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Marian
The story of the William Bierce Family Bible is a bit of a saga!
My gr-gr-grandmother, Martha (Bierce) Holden was very keen on family history, and in about the 1890s she seems to have contacted her brothers and sisters and various cousins and wheedled as much family information from them as she could, including collecting a vast array of letters and other documents. At some point she seems to have gained access to at least three Family Bibles (William & Abigail (Bell) Bierce; Dr. Columbus & Mary (Curtis) Bierce; William Wallace and Elizabeth Ann (Darst) Bierce). With help from her mother and at least one other person, she began the painstaking process of copying out all of the information included therein. In some cases there seems to be more than one version of the same Bible. Whether these were rough drafts or just extra copies is difficult to tell. Some of the copies have been annotated with extra information, so it's occasionally also difficult to tell what is original and what was added, but I think that we've mostly figured it out now.
The copies all passed down through her youngest son, my gr-grandfather, then to my grandmother's siter, and at the moment I have them whilst I'm doing some analysis, but I'll eventually be returning them to our central family file which is held by a cousin in Oregon.
The original Columbus Bierce Bible eventually passed down to my grandmother's brother, and I believe that one of his sons has it now.
I'm not sure where the William Wallace Bierce Bible is.
The copy of the extracts from the William Bierce Bible contains the following note:
"This Bierce's Family Register was copied from the family bible of William Bierce. It was purchased on subscription in 1810. Came to Lucius V. Bierce and was given by him to William Wallace Bierce with the request that it be passed down to the oldest male member of the family. It came to George W. Bierce as son of George H. Bierce. The oldest son of Wallace Bierce. Geo. W. Bierce is the oldest son of the oldest son for six generations of Bierces, and possibly more."
This last statement isn't quite true, as Lucius V. Bierce wasn't an eldest son - in fact he was the youngest son of William Bierce.
So the descent of the bible is as follows:
William Bierce gave it to his youngest son Lucius V. Bierce.
Lucius V. Bierce gave it to his nephew William Wallace Bierce (who was the only child of William Bierce's oldest son Columbus).
William Wallace Bierce gave it to his oldest son George Harness Bierce.
George Harness Bierce gave it to his oldest son George William Bierce.
As far as I know George William Bierce (b.1871) never married, and neither did his brother Frank. George was still alive in 1924, when he sent a postcard to one of his uncles, and probably in 1942 when a portrait was painted of him, but I don't know what happened to him after that. I believe that he was connected with the Western Reserve Historical Society, which has the portrait, but their catalog does not list the bible amongst its collections as far as I can tell.
Anyway, that's the history, and the mystery! The info I have is from the transcribed copy and I'll be happy to pass it on to you, but I'll do that by a separate e-mail direct to you, and we can continue our correspondence from there.
Incidentally, I didn't get your direct e-mail to me, but you can check my address again when I send the bible info to you.
All the best for now
Deborah
PS - A scan of the William Bierce tombstone would be great, then I can forward a copy to my aunt and cousins, who would be very interested to see it. Thanks.
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