By Peter F. Stevens

In the mid- and late-19th century, everyone in Dorchester knew who Henry Lillie Pierce was. His life, if not his name, however, fell by the town's proverbial historical wayside as the years of the 20th century passed. For even though many locals walked through Pierce Square, which served as the jump-off point for the Dorchester Day parades, and even though many locals would attend the Henry L. Pierce School, memories of the man himself and his many contributions to the commerce and politics of Dorchester and Boston ebbed.

Pierce came into prominence in Dorchester with the death of Colonel Walter Baker in 1852. Control of the already famed Baker Chocolate Mill passed into the hands of the chocolate magnate's brother-in-law Sidney B. Williams, but he died a mere two years after stepping to the helm of the company.

Waiting in the wings of the mill's operation was a savvy, ambitious clerk named Henry L. Pierce, the step-nephew of Colonel Baker. Pierce, a man with piercing eyes and a "can-do" demeanor, had worked as a trusted assistant to both Baker and Sidney B. Williams and literally knew the business from the grinding stones that filled the air of Lower Mills with the scent of chocolate, to the task of carting and shipping "Baker's Finest" nationwide.

In 1854, he leased the landmark chocolate mill, wisely continuing to operate under the name "Walter Baker & Company" and amassing record profits for the business.

Pierce paid a pricey amount to the trustees of the Baker Estate, but the chocolate-generated cash proved more than ample to keep everyone involved happy throughout much of the 19th century. Not only did Pierce's success - symbolized by the construction of the state-of-the-art Pierce Mill in Lower Mills in 1872 - provide a healthy balance sheet for the Baker Estate and Pierce himself, but also jobs for many locals.

Historian William Dana Orcutt lauds: "Under his [Pierce's] able management the house of Walter Baker & Co. has now gained a world-wide name, and 'Dorchester' has become a household word in connection with the manufacture of chocolate. The modest building which sufficed for the needs of the business in the last century [18th] is now replaced by a plant covering more than forty acres of ground, on both sides of the Neponset River, on which some twenty buildings, including the great factories, with warehouses, shops, stables, etc., have been erected."

As he cemented both the Bakers' legacy as America's first family of chocolate and Dorchester's status as America's "Chocolate Village," Henry L. Pierce also proved an estimable civic servant. Twice, in 1872 and in 1877, he served as mayor of Boston, establishing his reputation as "a public-spirited man who has done much to benefit the town [of Dorchester]."

Pierce's status in the Dorchester of his day burgeoned even further with the dedication of a new school that "owe[d] it elegant building largely to his beneficence." On May 19, 1892, residents of the town gathered on Washington Street for the dedication of the Henry L. Pierce School, hailed as "the latest and most elegant of the school structures in the Dorchester limits."

The Pierce School stood on a historic spot where once rose a mansion occupied by General Henry Knox - the Revolutionary War hero whose troops had lugged Fort Ticonderoga's massive cannons through snow to Dorchester Heights to chase the redcoats from Boston in 1776 - and by renowned orator Senator Daniel Webster around 1822. Fittingly graced with portraits of Knox, Webster, and Henry L. Pierce and framed by trees along the front lawn, the school's stately brick walls, arched main entrance, massive sloped roof, and large windows represented not only Pierce's commitment to the town, but also Dorchester's historic educational legacy, "from the establishment of the first 'free schoole' to the present day [1892]."

The Pierce School, a historian praises, "seems to be the crowning stone to the monument on which the inhabitants of the town have labored, little by little, for more than two centuries and a half."

Thanks in large measure to Pierce's public-mindedness, the school bearing his name provided many Dorchester children "the best educational opportunities which the world affords."

Pierce Square is best known today in conjunction with the Dorchester Day parade, but as the 2001 celebration approaches, it is fitting to recall the site's namesake - captain of commerce and public servant Henry L. Pierce.

(Journalist Peter F. Stevens is the author of The Rogue's March: John Riley and the St. Patrick's Battalion, 1846-48, Brassey's, and Notorious and Notable New Englanders, Down East Books.)