TRANSFER FROM ORIGINAL BURIAL SITE, the defunct Third Baptist Churchyard on Amity Street in Lower Manhattan, to the Madison Avenue Baptist Church Plot in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Born c.1794, Mrs. Pierson was one of four children born to the Rev. John Stanford, one of the most distinguished evangelical ministers in New York City, and his wife, the former Sarah Ten Eyck, who died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1798. Having lost her mother when she was four years old, Sarah grew up exceptionally close to her father, who never re-married. She became a lay missionary among the City's impoverished, and was universally admired for her compassion and religious zeal. According to a celebrated contemporary, William Leete Stone, she was also musically gifted, and although her features were considered plain, her lively intellect and physical grace made her appear attractive. After a long engagement, she married a Mr. Warner, the delay having been caused by his inability to find sufficient means to support a wife and family. Just six months after their wedding, he died of yellow fever while on a business trip to the West Indies, leaving her pregnant with a daughter who, after her birth, may have been named Charlotte. The widowed Sarah was still in her twenties when she married again, taking Elijah Pierson, a successful young Manhattan merchant and fellow lay missionary, as her second husband. The wedding took place on May 25, 1822, and the following spring she gave birth to the only child of this union, a daughter named Elizabeth, born on April 14, 1823. The Piersons' marriage was a happy one, and the couple were renowned for their religious fervor and tireless work among the destitute in the City's notorious Five Points slum and at the Bowery Hill mission. Sarah's health began to fail, however, and after eight years of marriage, she died in her mid-thirties, a victim of tuberculosis that had been exacerbated by religious fasting and exhaustion. Devastated by her illness and loss, Elijah Pierson grew increasingly delusional, and by 1833 had become a follower of the infamous religious cult leader Robert Matthews, a.k.a. "Matthias the Prophet". After Pierson died under suspicious circumstances in 1834, Matthews stood trial for his murder. The well-publicized case, with its revelations of the cult's scandalous practices, outraged the nation.
Sarah Pierson's survivors at the time of her death included her father, her widower Elijah, and their daughter Elizabeth. (While it's probable that she was also survived by her daughter from her earlier marriage to Warner, this contributor is not sure of it.) Elizabeth Stanford Pierson, then seven years old, later married Emilius Sayre, and died at age 73 in 1896. -Bio by Nikita Barlow
Born c.1794, Mrs. Pierson was one of four children born to the Rev. John Stanford, one of the most distinguished evangelical ministers in New York City, and his wife, the former Sarah Ten Eyck, who died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1798. Having lost her mother when she was four years old, Sarah grew up exceptionally close to her father, who never re-married. She became a lay missionary among the City's impoverished, and was universally admired for her compassion and religious zeal. According to a celebrated contemporary, William Leete Stone, she was also musically gifted, and although her features were considered plain, her lively intellect and physical grace made her appear attractive. After a long engagement, she married a Mr. Warner, the delay having been caused by his inability to find sufficient means to support a wife and family. Just six months after their wedding, he died of yellow fever while on a business trip to the West Indies, leaving her pregnant with a daughter who, after her birth, may have been named Charlotte. The widowed Sarah was still in her twenties when she married again, taking Elijah Pierson, a successful young Manhattan merchant and fellow lay missionary, as her second husband. The wedding took place on May 25, 1822, and the following spring she gave birth to the only child of this union, a daughter named Elizabeth, born on April 14, 1823. The Piersons' marriage was a happy one, and the couple were renowned for their religious fervor and tireless work among the destitute in the City's notorious Five Points slum and at the Bowery Hill mission. Sarah's health began to fail, however, and after eight years of marriage, she died in her mid-thirties, a victim of tuberculosis that had been exacerbated by religious fasting and exhaustion. Devastated by her illness and loss, Elijah Pierson grew increasingly delusional, and by 1833 had become a follower of the infamous religious cult leader Robert Matthews, a.k.a. "Matthias the Prophet". After Pierson died under suspicious circumstances in 1834, Matthews stood trial for his murder. The well-publicized case, with its revelations of the cult's scandalous practices, outraged the nation.
