tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31300912085078432232024-02-18T19:07:20.421-08:00Edward Pearson - Coming to AmericaStories of my grandfather james madison Pearson and his ancestors, including Edward Pearson, first in America, and Edward Peeresonne, first of the Pearsons.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-69221775673725092202018-05-21T08:37:00.004-07:002018-05-21T15:27:29.852-07:00Round and Round the Mulberry Bush<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Here we go round the mulberry bush,<br />
The mulberry bush,<br />
The mulberry bush.<br />
Here we go round the mulberry bush<br />
On a cold and frosty morning. </blockquote>
<br />
Sorting out family trees is a bit like the old nursery rhyme, Round the Mulberry Bush, it never seems to end.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Manchester</h3>
<br />
Manchester, England today is a bustling metropolis of over three million, and famous for its soccer team, affectionately called ManU that plays at Old Trafford.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Edward Peersonne </h3>
<br />
The area where the city of Manchester is now located was home to Edward Peersonne, my first recorded ancestor, born about 1575 in Bollin Township in Wilmslow Parish, Cheshire, England. Edward gave birth to a son, named Lawrence, born in 1620, who gave birth to a son Edward, born 1651 in Wilmslow, Pownall Fee, Cheshire, England, who married Sarah Burgess on March 6, 1671, and sailed to America with brothers John and Thomas around 1683<b>. </b>Some say John went first. Either way, they arrived at a time when William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania, as a safe place for Quakers to practice their religion. Our Edward settled down and died at the age of 46, on June 3, 1697 in Falls Mountain, Bucks, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America, but not before he fathered 11 children.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Bollin Fee </h3>
<br />
The Bollin Township from whence Edward came was part of the “Demesne… of the Fee of the Manor of Bolinn, in the undred of Macclesfield, with the Advowson of Wilmslow Church.” This same Bollin-Fee was mentioned in 1328 in connection with one Edward Fitton of Bollin-Fee, of Maxwell Hundred and the same Wilmslow Church. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DYY1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA522&lpg=PA522&dq=Bollin-fee,+Maxfield+Hundred&source=bl&ots=0wn5LaBDbr&sig=ZO1gVBw6qsC_ORwXZpJBo76xwwE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRpZ3NhJfbAhUhgK0KHfQxCCcQ6AEITDAH#v=onepage&q=Bollin-fee%2C%20Maxfield%20Hundred&f=false" target="_blank">History of the County Palatine and Cheshire County</a>. A long and worthy history, full of names, long forgotten.<br />
<br />
One wonders if it is worth the effort to peal back the layers of history, to go back in time to the beginning. One does not really know when an ancestor is introduced into a place and by whom. Blood lines are attainted or extinguished.<br />
<br />
Life continues.<br />
<br />
If we may be so bold as to claim a connection to those originally inhabiting the land then that connection goes back to the Celtic tribes known as the Carnabii or Cornavii, then to the Romans as part of the Province of Flavia Caesariensis. It was Agricola who founded Chester in 84 AD. The Roman soldiers stationed there would have had their hands full keeping out the untamed Scots and Picts in the north of the British Islands.
The Romans withdrew, as we all know, and Britain descended into what is called the Dark Ages.<br />
<br />
<h3>
England</h3>
<br />
The Saxons entered the picture and the area became part of the Kingdom of Mercia, but the kingdom became diminished by new invaders from Denmark. King Alfred would finally bring order and England was born. So matters stood until 1066 when William the Conqueror arrived and bested King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. As a result all the Saxons were ejected from their lands, the lands given to Hugh d’Avranches, William’s kinsman.
Centuries pass. <br />
<br />
King Henry VIII became king, established the Anglican faith, and religious controversies arose. King Edward VI took the throne and then Queen Mary, known as Bloody Mary, then Elizabeth, then James, then Charles. Charles became cross-wise with Parliament. Enter stage right, Oliver Cromwell, who deposed and executed a king and then became Lord Protector of the British Commonwealth in 1653. King Charles II became king of a restored monarchy in 1653.<br />
<br />
Of Charles II, it was said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"We have a pretty witty king,
<br />Whose word no man relies on,
<br />He never said a foolish thing,
<br />And never did a wise one"</b>
</blockquote>
Charles tried to accommodate religious dissenters during his reign, a policy not popular with Parliament which passed the Clarendon Act and the Penal Acts. These laws severely restricted nonconformists like Catholics and Quakers from practicing their religion.<br />
<br />
Charles survived until 1685, when he died of a stroke.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://pearsonamerica.blogspot.com/2012/02/brothers-thomas-and-edward.html?showComment=1526927225412#c1528687391641972374" target="_blank">Elsewhere it is written</a>:</b><br />
<br />
"In 1657, Lawrence Pearson of Wilmslow Parish refused to pay a tithe, and had a horse worth three pounds confiscated to pay an eight shilling tithe. In 1665 Lawrence Pearson of Pownall Fee was arrested at a Quaker meeting and jailed for two months. In 1650, Lawrence Pearson was imprisoned for testifying in the streets at Highfield, County Derby. In 1660, Robert Pearson, his brother, was put in jail for refusing to take an oath."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dhanke&id=I29373" target="_blank"><b>See Steve Pearson's genealogy </b></a><br />
<br />
Our ancestors departed England in advance of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-25671605018796866572017-09-03T07:27:00.001-07:002017-09-04T05:29:43.237-07:00Angels at the Front<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Soldiers' memories of war consist of forced marches at night, restless sleep in pup tents too small to keep out the cold drizzle of rain and the noise of falling shells. Mostly, memories are of long stretches of boredom, broken by the sheer terror of battle and haunting fear of death. In the midst of all this, soldiers will take time to think of sweethearts back home. </blockquote>
<br />
During the American and French assault on Saint-Mihiel, the 137th Regiment of the 35th Division remained camped outside Nancy in the Forest de Haye.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMz2Hok6FIGAJgxkhIhj8PcZr5FeO2BCoVlGVW3GzWM5mEAXtP4mzbXCYR2kXB_CMrLsKGmlFdHifSiuhqFFUdh_F2_7iijImioOs1yA7IhRYZlUqOxwE5bMtyJwh8rTfk0S9aGheT_KQ/s1600/American_troops_celebrating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="1600" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMz2Hok6FIGAJgxkhIhj8PcZr5FeO2BCoVlGVW3GzWM5mEAXtP4mzbXCYR2kXB_CMrLsKGmlFdHifSiuhqFFUdh_F2_7iijImioOs1yA7IhRYZlUqOxwE5bMtyJwh8rTfk0S9aGheT_KQ/s640/American_troops_celebrating.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American Doughboys</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The assault began September 12th and was a success.<br />
<br />
It was then decided that the 35th Division would move by truck and night march to prepare for the last battle of the First World War, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In this battle the names of Cheppy, Varennes, Montrebeau Wood, Baulny and Exermont would become forever memorable to those who fought there.<br />
<br />
My grandfather Captain James Madison Pearson fought in the upcoming battle as a member of a different unit. His cousin Sergeant Varlourd Pearson was a member of the 137th Infantry Regiment.<br />
<br />
His <a href="http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=14037" target="_blank">citation for the Distinguished Service Cross reads</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company I, 137th
Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, A.E.F., near Baulny, France, (north of Charpentry on the road to Apremont) 28
September 1918. Though wounded three times by shrapnel and machine-gun
bullets, Sergeant Pearson refused to be evacuated and continued to lead
the advance of ; his platoon, remaining in command for several hours
till he received a fourth wound which proved fatal.</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhAp4rfVjjIKbtr8OFP5BxFiX12K0mbJZKPIR93M_1ilK8wtrnbCf1Skdpp2_NTBnoX3XwwCKyoLPJ3MjIpx9E9Fqn2_BD5U3vvQLbCj6LU2mT-xGxmkY7LRy1nY9MhIPrFkR4mLVSE2u/s1600/meuse_argonne_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1210" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhAp4rfVjjIKbtr8OFP5BxFiX12K0mbJZKPIR93M_1ilK8wtrnbCf1Skdpp2_NTBnoX3XwwCKyoLPJ3MjIpx9E9Fqn2_BD5U3vvQLbCj6LU2mT-xGxmkY7LRy1nY9MhIPrFkR4mLVSE2u/s400/meuse_argonne_map.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of the Argonne Forest and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 1918</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
What thoughts he had prior to and during the battle, I don't know. But a good account from the 137th Regiment can be found.<br />
<br />
An excerpt from <a href="https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesof100hate/reminiscencesof100hate_djvu.txt" target="_blank"><b>Reminiscences of the 137th U. S. Infantry Regiment</b></a>, compiled by Carl E. Haterius. The words are substantially those of Mr. Haterius, although I have taken some minor liberties.
