Son of Moses and Marcia Pier, was born in Vergennes, Addison county, Vermont, March 15, 1808. On the 4th of October, 1831, he left that State, and came to Michigan, arriving in Detroit at the end of a sixteen days trip. He was at the time unmarried, and was accompanied by a young man named E. S. Hitchcock, a cousin of the lady Mr. Pier afterwards married. Hitchcock finally settled near Galesburg, Knox county, Illinois.

When Mr. Pier came from Vermont he traveled from Albany to Schenectady over the then new railway between those points, thence by canal to Buffalo, being two weeks on the trip. From Buffalo to Detroit he came on the steamer "Henry Clay," soon afterwards lost. From Detroit he went via "Plymouth Corners," as it was then called, to Farmington, and afterwards to Pontiac,.at which latter place he worked one month in the woolen mill then operated by Judge Paddock, havino* learned the business while at home. He was then solicited to take charge of a district school, two and one-half miles east of Pontiac, and did so. He taught in this school and at Auburn village for two years and a half. On the 11th of March, 1834, he was married to Mary M. Munger, and the same day removed with his bride to a farm he had purchased in the township of Farmington. They lived on that place until 1851, when Mr. Pier traded it for the farm where the new insane asylum now stands at Pontiac. On this place the family resided for sixteen years, or until 1867.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pier took place in the second frame house ever built in Pontiac, which stood on the site now occupied by the Humphreys House. Mrs. Pier came with her widowed mother from Cheshire (now Sullivan) county, New Hampshire, in June, 1832. She was born in that county April 12, 1809, at the town of Claremont. She was one of four children, one son and three daughters, who came with their mother to Michigan. Mrs. Munger had friends living in Oakland County, and a daughter in Washtenaw, and came west to visit them. She died in Farmington township in the spring of 1833.

Mr. Pier moved with his family to Groveland township from Pontiac, and located on a farm of two hundred acres he had purchased, where his son Benjamin S. Pier now lives. He stayed there several years, and finally let his son have that farm, and again removed, this time to the place where he now resides, on section 36, Holly township. This farm he had bought in 1870. He has followed farming since the first two and a half years of his stay in Oakland County, and has been very successful in the business. The farm where he lives is well kept and finely improved, and in all respects a model.

Mr. Pier was mustered with the militia during the famous "Toledo War" of 1835, but was never called out. In politics he is a Republican. While living in Farmington he was supervisor and assessor for three years, and township clerk two years. Also held the office of school inspector for some time. Both himself and wife are members of the First Presbyterian church of Holly, in which organization Mr. Pier is the oldest of six elders, having held the position five years. He was long a member of the Congregational church of Farmington and Pontiac.

Mr. and Mrs. Pier are the parents of nine children, three sons and six daughters, all living, married, and having families of their own. The grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Pier number seventeen. The children are all living in Oakland and Genesee counties. Michigan, except a daughter, who resides at Oil City, Pennsylvania. It is remarkable that in this family, large as it is, there has never been a death, and all are in the full enjoyment of health and prosperity.