Leaving a Legacy

Each of us has a finite life – one that may last but a few years or may last for a century or a little beyond. But what will be left behind after that life is finished? A century after we have passed on, how will we be remembered?

I’d like to consider those questions from the perspective of the Pierpont Family Association, of which I am a member and the current co-historian. As we look at the several thousand individuals in our collective family descendant tree, what is the legacy of all those people?

I think that there are three levels of legacy. I’ll touch on the first two briefly, but I want to concentrate on the last one with as many examples as I’ve been able to find with a few hours of research.

Level 1 – Our Name

I suppose that there is a level zero – where a person leaves behind nothing and no one remembers them after a few years. But in these days of computerized records and family trees that is highly unlikely. So we can expect that our name will be left behind in various records and in the memories of those whose lives we have touched. But after those who knew us personally, we will be reduced to a name, our date of birth and death, and a few other facts about us. For those who chose to be buried, there may also be a tombstone that marks our final resting place, but the only thing on the stone will be our name and that beginning and ending date of our lives. As other types of records are increasingly computerized and distributed, our names will be found in other places – perhaps in city property records with the address we once occupied or the few acres where we lived, perhaps in social media accounts of Facebook postings or Twitter feeds or whatever the next type of technology will be. But these are not the stuff of a legacy.

Level 2 – Writing by/about Us

For those who are slightly more important there may be books which we have written and which can be purchased on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or perhaps others have written about us and our name will appear in the title instead of just the name of the author. These written works will capture more about us than just our name and a few random facts. They may sit on a shelf and be passed along to future generations (assuming that physical books continue to exist beyond the new technology of e-readers). I have written my own autobiography and so fall into this level, and there are other of my ancestors who have had much more written by/about them. I think of the famous sermon of Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, that was written in 1741 and is still used as an example of a Puritan sermon now approaching three centuries later.

Sometimes the “writing” is not in the form of words, but in the form of music or other forms of art. James Lord Pierpont is remembered a century and a half after he composed “One Horse Open Sleigh”, now known as “Jingle Bells”. This is also mentioned on two plaques – one in Medford, MA and one in Savannah, GA. But these too are little more than glorified tombstones. Certainly, we know more about people who leave a legacy at this level. Perhaps they even rate their own page in Wikipedia. But there is no much physical about these written words, as important as they may be and as many people may thus know the person’s name.

Level 3 – Physical Items

The final level is one that I’d like to explore in more detail with a few examples and that is places that may bear our names so that passers by will encounter us on a regular basis even if just to say as they go by, “who was that person?” While books/songs/paintings can also be lasting, places are legacies that one encounters beyond the index of a bookstore or library. All these examples are those within the United States. There are certainly others, often far older, in the Pierpont/Pierrepont family history in Europe. Most of us know about Holme Pierrepont, the family home outside of Nottingham, England that dates back to the 1200s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holme_Pierrepont). But I’d like to concentrate on the US, where the Pierpont descendants have been making their mark for nearly 400 years since the PFA ancestor John Pierpont came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. I have not been able to always find the exact person in our genealogy tree after whom these places are named, so I welcome the addition of facts if anyone else knows them.

Towns and Villages

There are three towns/villages that I know of named Pierpont – one each in Ohio, Missouri, and South Dakota. There is also a portion of Ventura, CA, which carries the Pierpont name.

Pierpont Township, OH is named after Pierpont Edwards, the youngest son of Jonathan Edwards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierpont_Edwards). He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and part owner of the Connecticut Land Company, who bought the land from Connecticut in 1795.  At the time this part of Ohio was a part of the Western Reserve of Connecticut (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/04/genealogical-tapestry-history-of.html). The township was named in 1818. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierpont_Township,_Ashtabula_County,_Ohio).

Pierpont, SD is a small village in Day County. According to a book on South Dakota place names, it was named in honor of a Milwaukee railroad official (whose exact name I have not been able to discover). It was settled in 1883. (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027015455;view=1up;seq=145).

Pierpont, MO was in the news in 2004 when the small village of less than 100 inhabitants incorporated in order to avoid being taken over by the growing community of Columbia next door. The most significant feature of the town is the Pierpont Store which claims a history going back 185 years (http://www.columbiatribune.com/22032b65-56db-5047-97ed-917ba9e7e60f.html). But even those who now run the store are not sure of its exact history (https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/steeped-in-history/article_d1a328cf-0d30-586a-bd27-f8f65c04e740.html).

Pierpont Village and Beach is a community along the ocean in Ventura, CA. The road running parallel to the ocean is Pierpont Blvd. and all the roads to the west of it are just a block long and end at the beach. Pierpont elementary school is also located here. (http://www.condohouse.com/piervil.html)

Universities and Schools

Yale University – those of us in the Pierpont family are very acquainted with the fact that our common ancestor, Rev James Pierpont, was the principal founder of Yale. And there is a gate with his name above it to commemorate that. But what about other Pierpont family members. In this walking tour guide from Yale (https://wff.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Yale%20University%20Walking%20Tour.pdf), look at the following other references:

·       1 – the Yale Visitor Center is the former John Pierpont House that was built for a grandson of Rev. James Pierpont.