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
About September 18th, learning that 35th Division would, not be needed in the drive at Saint-Mihiel, we prepared to move to another front. A few hours later, the regiment left the woods and hiked seven kilometers through the quagmire of the forest over to the Nancy and Toul highway, where a long train of 1100 French motor trucks waited to convey us to another sector.
<br />
<br />
While loading into these waiting trucks, an amusing incident occurred.
<br />
<br />
We had not as yet seen evidence of a real honest to goodness American woman. April 25th afforded us our last glimpse of one such.
It may sound strange to say we never knew before that moment what one of the fairer sex means to this old world. Often perhaps we had been awkward enough to pass such a remark as,
<br />
<br />
''Well, I guess we could get along in this old world without women. Vain creatures as a rule, and men must always cater to them."
Now, thanking the powers that be, we learned a bitter-sweet lesson – in truth this world would be a dismal place without the presence of those "bright angels."
<br />
<br />
For weeks, we had come across none but old French peasant folk, and we craved the sight of a real woman. It is strange, we now admit, but it is God’s honest truth. Standing there on that highway awaiting orders to load trucks, we saw an ambulance barreling down the road, and all along the line great cheers rose into the air.
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyk5WSbEt7l3FmtSf90oQCFbmb4wK_i-wLRd8LbLwI-IipMSGMb0vdPqNmNpsjYqdW8gtqNlTM0kV1ewZLA44BEyH2zYD0waDlXIJKaiLoax2ZAwgW5-kjWLN6pIY8e-DlsXuGABrstfjU/s1600/ambulance_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1422" data-original-width="1600" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyk5WSbEt7l3FmtSf90oQCFbmb4wK_i-wLRd8LbLwI-IipMSGMb0vdPqNmNpsjYqdW8gtqNlTM0kV1ewZLA44BEyH2zYD0waDlXIJKaiLoax2ZAwgW5-kjWLN6pIY8e-DlsXuGABrstfjU/s400/ambulance_large.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ambulance World War I</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
As the vehicle came close, we beheld two American Reel Cross nurses seated in front alongside their driver. Everybody made for the road, and as the ''angels" passed, a thunderous greeting arose from the throats of hundreds of doughboys. God’s honest truth, this was the best thing we had seen since coming to France. Again, truth be told, as fast as that ambulance went by, we had hardly even caught a glimpse of the two nurses. But, burning brightly in each man’s eye, was the vision of a raven-haired beauty or the golden locks of some sweetheart back home.
<br />
<br />
After the ambulance passed, a new and hitherto unknown cry came could be heard, and voicings such as, ''I want to go home," passed down the line.
To this day I am inclined to believe those murmurings were as sincere as the tears we shed. We did want to go home, but not right then and there.
</blockquote>
<b>Note. </b>Major and Chaplain, Carl E. Haterius served with the 137th Regiment. He was born in 1892 in Pottawatomie County, Kansas and died in 1962 in Eugene, Oregon.He also served in World War II.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-63062863473066125282017-07-09T15:41:00.002-07:002017-07-09T15:41:41.311-07:00Whimsey<h3>
My grandfather loved poetry, as do I, and so here goes:</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Nobodiness is a malady
<br />That affects almost everybody.
<br />Won’t somebody tell everybody,
<br />Sir or madam, as the case may be,
<br />Your impoliteness is downright rudeness
<br />
I have a name, and it’s not dude
</blockquote>
you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-57876887725078044532017-06-17T06:26:00.001-07:002017-06-17T09:01:22.608-07:00Je suis Française<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h4>
Je suis Française, my grandmother said to me. </h4>
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiI8JGeDsgkPR0YD8NgCuuAUrTwTAS87jFCWPtmZu0RkDNSVhqAf6JjHg_5hX2R_cCCbfeMkQhKp8CHUS2a1oP8_wz_EKxV5EBGUD-zk9FTsth3HwtbnPslyU0EeS0XRbv2AELXI0qCXMi/s1600/1280px-View_of_graffigny.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiI8JGeDsgkPR0YD8NgCuuAUrTwTAS87jFCWPtmZu0RkDNSVhqAf6JjHg_5hX2R_cCCbfeMkQhKp8CHUS2a1oP8_wz_EKxV5EBGUD-zk9FTsth3HwtbnPslyU0EeS0XRbv2AELXI0qCXMi/s400/1280px-View_of_graffigny.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overlooking Graffigny, France</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Do you know the village of Graffigny?<br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
That is no surprise unless you knew of a friend of Voltaire, a certain lady with the name Françoise de Graffigny.<br />
<br />
She kept a copy of her correspondence with her friend and others such as Rousseau and Montesquieu and so, for those who care, a window into the daily life of 18th century France. Oh, yes, she was a celebrity in her own right, having written a novel <b>Lettres d’une Péruvienne</b> (1747) and a play <b>Cénie</b> (1750), which accorded her a fleeting fame now forgotten. A name and nothing more is her connection with Graffigny. And that name was by way of a marriage that was disastrous. So, she divorced herself from the miserable fellow, keeping only the name.<br />
<br />
Would I have known of Graffigny?<br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
No more than you, had not my grandmother chanced it seemed to have come from this unknown town.<br />
<br />
And stranger still, I have to thank a 19-year-old Serbian nationalist, a Gavrilo Princip, who shot the Arch Duke Ferdinand, and so set in motion the dominoes that led to World War I. Or do I thank Kapitanleutnant Walther von Schwieger who sank the Lusitania, and by his act got us into war? And thus, my grandfather into uniform and into France and in a battle of St. Mihiel to be wounded and taken to the village of Graffigny, to be nursed back to health by a French miss s’appelle Marguerite Chevallier.<br />
<br />
So, the two families of Chevallier and Pierresonne were united, and as my grandmother said, Je suis Français. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h4>
The world is unpredictable. We are ruled by chance and coincidence. Thank God, we have the choice to decide the little things. </h4>
</blockquote>
<br />
<h4>
More to come... </h4>
you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-30428525213817088082017-05-28T10:40:00.000-07:002017-05-28T10:55:23.790-07:00Memorial Day 2017I had two family members on my mother's side who were involved in World War I. One is my grandfather, the other my great uncle. One is on a memorial in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France.<br />
<br />
My grandfather, James Madison Pearson took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that began on the 26th of September 1918 and ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918. My grandfather's cousin, Varlaurd Pearson also took part in the battle as a member of Company I of the 137th Regiment.<br />
<br />
This is his story.
<br />
<h3>
September 1918</h3>
A short week before the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the 137th Regiment left its staging area in the Foret-de-Haye, between Nancy and Toul, for the front near the woods of Auzeville, a small village west of Verdun.
<br />
<h3>
The evening of September 25th, 1918</h3>
Five days later, at 7pm on the evening of the 25th of September, 1918, the men of the 137th Regiment marched to their front-line position near Aubreville and Vauquois Hill. As they walked, the evening sky lit up with American artillery barrage laid down upon the German lines. The barrage continued well into the dark of the night.
There would be little sleep for soldiers on both sides.
<br />
<h3>
The morning of September 26th</h3>
At 5:30 in the morning, the soldiers went “over the top”. The now familiar phrase meant that the troops left the relative security of the trenches where they lived with mud and rats, to cross into no-man’s land through barb wire and a cratered landscape all the while suffering the withering fire of machine guns and artillery fire, and occasionally having to deal with deadly gas attacks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="vauquois_hill" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188" height="285" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/vauquois_hill.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vauquois Hill</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
Vauquois Hill</h3>
The regiment's initial objective is the formidable Vauquois Hill, won and lost many times since the beginning of the war and the scene of battles between French and German troops.The hill now resembles a moonscape with its pock marked landscape. Despite the constant warfare for control and the barrage of the evening before, the Germans are well-entrenched. The hill is honeycombed with tunnels.
