Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Pierce, Asher, 1867-1936
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Asher Pierce, born in the village of Koltinan in the Kovno district of Lithuania to Jacob and Feige Dvorah (Fay Deborah), nee Bernstein on March 15, 1867. Arrived in Canada in 1880 at the age of 13 and assisted by an uncle, Hyman Bernstein as his brother Charles had also been helped when he immigrated a year earlier. The first work he found was cutting bed slats in Montreal furniture company and later a water boy for a railroad construction gang. According to the family, the latter job was what got him started in the peddling trade. His remaining family immigrated to Canada in 1884, soon attempting farming in Middlechurch, Manitoba and then again in 1888 in Oxbow, North West Territories. Pierce returned to Montreal at the turn of the century and started his successful whole sale fur business. In 1900 he married Ella (Nellie) Vineberg and the couple had one son in 1901, Sydney David. Pierce was heavily involved in the Jewish community and philanthropy as evident from the following entry from Canadian Jewry, Selected and assisted the Jewish colony at Hirsch, Sask., assisted to settle the French Colony in Cardroff, Sask. In 1894 settled a colony of 24 Jewish families at his own expense, which ten years later was the most prosperous colony in the West; was one of the five who built the Mont Sinai Sanatorium, St[e]. Agathe; also one of five who purchased the Orphan's Home; Life Governor of the following hospitals: Montreal General, Western, Notre Dame and Verdun Asylum. Past President A. and E. Pierce and Co. Ltd., founder and first Vice-President of Canadian Fur Auction Sales Co., Ltd., past Vice-President of Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. In 1927 founded the Gan Chaym Corporation Ltd. for the development of orange plantations in Palestine, which now owns and operates the largest Palestinian orange grove. He was associated in this undertaking and in other transactions for the development of Palestine, with the late Lord Melchet. Clubs: Montefiore, Islesmere Golf. Canadian Jewry: Prominent Jews of Canada. Dr. Zvi Cohen, ed. Toronto: Canadian Jewish Historical Publishing Company, 1933. p. 258