A Wilson Family Tree

Notes for Lynn Diaz Pierce


He was the author of a website on LD's Family History Info. I have used info from his Faus section, see https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~piercescga/genealogy/faus.html .

From https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/156114260/person/402059200285/facts:

Lynn Diaz Pierce (1954-2016) Obituary

Lynn Pierce, 62, originally of Spearman, Texas, died Saturday April 16th , after a year-long battle with cancer. He was a 1972 graduate of Spearman High School and a 1977 graduate of Texas Tech University. He spent the majority of his life as a businessman. He was preceded in death by his mother and father, JL Pierce and Juanita Faus Pierce, and his sister Jammie Dean Pierce. Lynn leaves behind two sisters, Rosa Pierce Roberts and wife Alexis of Pampa, Karon P. Hardy and husband Ulysses of Chesapeake Va., and one brother, James Tylan Pierce and wife Valrie of Pampa. He also leaves behind three nieces, Shameka, Brandy, and Jessie, and two nephews, Derek and Samuel (Austin).


From https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~piercescga/genealogy/pdffiles/rubefaus.PDF [Note: I corrected a few typos -- MLW]:

I, LD Pierce III (Lynn Diaz) am third generation of the pioneer settlers named Pierce who moved to Hansford County from Johnson County Tx. My father JL Pierce, carries on the pioneer tradition of "Windmilling", taught to him by my grandfather Ld Pierce, and Ed Wilbanks, his cousin..... My dad, JL is one of the very few practicing "Windmill Men" left. His services provide area ranchers with virtually "free energy" water, thanks to the plentiful panhandle wind.

I am very proud to have learned this lost art from childhood, and also I have personally helped my father and grandfather erect hundreds of these steel and wood towers all over the vast waterless plains; I have had to fight the strong winds while working on windmill motors many times.

My father lost his right index finger while working on a well when I was a child. When I was 11 or 12 we were working on one of HB Parks wells, near Morse, and I jumped from the 1st cross of a wooden tower right onto a large piece of wood with a railroad spike sticking up through it. It went all the way through the middle of my right foot. I never fell off a tower, but came close several times; my dad's cousin Harver Clark did fall from a tower---right into a stock tank below that was full of mud and he was unhurt. This happened at Bernice Browns farm east of town. Boy did Harbert stink of stock tank mud on the way back to town. We made him ride in the back of the truck!

At age six, I began helping my grandpa LD, and my daddy work on windmills during the summer and on weekends. I was paid $50 per well. I finally got a raise to a dollar a job by age ten. I loved the prairie and the countyside especially in the springtime. I enjoyed working on the many
wells at Turkey Track Ranch, and the 47 windmills at Red Camp by Pampa. We worked on Vera Wroten's two section ranch and wild life refuse, keeping her wells up. I really enjoyed going there: for years she had dug cactus from her pasture and would show me the back of her pick-up or car and it was filled with cactus and she kept a couple of quart jars she had filled with rattlers from the hundreds Rattlesnakes she had killed on her two sections. She always had "Swimming Pool" clean stock tanks and there was no cactus on her property. She was an "Original" free spirit.

Grandpa Ld, was one of eight children: Allen, Susie, Clem, Felix Diaz,
George, Visa.

LD Pierce, Sr. was called "Peg Leg Pierce or Peggy" and he accidentally lost his leg while horseback riding at night in Johnson County on the way to play his fiddle at a dance; he began racing a train and collided with it. I finally sought out and found the old Pierce ranch on Goatneck on the Brazos in 1996, and there the men still living in Goatneck still tell tales of LD Pierce Sr. One told me that day was when the men used to steal other persons fishes off the line--they would swim across to the other side of the Brazos--they would alway carry a big stick--so that if they were caught they could stick the big piece of wood out of the water, and the people would blame the theft on who else---but LD Pierce. I finally heard of Dee Peterson (one of the oldest Living Pioneers in Johnson County) who lived on the land adjoining the Pierce ranch but by the time I could call him to have him tell me more about LD and Rhoda Pierce he was dying. He knew Rhoda and Peg Leg and had grown up with them all his life till they moved to Hansford County.

I was born in 1954 and have one brother Tylan, and three sisters; Karon, Jammie, and Rosa. I graduated Spearman High in 1972 and was very active in speech and debate all through high school under the leadership of June Heidelberg Porter. I was elected most studious of my class and also was Editor of the 1972 LYNX yearbook my senior year, under the direction of DeWayne Mitchell.

I attended Texas Tech University getting a BSBA in Business in the Fall of 1977. I served on the Business Administration Student Council from its inception until 1976. After my graduation with a degree in marketing I was a sales rep for J & G Waste Systems of Lubbock selling dempsty
dumpsters. They moved me to Dallas Tx in the fall of 1979 to start a new company. Joan Giannattasio the owners daughter is still one of my very good friends to this day and they own Anchor Waste in Houston Tx. I have been self employed owning SOS Products in Dallas Tx selling security products to businesses, especially the eztone entry alert security door chimes. I became interested in geneaology and the internet in 1994, and have spent the three years since my mothers death researching Pierce, Faus, Hibbs, Wilbanks, Scott family histories.

by LD Pierce from Hansford County History Vol 1 page 233 updated and re-edited by myself August 1998

Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above.    ...Mike Wilson
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