Perhaps the Germans are tired of defending it, for Vauquois Hill is captured early in the day. Perhaps the Germans wish to draw the Americans in and then counter-attack. Perhaps it is simply a matter of giving up ground by attrition and hoping that the Americans will be bled dry.<br />
<br />
<br />
In fact, more than 26,000 Americans will lose their lives in the six weeks of fighting and almost 100,000 will become wounded casualties.
The 137th Regiment is glad to be rid of Vauquois Hill. It then fights its way through the woods towards Varennes and the smaller village of Cheppy, short of Charpentry.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img alt="bois_de_cheppy.fw" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/bois_de_cheppy-fw.png" /> View of Bois de Cheppy from Vauquois Hill, image taken several years later<br />
<h3>
September 27th</h3>
The 28th Division, fighting to the left of the 137th in the woods of the Argonne, is having a tougher go of it. So, the 137th Regiment shifts its actions to the west and northwest where together with the 28th, they take Varennes and Montblainville.<br />
<br />
<img alt="google_map.fw" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-189" height="854" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/google_map-fw.png" width="1286" /> Google map today of Baulny and Charpentry<br />
<br />
Then they proceed on to Charpentry and Baulny. <img alt="near-baulny.fw" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-182" height="798" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/near-baulny-fw.png" width="1122" /><br />
<br />
The 137th Regiment has now become a salient into the German lines. Other American units press on trying to keep pace but the battle lines are confused.
By the evening of September 27th, the 137th rests on a ridge east of Charpentry overlooking the ravine of Mollevaux. The Germans take this opportunity to regroup and place machine-gun units on the ridge overlooking the ravine.
<br />
<h3>
September 28th</h3>
On the 28th the Germans counter attack with an artillery barrage and the 137th suffers its heaviest losses while pressing on towards Exermont.
The conditions are describes as this:
The soldiers advanced through the fields under heavy fire. Their boots were soggy from the wet grass and the streams they crossed. There was a cold autumn rain.
<br />
<br />
The citation reads:
Varlaurd Pearson (Army serial number 1449077) sergeant, Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division. For extraordinary heroism in action near Baulny, France, September 28th, 1918. Though wounded three times by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets, he refused to be evacuated and continued to lead the advance of his platoon, remaining in command for several hours, until he received a fourth wound, which proved fatal.
<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Distinguished Service Cross</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/dist_svc_cross_army.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="dist_svc_cross_army" border="0" class=" size-full wp-image-175 aligncenter" height="200" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/dist_svc_cross_army.jpg" width="100" /></a></div>
<b> </b><img alt="Meuse-Argonne_US_Cemetery_varlaurd_pearson" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-173" height="464" src="https://familypearson.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/meuse-argonne_us_cemetery_varlaurd_pearson.jpg" width="640" /> Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial <br />
Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France<br />
Plot: Plot B Row 10 Grave 40[/caption]you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-7198517976636695372017-04-28T09:19:00.002-07:002017-04-29T04:46:55.114-07:00A Pearson Anglo-Saxon PastThere must be an Anglo-Saxon past to the Pearson family name. There are no records but the weight of history demands it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecyRBf5SYf1wx6V4MMZ2_P6W-UPhd8PlV0EVg6Z1KTGAiJvjhckyCCoeHPK-Hr0jkPCJYuGVV_nsWz-ZRlEl2KqKOgxVSPrVb-ffQqXafgv7X055jCm1OalhEZQGAnZZr4I2KyZ7tB-QM/s1600/tapestry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecyRBf5SYf1wx6V4MMZ2_P6W-UPhd8PlV0EVg6Z1KTGAiJvjhckyCCoeHPK-Hr0jkPCJYuGVV_nsWz-ZRlEl2KqKOgxVSPrVb-ffQqXafgv7X055jCm1OalhEZQGAnZZr4I2KyZ7tB-QM/s320/tapestry.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bayeux Tapestry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Harrying of the North</h3>
The family patriarch, Edward Peersonne, hails from Wilmslow Parish in Cheshire County, far in the north of England. It was there, far from London, that Anglo-Saxons bridled against Norman rule, and there that the last stages of the Mercian uprising was brutally put down by the bastard William in his winter campaign of 1069-1070. They called it "harrying". Fields and livestock were destroyed and William's men laid waste to villages and slaughtered man, woman and child.<br />
<br />
New Norman populations were invited in and the survivors labored on.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieK2CiwXzj7pzgsbtcEantd3XogP69QmwUOWLs-MNcUizBCW54TJ18f2VxbGQxFakPrL2UpR2KcBRa7L2Xjd1C9gJ_qkIoTfNBaHwm-44aCGrrb7kLEjTz_4QciHC4LFqBHpcMu6mIx3A/s1600/mercia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieK2CiwXzj7pzgsbtcEantd3XogP69QmwUOWLs-MNcUizBCW54TJ18f2VxbGQxFakPrL2UpR2KcBRa7L2Xjd1C9gJ_qkIoTfNBaHwm-44aCGrrb7kLEjTz_4QciHC4LFqBHpcMu6mIx3A/s320/mercia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kingdom of Mercia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<h3>
A Viking past?</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<br />
There is the following totally unsubstantiated claim on Ancestry that I paraphrase:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Pearson name is of Danish or Norman origin. Tradition has it that the Pearsons were Vikings, who left Scandinavia and went both to England and France, especially to Normandy. English Vikings bearing our name settled in Northumberland, a county of northern England between the Humber and the Fifth of Forth, before 1200 A.D. <br />
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</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbmz4fiW8Xj1tq36mTUmCEhOHw-Jv_EOkvkvlqjJoUlbwzkxb_6hfTemsloTwqHlMXApOAI1Up9F0VBOYpA-TyHjGq_XBWgCBVhwhNvF9PtWnwedSWP09xNf2wF00BNTFir1ODLUd2MdP/s1600/king-canute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbmz4fiW8Xj1tq36mTUmCEhOHw-Jv_EOkvkvlqjJoUlbwzkxb_6hfTemsloTwqHlMXApOAI1Up9F0VBOYpA-TyHjGq_XBWgCBVhwhNvF9PtWnwedSWP09xNf2wF00BNTFir1ODLUd2MdP/s320/king-canute.jpg" width="286" /></a>Our own clan chose Wilmslow, Mobberley and the surrounding hamlets in Cheshire County. The city of Chester was the terminus of the Norman conquest, and some historians think that the Pearson name came to England via the Norman Conquest of 1066 A.D.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</blockquote>
Blond hair, blue eyes, and long noses exist in the Pearson family line, I have them, but where it came from is anyone's guess.Vikings were blond haired and blue eyed and long nosed, as were many Anglo-Saxons. One should also keep in mind that the Normans themselves were originally Vikings who settled on the French coast.<br />
<br />
And please don't forget the Swedes and Danes and King Canute who famously tried to hold back the tides. you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-28214292610394876502017-04-12T07:52:00.001-07:002017-04-14T15:40:06.241-07:00The Morrow of Big Things<br />
<h2>
Sergeant Varlourd Pearson, Distinguished Service Cross.</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h4>
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Sergeant Varlourd Pearson (ASN: 1449077), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, A.E.F., near Baulny, France, 28 September 1918. Though wounded three times by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets, Sergeant Pearson refused to be evacuated and continued to lead the advance of his platoon, remaining in command for several hours till he received a fourth wound which proved fatal.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders 95 (1919). <a href="http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=14037" target="_blank">Reported in Military Times</a> </h4>
</blockquote>
<br />
<h3>
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive </h3>
<br />
Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which was fought from 26 September 1918 until the Armistice of 11 November 1918. My grandfather, <b>James Madison Pearson</b> took part in that battle as did his cousin, <b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Varlourd Pearson. </b>Varlourd was a member of Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment under the command Colonel Clad Hamilton. The picture I have of Varlourd is as a young boy, perhaps ten or twelve years of age. My grandfather never spoke Varlourd's name. He did tell us of his childhood and the times he his cousins and friends played along the banks of the Tallapoosa River as the Braves of Tallapoosa County.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpVFDnpYecMWYmC03JnP3_iDHeLlL16pHhC4kva13_tOjSTLeNMT232tdoO1ldx3_s2rWuU-svXMYdiMd0r7Bvkqc8ybhOzJbNgDLEArRW3-QazRzJiZkiBHHC6pnlPoWamrc4gd1gS0Z/s1600/varlourd-pearson-sq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpVFDnpYecMWYmC03JnP3_iDHeLlL16pHhC4kva13_tOjSTLeNMT232tdoO1ldx3_s2rWuU-svXMYdiMd0r7Bvkqc8ybhOzJbNgDLEArRW3-QazRzJiZkiBHHC6pnlPoWamrc4gd1gS0Z/s320/varlourd-pearson-sq.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Varlourd Pearson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Heroes of the Argonne</h3>
The Argonne Forest is a strip of rocky hills and wild woodland along France's north-eastern border with Belgium. It is bordered on the east by the Meuse River. Today, it is two hours by car north of the village of Graffigny-Chemin where my grandmother was born.<br />
<br />
The Argonne Forest itself was of no strategic value. It was hilly and wooded and the scattered farming villages were small. But it was the scene of intense fighting between French and German forces in 1915 and 1916 and would be again in 1918, this time with the crucial addition of the American First Army. One can also say with some confidence that the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that took place here lead to the Armistice and the end of World War I.<br />
<br />
The morrow of Big Things, chapter 7 in the book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oc0MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=varlourd+pearson&source=bl&ots=0d9tTpMDN8&sig=Vvbonufy2kFFVR5rXrXdBr1AEO8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZvaCZ-J7TAhUYwGMKHcnAD-4Q6AEIQDAH#v=onepage&q=varlourd%20pearson&f=false" target="_blank"><b>Heroes of the Argonne: An Authentic History of the Thirty-fifth Division</b></a> by Charles B. Hoyt, 1919, retells the story of the first day of battle.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LWynZ5lw-boMgWBp3UQDMpV22WMhX6HZqm38YZ7dCf6X98EohSXMziq9x4TyCkGeJxPQuvnfwaODb2LknkPkRnzTb4Dpc5vBB9MOyrK4tpbs5yv0B3NfUWM66bGrDBoA3IVfXHjBMcT1/s1600/map-of-divisions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LWynZ5lw-boMgWBp3UQDMpV22WMhX6HZqm38YZ7dCf6X98EohSXMziq9x4TyCkGeJxPQuvnfwaODb2LknkPkRnzTb4Dpc5vBB9MOyrK4tpbs5yv0B3NfUWM66bGrDBoA3IVfXHjBMcT1/s400/map-of-divisions.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of Meuse-Argonne Offensive battle order of 1st Army and 35th Division</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<br />
<h3>
The First Day</h3>
<br />
Nine divisions of American troops under the command of General Black Jack Pershing, faced four German divisions under the command of General von Marwitz.This is not to say the odds favoring the Americans were overwhelming. On the contrary, the Germans were well-entrenched with a system of caves and trenches. There were bunkers and pill boxes and the throughout the Germans had deadly machine guns which could kill by the dozens and hundreds in a matter of minutes.<br />
<br />
The place was Vauquois Hill. It was by 1918, a grey cratered landscape shelled beyond recognition. The village of Vauquois, which had been at the base of the hill was gone. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEopkaC_8tNp-801-qtEANH8T_qEra-7JqXuBMx4uT57zDAi2Gqla_lktbuYHSJt2tkETxR0WohS6GQ-wXCVNzBlDl1IbFakjEFrPIKbk52MxlfDg57jYvqkX6WBHjfp_TpyYV8jb04uD3/s1600/vauquois-1916-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEopkaC_8tNp-801-qtEANH8T_qEra-7JqXuBMx4uT57zDAi2Gqla_lktbuYHSJt2tkETxR0WohS6GQ-wXCVNzBlDl1IbFakjEFrPIKbk52MxlfDg57jYvqkX6WBHjfp_TpyYV8jb04uD3/s640/vauquois-1916-detail.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vauquois Hill, 1916</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<h3>
Vauquois Hill</h3>
<br />
The hill of Vauquois was strategic for both sides, because who held the hill overlooked the land east of the Argonne Forest and the supply routes leading to it. It was the Germans first line of defense in what had become a defensive war. Behind this, the Germans established the Hindenburg Line, behind this the Kriemhilde Stellung, and behind that the unfinished Freya Stellung.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuudoOy7ZlTFuT3zMEfw7-5IClhnAso_pn0dMB0WGJimu9gyvhB_tGcAd64DJGSFoMN-sVJqSNBDSBdRDHv18y0yXAcdYz090USNXxnUQVR4OXJCugbhMT7TLiYxf_I9OkPpMPj422hWB/s1600/battle-lines-advance-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuudoOy7ZlTFuT3zMEfw7-5IClhnAso_pn0dMB0WGJimu9gyvhB_tGcAd64DJGSFoMN-sVJqSNBDSBdRDHv18y0yXAcdYz090USNXxnUQVR4OXJCugbhMT7TLiYxf_I9OkPpMPj422hWB/s400/battle-lines-advance-detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Operations of 35th Division Meuse-Argonne, credit Charles Hoyt, Lyons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
The Night of Stars </h3>
<br />
<br />
Sergeant Varourd Pearson was a member of Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment (Kansas National Guard formed in Manhattan), under the command of Colonel Clad Hamilton. This unit was part of the 35th Division (Kansas and Missouri National Guard, which included Captain Harry Truman, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery), under the command of General Peter Traub, part of the First Corps under the command of General Hunter Liggett.<br />
<br />
The evening of the 25th of September was a night of stars, unusually dark and unusually quiet except for the occasional whizz of a German sniper bullet. The peace was interrupted at 2:30 am on the morning of the 26th by an artillery barrage, but the soldiers still had a few hours before the attack.<br />
<br />
Along with his helmet, canteen, rifle and bayonet, an infantry soldier carried 250 rounds of ammunition, and, on his back, a raincoat and mess kit, plus three days rations, consisting of two cans of “bully beef” and three tins of “biskwee” or hard tack. On his belt hung incendiary grenades, explosive grenades, and rifle grenades to attack machine gun emplacements and hardened dugouts.<br />
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<br />
<h3>
Dawn Approaches on the 26th of September</h3>
<br />
As dawn approached, the night of stars gave way to a dismal scene of fog and smoke. The deafening artillery barrage came from both sides now. The earth which once trembled, now heaved and rocked as heavier artillery commenced firing - 75mm guns, 77’s, 110’s, and 155's; and tens of thousands of screaming shells, naked to the eye but heard by every frightened soul, cross-crossed the sky.<br />
<br />
<br />
At 5:30 am the advance began. The honor of leading the attack went to the 69th Brigade, with the 137th and 138th Regiments abreast. Brigades and regiments would advance by battalion in staggered columns with 500 meters separating the battalions. The 137th regiment was followed by the 139th, tasked with cleaning out the trenches of remaining Germans.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvaOrfW8VapHSy10lUwgtcVlChGCefjnZsfWgerJpbNiQ183aiTFqDcCmzMsaAQAhVXyizfARwKKMt3wuVFU42UN2F8D3147uzgeUW7PoafNwSMIvtsJc8QQ_FWHDlwz1NF3pA5XMu1k3/s1600/battle-lines-advance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvaOrfW8VapHSy10lUwgtcVlChGCefjnZsfWgerJpbNiQ183aiTFqDcCmzMsaAQAhVXyizfARwKKMt3wuVFU42UN2F8D3147uzgeUW7PoafNwSMIvtsJc8QQ_FWHDlwz1NF3pA5XMu1k3/s400/battle-lines-advance.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Operations of 35th Division Meuse-Argonne, credit Charles Hoyt, Lyons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Sergeant Varlourd and the 137th's advanced with rifle and bayonet against machine gun nests dug into the side of Vauquois Hill. A German photo taken in 1915 of the Argonne Forest gives us an idea of the terrain, a snaking mass of barbed wire and the gnarled, splintered trunks of trees. The terrain would have been difficult in the best of conditions, but in the smoke and fog, against machine gun fire and artillery, it was hell on earth.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpI1RyV9FWsvt6WSffGrKB1m5QI4tZL1hTE1bgVh6gtdbTPTjahl2eOw8hT5xsCCmI08CwmXxbeAOTrVlP9MDG7KBhgZHnC7SKYkd87-doZwRO1OpVLjJ7WYMc4RVhzRh6QzFvAmsdDtJ/s1600/argonne-forest-1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpI1RyV9FWsvt6WSffGrKB1m5QI4tZL1hTE1bgVh6gtdbTPTjahl2eOw8hT5xsCCmI08CwmXxbeAOTrVlP9MDG7KBhgZHnC7SKYkd87-doZwRO1OpVLjJ7WYMc4RVhzRh6QzFvAmsdDtJ/s400/argonne-forest-1915.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Argonne Forest, 1915, German archives</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
