware specialties in
Cromwell, Connecticut, where he died in
1874. He married Emily Miller, and they
were the parents of Margaret Allison,
wife of Andrew N. Pierson.
Mr. and Mrs. Pierson were the parents
of the following children: 1. Frank
Allison, born 1877, died in 1905. He was
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
313
a young man of remarkable ability, very
popular and highly esteemed. He was
the youngest member ever elected to the
Connecticut State Legislature, and also
the youngest thirty-second degree Ma-
son. He married Ruth Coe, of Cromwell,
daughter of Orian Ward Coe, and grand-
daughter of Osborn Coe, of Cromwell,
and Pasadena, California. They were
the parents of Orian Ward Pierson. 2.
Wallace Rogers, born May 5, 1880, was
educated in the public schools, including
the High School, and graduated from the
Academy at East Greenwich, Rhode
Island, in 1898. He entered the Massa-
chusetts Agricultural College at Amherst,
from which he was graduated in 1901.
After leaving college he became superin-
tendent of the carnation department of
the Pierson Gardens, and since the incor-
poration of the company has been its sec-
retary and assistant treasurer. He is an
attendant of the Congregational church
in Cromwell. He was elected president
of the American Rose Society, serving
from 1913 to 1915. He married, June 27,
1905, Olive Dailey, of Decatur, Indiana,
and Westport, Connecticut. They are
the parents of two children: Andrew Allison,
born June 15, 191 1, and Wallace
Rogers, Jr., born February 18, 1917. 3.
Emily Miller, born June 25, 1881, graduated
at the Middletown High School, was
two years a student at Wesleyan University,
two years at Nancy, France, and
graduated from Vassar College. For two
years she taught English in the New Bri-
tain High School. For four years she
was State organizer of Connecticut for
the Woman's Political Equality League.
Columbia College subsequently conferred
on her the degree of Master of Arts, and
she is now pursuing a special course in
the chemistry of food stuffs at that insti-
tution. 4. Robert Dudley, born 1884,
died in 1885.