Sarah Pierson's survivors at the time of her death included her father, her widower Elijah, and their daughter Elizabeth. (While it's probable that she was also survived by her daughter from her earlier marriage to Warner, this contributor is not sure of it.) Elizabeth Stanford Pierson, then seven years old, later married Emilius Sayre, and died at age 73 in 1896. -Bio by Nikita Barlow
TRANSFER FROM ORIGINAL BURIAL SITE, the defunct Third Baptist Churchyard on Amity Street in Lower Manhattan, to the Madison Avenue Baptist Church Plot in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Born c.1794, Mrs. Pierson was one of four children born to the Rev. John Stanford, one of the most distinguished evangelical ministers in New York City, and his wife, the former Sarah Ten Eyck, who died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1798. Having lost her mother when she was four years old, Sarah grew up exceptionally close to her father, who never re-married. She became a lay missionary among the City's impoverished, and was universally admired for her compassion and religious zeal. According to a celebrated contemporary, William Leete Stone, she was also musically gifted, and although her features were considered plain, her lively intellect and physical grace made her appear attractive. After a long engagement, she married a Mr. Warner, the delay having been caused by his inability to find sufficient means to support a wife and family. Just six months after their wedding, he died of yellow fever while on a business trip to the West Indies, leaving her pregnant with a daughter who, after her birth, may have been named Charlotte. The widowed Sarah was still in her twenties when she married again, taking Elijah Pierson, a successful young Manhattan merchant and fellow lay missionary, as her second husband. The wedding took place on May 25, 1822, and the following spring she gave birth to the only child of this union, a daughter named Elizabeth, born on April 14, 1823. The Piersons' marriage was a happy one, and the couple were renowned for their religious fervor and tireless work among the destitute in the City's notorious Five Points slum and at the Bowery Hill mission. Sarah's health began to fail, however, and after eight years of marriage, she died in her mid-thirties, a victim of tuberculosis that had been exacerbated by religious fasting and exhaustion. Devastated by her illness and loss, Elijah Pierson grew increasingly delusional, and by 1833 had become a follower of the infamous religious cult leader Robert Matthews, a.k.a. "Matthias the Prophet". After Pierson died under suspicious circumstances in 1834, Matthews stood trial for his murder. The well-publicized case, with its revelations of the cult's scandalous practices, outraged the nation.
Sarah Pierson's survivors at the time of her death included her father, her widower Elijah, and their daughter Elizabeth. (While it's probable that she was also survived by her daughter from her earlier marriage to Warner, this contributor is not sure of it.) Elizabeth Stanford Pierson, then seven years old, later married Emilius Sayre, and died at age 73 in 1896. -Bio by Nikita Barlow
Born c.1794, Mrs. Pierson was one of four children born to the Rev. John Stanford, one of the most distinguished evangelical ministers in New York City, and his wife, the former Sarah Ten Eyck, who died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1798. Having lost her mother when she was four years old, Sarah grew up exceptionally close to her father, who never re-married. She became a lay missionary among the City's impoverished, and was universally admired for her compassion and religious zeal. According to a celebrated contemporary, William Leete Stone, she was also musically gifted, and although her features were considered plain, her lively intellect and physical grace made her appear attractive. After a long engagement, she married a Mr. Warner, the delay having been caused by his inability to find sufficient means to support a wife and family. Just six months after their wedding, he died of yellow fever while on a business trip to the West Indies, leaving her pregnant with a daughter who, after her birth, may have been named Charlotte. The widowed Sarah was still in her twenties when she married again, taking Elijah Pierson, a successful young Manhattan merchant and fellow lay missionary, as her second husband. The wedding took place on May 25, 1822, and the following spring she gave birth to the only child of this union, a daughter named Elizabeth, born on April 14, 1823. The Piersons' marriage was a happy one, and the couple were renowned for their religious fervor and tireless work among the destitute in the City's notorious Five Points slum and at the Bowery Hill mission. Sarah's health began to fail, however, and after eight years of marriage, she died in her mid-thirties, a victim of tuberculosis that had been exacerbated by religious fasting and exhaustion. Devastated by her illness and loss, Elijah Pierson grew increasingly delusional, and by 1833 had become a follower of the infamous religious cult leader Robert Matthews, a.k.a. "Matthias the Prophet". After Pierson died under suspicious circumstances in 1834, Matthews stood trial for his murder. The well-publicized case, with its revelations of the cult's scandalous practices, outraged the nation.
Sarah Pierson's survivors at the time of her death included her father, her widower Elijah, and their daughter Elizabeth. (While it's probable that she was also survived by her daughter from her earlier marriage to Warner, this contributor is not sure of it.) Elizabeth Stanford Pierson, then seven years old, later married Emilius Sayre, and died at age 73 in 1896. -Bio by Nikita Barlow
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