Tillie Pierce: Teen Eyewitness to the Battle of Gettysburg
Gettysburg was known for making carriages including Conestoga wagons below Theological Seminary opened in 1826 and Pennsylvania now Gettysburg College followed in 1832 One of the main businesses in Gettysburg was carriage making The area was well known for its fine horse drawn carriages It supplied a growing nation with all kinds of vehicles including Conestoga wagons also known as prairie schooners Related businesses such as tanneries iron works and blacksmith shops sprang up Outside the busy little town farmers grew corn wheat rye and hay During the summer and fall the bounty from apple and peach orchards kept families busy making apple butter and peach preserves Some men ran still houses that produced gin rye whiskey and apple brandy TLLIE's HOMETOWN TILLIE PIERCE WAS BORN IN GETTYSBURG IN 1848 In her book At Get tysburg Or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle A True Narrative she describes Gettysburg as it was before the war Prior to the battle it was comparatively unknown to the out side world save to those interested in the Lutheran Theological Seminary here located From year to year it pursued the even and quiet tenor feel of an inland town with nothing
to vary the monotony but the annual exercises of the above mentioned institutions On these occasions the influx of strangers for the short period of commencement week did add some stir and life to the place but only to have it settle into more irksome quietude dull living after the visitors and their dear boys had left At the time of Tillie's birth Gettysburg was a farm based community of about twenty four hundred people Its residents slogged through muddy streets and fields in the spring Many had picnics and picked berries in the humid summer In the fall they harvested and preserved crops During cold snowy winters they held one another close under handmade quilts and stoked fireplaces to stay warm Tillie described some of these activities too Often do I think of the lovely groves on and around Culp's Hill of the mighty boulders which there abound upon which we often spread the picnic feast of the now famous Spangler's Spring where we drank the cooling draught drink on those peaceful summer days What pleasant times were ours as we went berrying along the quiet sodded lane that leads from the town to that now memorable hill Tillie's account of her life in Gettysburg only briefly mentions these peaceful pleasant times Her story really begins in June 1863 when war was on its way to her hometown
Chapter 1 The Shrivers and the Pierces TILLIE PIERCE LIVED ON BALTIMORE STREET ONLY THREE BLOCKS FROM THE DIAMOND Next door George and Hettie Shriver and their two little girls made a home A narrow open space lay between the Shriver house and the Pierce house The two buildings were very similar Both were two story redbrick townhouses with wood shingled roofs On the main floor in each house were two large rooms a parlor for guests and a sitting room where the family members spent most of their time together All the bedrooms were on the second floor Both houses had an attic or garret Windows on the ends of each house allowed the residents to peek into each other's garret Each property had a small backyard that faced the South Mountain to the west The two families would become dramatically entwined in July 1863
THE SHRIVERS HENRIETTA HETTIE WEIKERT WAS ONE OF JACOB AND SARAH WEIKERT'S THIRTEEN THIRTEEN CHILDREN They lived on a large farm on Taneytown Road 3 miles 4 8 kilometers south of Gettysburg George Washington Shriver also grew up on his family's farm only 2 miles 3 2 km from Hettie's farm On January 23 1855 when they were both eighteen years old George and Hettie were married The couple moved into the farmhouse south of Gettysburg that George had inherited when he was sixteen Their daughter Sarah Sadie was born in November 1855 and two years later Mary Mollie joined them George decided that he wanted to move his family off the farm and build a house and a business in Gettysburg not far from the Diamond He started construction early in 1860