By 7:40 am, the American artillery barrage ceased. The 137th was on its own. Eventually, Sergeant Pearson and his fellows made their way through the woods to a point south of Cheppy on the way to Charpentry.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoMdEf_nHCvxCGPdbROOf51pQ6cVX_kamYbx9W4oqNPorGiGAzE0g8mrRegQ44hCHO1vdFD-_Xuq3085weFGg5Vz4kNQv0-IBugLgQ8yhhUVNip_Cgh1_tlstKzpZFMq8V2LAlkqHRdXZ/s1600/cheppy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoMdEf_nHCvxCGPdbROOf51pQ6cVX_kamYbx9W4oqNPorGiGAzE0g8mrRegQ44hCHO1vdFD-_Xuq3085weFGg5Vz4kNQv0-IBugLgQ8yhhUVNip_Cgh1_tlstKzpZFMq8V2LAlkqHRdXZ/s400/cheppy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cheppy, France, World War I</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<h3>
The 27th of September</h3>
At the first light the soldiers of the 137th pressed on. To their left, the 28th Division struggled in the woods of the Argonne Forest. This left the men of the 137th open to flanking fire, forcing Sergeant Pearson and the 137th west towards Varennes. A mile south of Varennes, on the Neuvilly-Fleville road, Sergeant Pearson and the 137th could now see the tall steeple of the church at Varennes. Their advance was stopped by German artillery fire, and Sergeant Pearson took shelter with his company in abandoned German gun emplacements. As the bombardment ended and now joined by French tanks, they advanced taking the village of Varennes.<br />
<br />
When the day ended, the Americans had also taken Montblainville, Charpentry, and Baulny. Sergeant Pearson could now relax and break out a tin of Bisk-wee and a can of Bully Beef and take a drink of water.<br />
<br />
The 137th awaited the still advancing Americans units on the right, and the regiment was now a jumbled mixture of men from different units.The number of casualties at this point is unknown, but when the offensive woul end, the 137th would record casualties of nearly 1,300 men of the 2,800 soldiers who fought.<br />
<h3>
The day of the 28th of September</h3>
An advance was ordered for 5:30 the next morning - the objective, Exermont.<br />
<br />
Sergeant Pearson awoke on the morning of the 28th. It was cold and cloudy. The air filled with a fine rain. Perhaps he put on his raincoat, perhaps not for that would have made movement hard. It is more likely that he continued on cold and wet. At 6:30 am, the Germans counter attacked and were driven back. The 137th advanced a mile and a half that day, and their front lines would form its own salient into the German lines, and the heaviest loss of lives would be recorded.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.kansasguardmuseum.com/?page_id=2028" target="_blank">Kansas Guard Museum</a> continues the story.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[The 137th Regiment] encountered severe machine-gun and shell fire, particularly from the Montrebeau Woods, ... a short distance north of Baulny. By this time the advance had turned slightly to the west, more or less following the bank of the Aire River. By night the men had secured a hold on the edge of the woods, but they were not in possession of it. A mile and a half had been attained by the end of that day’s operations.
</blockquote>
<br />
Sergeant Pearson would not live to see the night. The citation reads::<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Though wounded three times by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets,
Sergeant Pearson refused to be evacuated and continued to lead the
advance of his platoon, remaining in command for several hours till he
received a fourth wound which proved fatal.
</blockquote>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3lRD35WhZjfFPMGDfVl3hyphenhyphen9TaVBEuWmBepm-7RttioIweYu2xuua9N7t52AM9I5vuEarTzqxW1k-ohrV_w00hJGk05fcL1PKM_r5fa8bVl03FIZS0NnszoeGWyxLM6Qogtyxkhzkpu6ow/s1600/exermont.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3lRD35WhZjfFPMGDfVl3hyphenhyphen9TaVBEuWmBepm-7RttioIweYu2xuua9N7t52AM9I5vuEarTzqxW1k-ohrV_w00hJGk05fcL1PKM_r5fa8bVl03FIZS0NnszoeGWyxLM6Qogtyxkhzkpu6ow/s400/exermont.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exermont, WWI</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-38603363033030574622017-02-28T15:06:00.001-08:002017-04-28T05:43:26.182-07:00Zenia Blasingame<br />
<br />
<h3>
Zenia Blasingame</h3>
If you really want to learn about Zenia, you will be curious about her
father and mother, and what their lives were like; and where Zenia was
born, what her childhood was like, and how she came to be married to
Charles; all those things that neighbors are curious about, but does it
matter? Is it not enough that Zenia was strong willed and beautiful,
that she and her husband raised and educated their children, and that
for the most part, though there was tragedy and difficulty, that their
lives were well spent and happy?<br />
<br />
Her name was Zenia. From a photograph, she looks to be a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, and though it is hard to be certain, and it is hard to be certain of many things, she wears rings on one or two fingers on her right hand but none on the left hand. She wears a narrow dark dress popular for the late 1880's with a lace collar
about he neck and a thin rope at the waist. Her dark and wavy shoulder-length hair is
parted in the middle, and pulled back. The photograph does not tell us if the color is black or brown. She wears a pair of simple
earrings. The hint of a smile show on her lips, a Mona Lisa smile with an air of mystery.<br />
<br />
But the most remarkable feature on her face are her piercing dark eyes which gaze directly into
the camera, as if to say, "Stop staring."<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIAFx0n-Q-1Ro7m9qmM_pkcrzflMGpI2BBJQajX7PvrMiC1qpY2QFbg7Q5o3rOVQtt0ZB5GBxslBSVMRlFIYbwEs6mxxGK6qxwn_edbZO7erdoZ2Cq1lWtSQdnx9BqrXxyk1I-bN8t-QSw/s1600/zenia-blasingame-1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIAFx0n-Q-1Ro7m9qmM_pkcrzflMGpI2BBJQajX7PvrMiC1qpY2QFbg7Q5o3rOVQtt0ZB5GBxslBSVMRlFIYbwEs6mxxGK6qxwn_edbZO7erdoZ2Cq1lWtSQdnx9BqrXxyk1I-bN8t-QSw/s640/zenia-blasingame-1000.jpg" width="448" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zenia Blasingame Pearson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Blassingame, Blasingame, Blasengame</h3>
There are multiple spellings of the Blasingame name. I have found nothing of her before this photograph. She married General Charles Lafayette Pearson. That I know about her. I do know that several of her children were educated at Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia. I do know that several sons went to Manhattan, Kansas to attend the Kansas State Agricultural College. One son Nevels, after graduating from Kansas State, taught at Michigan Agricultural College (Michigan State) in Lansing. And that her youngest son Varlourd joined the Army in Manhattan when the First World War broke out. Another son Bert played eight years for the Chicago Bears.<br />
<br />
In the year 2014, while looking for Pearson headstones in a cemetery near Dadeville, Alabama, I was told by a white gentleman that Charles and Zenia sent their children north to be educated.<br />
<br />
What does one make of this?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Unspoken words</h3>
My grandfather James Madison Pearson was born in Alabama in 1894 or 1896. (Discrepancies often appear in research. The story I heard was that he fibbed on his age in order to enlist in the army. To his grandchildren, he was known as Daddy Matt. I can still hear in my mind my grandmother addressing him as Matt, and I suppose that is where we picked up the habit.).<br />
<br />
If Daddy Matt spoke about his aunt Zenia, it was to others not me. Nor did he speak of Varlourd and that seems curious to me*, but then Daddy Matt spoke little of his family. He spoke fondly of his days on the family farm, eating watermelon, and playing Indians with his cousins in the forests and along the river bank, but that is it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*Sergeant Varlourd (Varlaurd) Pearson was killed in action on <span class="st">September 28th, 1918 and is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. He posthumously received the Distinguished Service Cross. My grandfather fought in the same battle, but in different units. One does not even know if the two of them were aware of this.</span><br />
<br />
Varlourd (Varlaurd) Pearson was two or four years younger than my grandfather. The discrepancy arises because my grandfather lied to enlist in the service and serve in the Philippines.<br />
<br />
<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-47731413398162558782017-01-05T06:48:00.003-08:002017-04-12T08:15:43.993-07:00Varlourd Pearson<h2>
Distinguished Service Cross Award to Varlaurd Pearson
</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Headquarters 35th Division,
American Expeditionary Forces, <br />
October 17th, 1918. <br />
(General Orders,
No. 83.
