Juliette Peirce - History - Arisbe

Arisbe

In 1887 Peirce spent part of his inheritance from his parents to buy 2,000 acres (8 km²) of rural land near Milford, Pennsylvania, land that never yielded an economic return. There he had a 1854 farmhouse remodeled to his design. The Peirces named the house and land Arisbe. The local people, many of whom were French, accepted Juliette. The Peirces led an active social life there and became friends with relatives of Gifford Pinchot. Except for occasional travels and stays elsewhere, the Peirces spent the rest of their lives there. They named their property Arisbe for possibly any or all of the following reasons:

• The ancient city of Arisbe was a colony of the city-state of Miletus, which was the scene of much early Greek philosophy and science.
• The Iliad tells of Axylus, who welcomed all passers-by into his house near a public road in Arisbe, Homer remarking that later none of them stood between Axylus and death in battle.
• Reasons connected with other meanings of "Arisbe" (see Arisbe (disambiguation)).
• "Arisbe" is an anagram of French baiser, "to kiss".

Even as they sank into poverty, they continued to make expansions to the house, almost losing it and their land because of unpaid debts.