·       7 – statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, another Pierpont descendant

·       8 – Dwight Hall, there were two Dwights in the Pierpont family who served as presidents of Yale

·       23 – Jonathan Edwards College, he being a son-in-law of James Pierpont

·       24 – Pierson and Davenport Colleges, Abraham Pierson was the uncle of the first wife of James Pierpont, John Davenport was the grandfather of  James’ first wife

·       30 – Timothy Dwight College, see #8 above

·       46 – Woolsey Hall, see #7 above

Pierpont College is located in Morgantown, WV, and is named for Francis Harrison Pierpont of the VA/MD branch of the Pierpont family (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierpont_Community_and_Technical_College).

Princeton University was founded by, among others, Aaron Burr (Sr.), who became its second president. Burr married the daughter of Jonathan and Sarah [Pierpont] Edwards. Jonathan Edwards took over as the president upon the death of his son-in-law. There is a building named for Aaron Burr on the Princeton campus.

In addition to the above-mentioned Pierpont School in Ventura, CA, there are other examples of elementary schools bearing the Pierpont or related names. A few examples are:

·       Pierrepont School is a private school in Westport, CT (http://www.pierrepontschool.org/). It is only 18 years old

·       Pierrepont school in Rutherford, NJ is one of many elementary schools in that city (https://www.rutherfordschools.org/pierrepont/). It serves grades 4-6 and has existed since 1906.

·       I’ve also written previously about how all the schools in Wolcott, CT are named for individuals who are relatives of my grandfather, Harold Pierpont (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-i-am-related-to-everyone-for-whom.html).

Restaurants

There are a number of restaurants that bear the Pierpont name. Here are a few that I have found:

·       Pierpont Restaurant, Kansas City, MO - https://www.pierponts.com/

·       Pierpont Commons, Univ of Michigan - https://uunions.umich.edu/pierpont/dining

·       Pierpoint Restaurant, Baltimore MD - http://www.pierpointrestaurant.com/

Businesses

Most of us have heard of J. P[ierpont] Morgan, the famous banker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan). But there are countless other businesses bearing variations of the Pierpont name. Here are a few: Pierpont Communications (www.piercom.com), Pierpont Group (www.pierpont-group.com), Pierpoint Technical Recruiters (www.pierpoint.com), Pierpont Mechanical Corp (www.pierpontmech.com), Amherst Pierpont (www.apsec.com), Oxford Pierpont Consultants (www.oxfordpierpont.com), Pierpont Management (www.pierepontmanagement.com), and Pierpont Productions (www.pierpontproductions.com).  

Streets

Besides the above-mentioned Pierpont Blvd in Ventura, CA, there are many streets bearing our family name or named in memory of members of our extended family. Here are a few – both large and small:

·       Pierrepont Street and Pierrepont Plaza, Brooklyn, NY – named for Hezekiah Pierrepont, grandson of Rev. James. You can read about him here - http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2016/05/afs-hillary-clinton-and-my-ancestors.html. The building at One Pierrepont Plaza was the headquarters of Hilary Clinton during the most recent presidential election.

·       Pierpont Road, Waterbury, CT – ran past the Maple Hill Dairy (now the home of Crosby HS) which was owned by the Morton Pierpont family.

·       Barclare Lane, Wolcott, CT – my aunt and uncle (parents of Rob Pierpont) had the privilege of naming the road in front of their house as they owned the first house on that road. Since their names were Barbara and Clarence, they combined their names in the name of the road.

·       There are other Pierpont streets/roads/avenues in a number of states such as PA, NY, NJ, VA, WV, SC, CT, GA, and UT just to name a few.

Parks and Preserves

My final category are portions of land that have been preserved for use by future generations and which bear the names of important individuals in the town in which the land is preserved, or for donors of the land for public purposes. Here are a few examples:

Seth Low Pierrepont State Park – located in Ridgefield, CT, this property of over 300 acres was purchased by Seth Low Pierrepont in 1930 and donated to the state upon his death in 1956. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Low_Pierrepont_State_Park_Reserve)

Russell Preserve – located in Wolcott, CT, this 8 acre parcel and small pond were donated to the Wolcott Land Conservation Trust in 1998 by Sylvia [Pierpont] Russell (my mother). (https://www.wolcottlandct.org/preserves/)

Conclusion

With the Pierpont family being in the US for now approaching 400 years and many thousands of individuals in the official Pierpont family tree, we have had ample opportunity to make our influence on the history of the US. While all of us will be remembered and our names found in written records and possibly a marker on our grave, some will have written books/songs that will be found in various libraries in the years after we are no longer walking on the earth. And there are also going to be countless examples, only a few of which are detailed above, where our names will appear on buildings, street signs, park entrances, businesses, or other such places such that those seeing those signs will ask, “who was that person?” Thus, our legacy will take a number of different forms. But I’m not terribly concerned about the future, that’s not under my control. I’d much rather know each of you in person!

Finally, I'd like to include here a picture of the Pierpont window from the Mill Plain church in Waterbury which was paid for by the PFA and where the family reunion was held for many years.