<br />
<br />
The Division Commander takes great pleasure in citing
in General Orders the following-named officers and enlisted
men for gallantry in action during the six days' battle from
September 26th to October 1st, 1918.
<br />
<br />
Sergeant Varlaurd Pearson, Company I, 137th Infantry. <br />
Although wounded by machine gun fire September 30th (sic.),
displayed excellent leadership in handling his platoon, which
he kept well organized, and succeeded in dislodging several
machine gun nests.
<br />
<br />
By command of Major General Traub
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesof100hate/reminiscencesof100hate_djvu.txt" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesof100hate/reminiscencesof100hate_djvu.txt" target="_blank">Reminiscences of the 137th U. S. Infantry Regiment, Compiled by Carl E. Haterius, 1919</a>.<br />
<br />
For an update on the battle, see <a href="http://pearsonamerica.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-morrow-of-big-things.html" target="_blank">the Morrow of Big Things</a>. <br />
<h3>
Varlaurd Pearson</h3>
I know little about my grandfather's cousin, Varlourd Pearson. Until a few weeks ago, I did not know that he and my grandfather were both soldiers who fought in France during World War I. My grandfather came home from the war. Varlourd is buried in France.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h3>
To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Houseman </h3>
<br />
The time you won your town the race
<br />
We chaired you through the market-place;
<br />
Man and boy stood cheering by,
<br />
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
<br />
<br />
Today, the road all runners come,
<br />
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
<br />
And set you at your threshold down,
<br />
Townsman of a stiller town.
<br />
<br />
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
<br />
From fields where glory does not stay,
<br />
And early though the laurel grows
<br />
It withers quicker than the rose...</blockquote>
Poem is finished at the end of this blog post.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Childhood </h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The only photograph of Varlourd reveals a well-groomed and serious young man with dark hair and eyes. My grandfather never mentioned his name, though they were close in age. My grandfather did speak of the family farm, of playing Indians down by the river, of watermelons for nickel, and a childhood full of adventure.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_ylShir1lm1RiSQH-W-loOEnybcojRxgHGLDZKWOTPSWoxFgfYsN2xUnZR5vMXpd76eA8-nDmlDKz9oHiio4J5r7QVQq6OE4RHAPxM3sZN7RaLFoK6D9u7OPCesqV-C8hBsAXKLRCYQg/s1600/varlourd-pearson-sq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_ylShir1lm1RiSQH-W-loOEnybcojRxgHGLDZKWOTPSWoxFgfYsN2xUnZR5vMXpd76eA8-nDmlDKz9oHiio4J5r7QVQq6OE4RHAPxM3sZN7RaLFoK6D9u7OPCesqV-C8hBsAXKLRCYQg/s200/varlourd-pearson-sq.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Varlourd Pearson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Varlaurd (Varlourd) Pearson, (1898 - 1918) was born on a farm in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. He was one of nine children of “General” Charles Lafayette Pearson and Zenia Blasengame. It is likely that he was educated at Emory College in Atlanta, before going to Kansas Agricultural College (Kansas State University).<br />
<br />
When the United States entered the First World War, he enlisted in Manhattan, Kansas, with Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment. His company was sent to France and saw action on the front near Verdun during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. They were ordered to assault Vauquois Hill, which was defended by units of the German Third and Fifth Armies<br />
<br />
Sergeant Pearson was killed in action on September 28th, 1918. He posthumously received the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation's second highest medal.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Family Photo</h3>
<br />
This is a family photo of Varlourd (second row to the right) with his father, several brothers, and his sister Annie (Zenia). Missing is an image of his mother Zenia. An educated guess is that the photo dates around 1910.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUhtXzD_eBPdsG51IcwTPTPGvM_hdPOFT1WSa1rnxzNr_r_rRp8DokgEto4SYBBgKcf8m8uJ0HEat9_mdSBw9nRRzfOqzPwE0mqZ0n_MAiW4qbl7ytmL48ugxdlf-Wq8kACXNuu_scxxTP/s1600/charles-lafayette-pearson-family-lg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUhtXzD_eBPdsG51IcwTPTPGvM_hdPOFT1WSa1rnxzNr_r_rRp8DokgEto4SYBBgKcf8m8uJ0HEat9_mdSBw9nRRzfOqzPwE0mqZ0n_MAiW4qbl7ytmL48ugxdlf-Wq8kACXNuu_scxxTP/s400/charles-lafayette-pearson-family-lg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Lafayette Pearson (center) and children</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
[Older brother, Nevels Pearson (upper left) also enlisted in the army.]<br />
<br />
<h3>
Vauquois Hill</h3>
<br />
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive offensive began with a barrage on the night of September 25th and an early morning assault on the 26th.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC8CPj-KFsa6zLo4KjyKVvmVBTfvHZPDW3ytG15VhVPz3P0eD9G7XxRcemZSBpAR8wwh4Typ_9gj01MbGglAPtlfat2vecCIC43GWpCV22itttT27xsZZSxe1Glh6lLg3P5w7_AZzvxkx2/s1600/Collier%2527s_1921_World_War_-_Meuse-Argonne_offensive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC8CPj-KFsa6zLo4KjyKVvmVBTfvHZPDW3ytG15VhVPz3P0eD9G7XxRcemZSBpAR8wwh4Typ_9gj01MbGglAPtlfat2vecCIC43GWpCV22itttT27xsZZSxe1Glh6lLg3P5w7_AZzvxkx2/s320/Collier%2527s_1921_World_War_-_Meuse-Argonne_offensive.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Varlourd and his company faced the enemy at Vauquois Hill. Before the war, this was a tiny hillock overlooking the town ow Vauquois. French and German units fought for control of the strategic hill, totally obliterating the town. By September of 1918, the Germans were well entrenched in the honeycombed hill.<br />
<br />
A surviving soldier of Company C described the assault that took place on the morning of September 26th.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
September 19, 1918. Proceeded by truck to Foucacourt, Meuse.
