Hog Heaven: The Death of Earl Pierce

Like most children, my brothers and I would often seek out our mother throughout the day – to ask what was for dinner, tattle on someone, tell her we were bored, etc.  If we found our father first and asked him if he had seen Mom, a common refrain was, “She went out to feed the hogs and they ate her.”  We didn’t live on a farm, and we didn’t have hogs.  I assumed this was just another one of my dad’s Kentuckyisms, and that there were probably a lot of kids in the Midwest who were told this exact thing.  That was, until I researched the life of my great aunt, L. Deana Ahlfield.

L. Deana Ahlfield, center, with her family in about 1916. From left to right: Golda Jane Ahlfield (my grandmother), Elnora Calhoun, Willie Lee Ahlfield, L. Deana Ahlfield, Minnie Maye Ahlfield, and Ulyssis Otto Ahlfield.

L. Deana was born on December 16, 1900 in East Perry, Missouri [8].  She was the second of seven children born to Ulyssis Otto Ahlfield and his wife, Elnora Calhoun [9, 12, 13].  I do not believe the “L” in her name stood for anything – rather, her name was pronounced like “Eldeana”, or sometimes just “Deana”.  The family moved to Graves County, Kentucky, sometime between 1903 and 1907, where Otto managed his own farm, and the children labored alongside him [12, 13].

When Deana was about twenty years old, she married Earl Pierce, a young farmer who lived nearby [14, 15].  The couple moved to Raton, New Mexico for a few years after their wedding.  There they welcomed their first son, Carl Franklin Pierce, on August 1, 1921.  Sadly, Carl died just four months after he was born [5].  Another son, Howard Earl Pierce, was born in Raton on January 5, 1923 [6, 10].  By the time the couple’s third son, Joseph O. Pierce, was born on November 17, 1925, the family was back in Graves County [2, 7].  While he would continue farming, Earl also gained employment at a motor company, repairing cars, and Deana worked as a seamstress at a men’s clothing factory in town [15].  After high school, Howard and Joseph served with the United States military during the second World War [6, 7].  Both men returned to Kentucky after completing their service.

On Thursday, October 14, 1954, Earl woke early to tend to the farm chores.  He had retired from his work as a car repairman, but had maintained the farm [3].  Around 7 AM, while feeding the hogs, Earl suffered a heart attack and fell dead in the pen [3].  He was 56 years old.  I do not know how long Earl lay in the enclosure before he was found, or whether or not the hogs paid him any attention – the death certificate does not comment on the condition of his body – but the scene is eerily reminiscent of the 2001 film, Hannibal.  Earl was buried two days later in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky [3].  Deana never remarried, and was buried alongside her husband after her death in February 1982 [1, 4, 8].

Death record for Earl Pierce.

When I discovered this story, my dad’s phrase echoed in my mind, suddenly coming across as slightly macabre.  I called him up, and asked if he was aware of how his uncle had died, and if so, how long did he wait before he started telling this joke?  Dad laughed, and said he had never really known Earl.  He had only been five years old when his uncle died, and thus has few memories of him.  The realization that this perverse proverb had been based in fact has made me question other oft-repeated phrases in my family.  For example, Mammaw’s facetious, fart-excusing phrase, “Who stepped on a duck?”…

How Are We Related?

Family Tree Maker® Relationship Calculator for Earl Pierce, the husband of my first great aunt, L. Deana Ahlfield, and me.  I have blurred out the names of living people, as well as my own personal information.

Sources

  1. “Kentucky Death Index, 1911-2000,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for L. Deana Pierce, 1982; Graves County, Kentucky.
  2. “Kentucky, Birth Index, 1911-1999,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Joseph O. Pierce, 1925; Graves County, Kentucky.
  3. “Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1964,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Earl Pierce, 1954; Graves County, Kentucky.
  4. “Kentucky, Vital Record Indexes, 1911-1999,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for L. Deana Pierce, 1982; Graves County, Kentucky.
  5. “New Mexico Deaths, 1889-1945,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Carl Franklin Pierce, 1921; Colfax County, New Mexico.
  6. “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Howard Pierce, 2006.
  7. “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 24 May 2017, entry for Joseph Pierce, 1981.
  8. “U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Deana Pierce, 1982; Graves County, Kentucky.
  9. “U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 23 July 2017, entry for Elnora G. “Nora” Calhoun Ahlfield, 1974; Graves County, Kentucky.
  10. “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Howard Earl Pierce, 2006.
  11. “U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017, entry for Deana Pierce, 1982; Graves County, Kentucky.
  12. 1910 U.S. census, Graves County, Kentucky, population schedule, Magisterial District No. 3, enumeration district (ED) 71, sheet 5A (stamped, 5A handwritten), household 83, family 88, Otto H. Alfield; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 571.
  13. 1920 U.S. census, Graves County, Kentucky, population schedule, Pryorsburg Township, enumeration district (ED) 83, sheet 4B (stamped, 4B handwritten), household 79, family 83, Atto Allfield; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 571.
  14. 1930 U.S. census, Graves County, Kentucky, population schedule, Pryorsburg Township, enumeration district (ED) 0015, sheet 3A (stamped, 3A handwritten), household 181, family 226, Earl Pearce; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 746.
  15. 1940 U.S. census, Graves County, Kentucky, population schedule, Pryorsburg Township, enumeration district (ED) 42-10, sheet 3A (stamped, 3A handwritten), family 58, Earl Pearce; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 10 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 1309.

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