September 20, 1918. Marched to woods near Auzeville.<br />
<br />
September 25, 1918. Left at 7 pm and marched into position between Aubreville and Vauquois Hill. On our way up the whole sky to the north and northwest blazed forth with the fire of heavy guns laying down a barrage which was to start the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in just a few hours. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
September 26, 1918. …Went over the top at 5:30 am. We captured Vauquois Hill early and proceeded northwest toward Cheppy, to a point just short of Charpentry.</blockquote>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDChhi2vfgY3-n-0xNRwzd_pkGAD4grgideNx1OZ9fb2IejO7ku6X_3KKcqurDGbFah84ujWUXXjAY_fVvMAd_3ZdwNJhuJlmjJIE1hHYQHJ5zl8EDKQoplXP0vm-bKXqAvhioA4Nus1C/s1600/1-corps-map-lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDChhi2vfgY3-n-0xNRwzd_pkGAD4grgideNx1OZ9fb2IejO7ku6X_3KKcqurDGbFah84ujWUXXjAY_fVvMAd_3ZdwNJhuJlmjJIE1hHYQHJ5zl8EDKQoplXP0vm-bKXqAvhioA4Nus1C/s640/1-corps-map-lg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battle lines, Sep 26, 1918, Meuse-Argonne Offensive</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_1z6bfa-eUeIfTG0n2r-GflKTO_Z9TULf1dSQuViDXO0wRbwVhqwmCXuA3R1qoV2NKe5qT-sUlyo5lH0bpiBmizkJXKHPHaiwEsNdHl6DyeCjIVAhNqss_hvcIdiwncMHZEgioipw9Jl/s1600/StreetinCheppy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_1z6bfa-eUeIfTG0n2r-GflKTO_Z9TULf1dSQuViDXO0wRbwVhqwmCXuA3R1qoV2NKe5qT-sUlyo5lH0bpiBmizkJXKHPHaiwEsNdHl6DyeCjIVAhNqss_hvcIdiwncMHZEgioipw9Jl/s320/StreetinCheppy.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cheppy, France</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
September 27, 1918 - The 28th Division on our left was having tough going through the heavily wooded Argonne Forest, and this began to expose our left flank to crossfire, and this forced our main direction more and more to the west and northwest. Our men assisted the 28th Division at Varennes and Montblainville. On this day we overran Charpentry and Baulny, and came out on higher ground beyond to the north.<br />
<br />
September 28, 1918 - We had to repel a counterattack early this day, and thereafter followed the day of our heaviest losses in casualties as we pressed toward Exermont with our left flank increasingly exposed to crossfire. Our front became almost a salient into the enemy line and we suffered grievous losses all during the day.</blockquote>
<br />
<h3>
Citation </h3>
<br />
Varloud Pearson was killed in action near Exermont. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxsiOu_i_OjHWoYH7Fl7BW6aDAsAmqbQFJjrExPHTf4OpVti81sng2OCGJY-POjTtLTR32PuZyh3zTf9egT4N18UnIhwQoomgk0UzgClNah_dZrhcXt1VHkfarDxBFAqLfNobrYUwfrte/s1600/dist_svc_cross_army.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxsiOu_i_OjHWoYH7Fl7BW6aDAsAmqbQFJjrExPHTf4OpVti81sng2OCGJY-POjTtLTR32PuZyh3zTf9egT4N18UnIhwQoomgk0UzgClNah_dZrhcXt1VHkfarDxBFAqLfNobrYUwfrte/s1600/dist_svc_cross_army.jpg" /></a></div>
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Sergeant Varlourd Pearson (ASN: 1449077), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company I, 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, A.E.F., near Baulny, France, 28 September 1918. Though wounded three times by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets, Sergeant Pearson refused to be evacuated and continued to lead the advance of ; his platoon, remaining in command for several hours till he received a fourth wound which proved fatal.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders 95 (1919).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The finish of A. E. Houseman's poem <b>To an Athlete Dying Young</b><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
...</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Eyes the shady night has shut </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Cannot see the record cut, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And silence sounds no worse than cheers </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
After earth has stopped the ears. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Now you will not swell the rout </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Of lads that wore their honours out, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Runners whom renown outran </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And the name died before the man. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
So set, before its echoes fade, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The fleet foot on the sill of shade, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And hold to the low lintel up </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
The still-defended challenge-cup. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And round that early-laurelled head </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
And find unwithered on its curls </div>
The garland briefer than a girl’s.</blockquote>
you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-61685486471516273562012-10-05T08:10:00.000-07:002017-09-04T09:04:37.069-07:00General Charles Lafayette PearsonThey called him general. General Charles Lafayette Pearson, Charles a name fit for a king who lost and won his crown, Lafayette, for a general who fought for a noble cause.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8j9tA9sjZz-PVZZqHp9aH1Kl3PoycZqs6eXcXvkb4E0OAkQhn5Qy3Ah3yN7OhIg7bw1oe1tRMdU2vt-4z9rqKqmi14Igk9oSNIrD66gVNzi7rt6O8wN9B0MLo8UQ7HCmmzEXLcBBhZa4/s1600/generalCharleslafayettePearson_pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1495" data-original-width="1551" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8j9tA9sjZz-PVZZqHp9aH1Kl3PoycZqs6eXcXvkb4E0OAkQhn5Qy3Ah3yN7OhIg7bw1oe1tRMdU2vt-4z9rqKqmi14Igk9oSNIrD66gVNzi7rt6O8wN9B0MLo8UQ7HCmmzEXLcBBhZa4/s320/generalCharleslafayettePearson_pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
A graduate of law at the University of Alabama, he was too young to have fought for the south in the Civil War, too old to have fought in the Spanish American War. The French gave him his honorary title when he completed four years of graduate study in France, where when the debate continued over revolution and counter-revolution, church and state, and monarchy and republicanism. Young Charles, for he was perhaps in his late twenties by now, was influenced by the moderate President Jules Grévy and his brother Jules Philippe Louis Albert Grévy, who was one of his instructors.
<br />
<br />
He returned to Alabama and to his father’s farm. He married the beautiful and mysterious Zenia Blasingame, and they had nine children, unusually named and exceptionally well-educated, who, of those that survived the rigors of childhood, grew up, moved away, and lived good lives.
<br />
<br />
Charles became Brigadier-General of the Alabama State Troops, and so earned his title.
<br />
<br />
Charles, good son that he was, cared for his father and mother until their deaths. He practiced law in Tallapoosa County and oversaw a large farming operation in the red clay hills of Alabama that grew to over 42,000 acres.
<br />
<br />
The farm is gone, sold to a lumber company, and the land has reverted to pine trees and kudzu, the children are gone, what remains is a small cemetery lost in the woods, appropriately called the General Charles Lafayette Pearson cemetery.
<br />
<br />
The general died on January the 12, 1894 and his remains lay along with those of his father and mother and a few other souls.
<br />
<br />
<b>Notes.</b><br />
<br />
During a time in Alabama state history when ordinary working-class citizens opposed compulsory education, he insured his children got a good education. Several of them went to Emory College in Atlanta, others to Kansas State in Manhattan. One son, James Nevels Pearson taught at Michigan State after graduating from Kansas State. Another son, Varlourd left Kansas State to enlist in the Army during World War I (He died during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and received the Distinguished Service Medal), another son Madison Bertand Pearson, also graduated from Kansas State University and played on the World Champion Chicago Bears team in 1932.
<br />
<br />
The general's oldest surviving son was Carlos Lopez Pearson. There is little information available about him other than a draft registration for World War II that declares he was born in Hudleyville, Alabama, March 14, 1887, and was then (1942)living in Wenatchee, Washington. The name Carlos Lopez is a play on his father's name, Charles Lafayette - Carlos is Spanish for Charles and Lopez comes from Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Lafayette of Mexican independence.
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I am not able to independently verify that Charles Pearson was a Brigadier General of the Alabama State Troops or to learn the exact organization referenced.
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<b>Personal note.</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
The General is my great great uncle.<br />
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Great great grand-daddy James Madison Pearson (1817 - 1891) was born in Monticello, Jasper County Georgia. In the 1830's, he left Georgia for the new state of Alabama, settling on land recently taken from the Creek Indians along the Coosa River, some 12 miles north of Dadeville, in Tallapoosa County. <br />
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Read about the Creek Wars, <a href="http://www.archives.alabama.gov/teacher/creekwar/creek.html" target="_blank">Alabama Department of Archives</a>.<br />
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James and wife Elizabeth Ann Brown had nine children. See <a href="http://www.ofarrellfamily.com/ssite/p21.htm" target="_blank">O'Farrell Family</a>. Included in this brood, was my great great grandfather Benjamin Rush Pearson, born 1849, and his younger brother Charles Lafayette Pearson, born 1854.<br />
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<b>More sources and notes</b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRM2NCrrUVspiD753HSyJyjljt23X3pSkI5rlfH8TZwQto0xK_5H5z2KhbkkZ-5vJy3hO9CK0QEPGldZR9odTdw2kyHKjXlkZHgvTepEtEbSuSE023tSWyZV0O0-00XFZxSrOTG86u6Z-l/s1600/generalCharleslafayettePearson_new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRM2NCrrUVspiD753HSyJyjljt23X3pSkI5rlfH8TZwQto0xK_5H5z2KhbkkZ-5vJy3hO9CK0QEPGldZR9odTdw2kyHKjXlkZHgvTepEtEbSuSE023tSWyZV0O0-00XFZxSrOTG86u6Z-l/s320/generalCharleslafayettePearson_new.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General Charles Lafayette Pearson, courtesy of George Campbell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2uY19T22i_SX94DGgSgn3EgUsY83OO52jshCRIhApnbf9x8N-ARu84p6AKlWuPqWIWv833838QV2JZSI3Npwy2CEXDwC4wVsqy3aCGLp9-ksRv7Dvcmu7VnCqrGPy3UtMnLsHxcNF69_/s1600/childrenCotton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2uY19T22i_SX94DGgSgn3EgUsY83OO52jshCRIhApnbf9x8N-ARu84p6AKlWuPqWIWv833838QV2JZSI3Npwy2CEXDwC4wVsqy3aCGLp9-ksRv7Dvcmu7VnCqrGPy3UtMnLsHxcNF69_/s400/childrenCotton.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two story family farm in Alabama in the <a href="http://alamosindex.lib.auburn.edu/vufind/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Tallapoosa%20County%20%28Ala.%29%22&type=subject" target="_blank">Auburn University Libraries</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="st"> <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GRid=68656724&CRid=2398605&" target="_blank">Find a Grave</a>. </span><br />
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<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-75686326922347143922012-10-03T07:59:00.000-07:002012-10-03T09:25:03.551-07:00Wautier Pieressone 1296My family connection to the Pearson name starts with my mother Elmire
Pearson and her father James Madison Pearson. The name can be traced back for certain to Edward Peersonne, born circa 1575 in
Wilmslow, Pownell Fee, Cheshire, England. <a href="http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/r/Tui-Marion/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0143.html" target="_blank">Family Tree</a>.<br />
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The ancient county of Chester, now Cheshire (like the cat), lies in the northwest of England. Cheshire borders both Wales and Scotland. For many years after the Norman invasion of 1066, it was a area of dissent. Eventually, the Anglo-Saxon were overcome by William the Conqueror's French. Then, in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was awash with battles between the Scots to the north and the English. Today, the county borders the great city of Manchester and the rivalries are on the football field.<br />
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Once upon a time... <br />
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The first recorded use of the name <i>Pearson</i> is <a href="http://www.rampantscotland.com/ragman/blragman_p.htm" target="_blank">Wautier Pieressone del counte de Berewyk</a>, who signs the Ragman Rolls as a land owner in Berwickshire, 28th Aug 1296, pledging allegiance to Edward I, King of England.<br />
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Read the <a href="http://www.electricscotland.com/history/records/bain/027BainVolumeTwoCalendarPart03.pdf" target="_blank">Ragman Rolls in PDF</a>. Read online, <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/instrumentapublica00thomuoft#page/n7/mode/2up" target="_blank">Ragman Rolls</a>.<br />
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[Note, This date, 1296, has been commonly misreported as 1226. See <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=docbratt&id=I46" target="_blank">Ancestry</a>. But other sites have got it right. See <a href="http://www.melvynpearson.co.uk/pearson_family.html" target="_blank">MacPherson</a>. King Edward I's reign was, 1239 - 1307. It was this Edward who was known as <i>Longshanks</i> and the <i>Hammer of the Scots</i>, who was portrayed in the movie <i>Braveheart</i>. The Ragman's Roll spelled Pierssone using the old letter <i>f</i>, similar to the German <i>ß</i> (called eszett (sz) or sharp s).] <br />
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Berewyk, or modern day Berwickshire, is an ancient border county situated on the eastern coast of Scotland. It lies on the north side of the river Tweed with the English county of Northumberland to the south. The title count signifies only a chieftain or clansman, as the Ragman's Roll has many other counts of Berewyk, and the Scots tended to organize themselves around a chieftain, or family member.<br />
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The suffix <i>wyk</i> is Frisian and signifies a village. <a href="http://www.painswicketc.org.uk/plhs/history/historigins.htm" target="_blank">Read more</a>. The first name <i>Wautier</i> comes from the French <i>Waltier</i>, and the Anglo-Saxon, <i>Waldheri</i>, and signifies a (powerful) warrior.<br />
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In researching the Pearson Family, keep in mind the multitudes of spellings including: Peerson, Peersonne, Piersonne, Piersone, Pierson, Pairsone, Pearsone, Peirsonde, Peirsone, Peirsound, Pesirsaunde, Persone, Peyrsoune, Peyrson, etc.. What little that can be known with certainty about the name Pearson is that it is a combination of <i>Pier</i>s and son. <i>Pier</i>s is French for Peter. The designation Pierson, simply means son of Peter.<br />
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The name Piers over the centuries became Peter, keeping its French spelling in Scotland, Ireland, and in some northern English counties. During the Middle Ages, Piers was commonly used throughout England.<i> Piers Plowman</i>, written in the later half of the 14th century by William Langland, is a well-known Middle English allegorical poem. Piers Morgan, of Scottish and Irish descent, British journalist and CNN host has resurrected interest in the name.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGt4XK5a8gCJNs_ItnCT1DtJ5iFnkIqPSSh3o7a0jxqZArvB8vBKWbmLoaE_iOHdv3JbOuz_7KZQCwwYaj27aX8D91lucqi90ux77bnYFKN2XJPA1WGPChkEYMckkf2js-TMS9kKN3Lm6z/s1600/220px-William_wallace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGt4XK5a8gCJNs_ItnCT1DtJ5iFnkIqPSSh3o7a0jxqZArvB8vBKWbmLoaE_iOHdv3JbOuz_7KZQCwwYaj27aX8D91lucqi90ux77bnYFKN2XJPA1WGPChkEYMckkf2js-TMS9kKN3Lm6z/s1600/220px-William_wallace.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace" target="_blank">William Wallace from Wikipedia</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What of this Warrior, son of Piers, landowner of Berwyk? We know that he was a contemporary of William Wallace, who died in 1307. But we will never know if Wautier Pieressone fought with Wallace at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, a year after Wautier signed his oath of allegiance to Edward.<br />
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One wonders ... <br />
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<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-76475082091499919242012-10-02T06:53:00.004-07:002012-10-02T15:11:26.860-07:00Pearson's DragoonsNote. I have no information to directly connect Pearson's Dragoons with
my family. I just wanted to get this down in case some information
should turn up.<br />
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The Civil War impacted every corner of the South and Tallapoosa County was no exception. One estimate is that small rural Tallapoosa County contributed almost 3,000 soldiers to the war effort on the Confederate side, and of these almost a third perished. <a href="http://hillabee.net/Tallapoosa.htm" target="_blank">A Few Soldiers of Old Tallapoosa.</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQ1ZSVCw6batx646W_n1mQLr2R-GCt7gTFC87XgT80oekETbhYOckRsVtjIA7oYHmswroY_2zg3iHhmRHlFHl16x0_dU9kKuPzDfiEFoe_y0TA0DC2ThZYeZ4EbflH72lQ18qVCXbM0n9/s1600/al_cav_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQ1ZSVCw6batx646W_n1mQLr2R-GCt7gTFC87XgT80oekETbhYOckRsVtjIA7oYHmswroY_2zg3iHhmRHlFHl16x0_dU9kKuPzDfiEFoe_y0TA0DC2ThZYeZ4EbflH72lQ18qVCXbM0n9/s320/al_cav_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campaign Flag First Alabama Cavalry Regiment</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pearson's Dragoons </span><br />
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The First Alabama Cavalry Regiment was organized at Montgomery, November, 1861 under the command of Colonel James H. Clanton. <br />
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The First Alabama Cavalry Regiment fought at the battles of Shiloh and Murfreesboro. It was also part of the rear guard which protected the retreat from Tullahoma and Chattanooga, losing severely at Duck river; fought at Chickamauga, Clinton and Knoxville, and took a brilliant part in the Sequatchee raid. It was engaged in retarding Sherman's advance on Atlanta.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mycivilwar.com/units/csa-al/al_cav_01_reg.html" target="_blank">Read more</a>.<br />
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Company D of the First Alabama was also known as Pearson's Dragoons. It is also called Company C and may have had other designations due to reorganizations. It was formed in Tallapoosa County. Its regimental commanders included: John G. Stokes (resigned, 25 Oct 62); Jesse W. Fitzpatrick (resigned, 26
Nov 64); Henry C. Washburn (1st Lt., paroled as Capt., Co. "D").<br />
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The company designation changed during the war due to reorganizations. Other designations include: "Co. C, 1st Alabama Cavalry; Co. D,
12th Alabama Cavalry, later 2nd Co.
C". I have also seen reference to Companies C, D, and F. <a href="http://www.researchonline.net/alcw/county2.pdf" target="_blank">See following</a>.<br />
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The 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment surrendered at Charlotte, North Carolina, May 3, 1865. Pearson's Dragoons was then under the command of Henry C. Washburn, and designated as Company D. Seventy-two officers and men of the Alabama First Cavalry signed paroles. <a href="http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/boards/alcwmb/index.cgi?noframes;read=33740" target="_blank">Re: James Henry Pitts</a>.<br />
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Lost in all of this is the explanation for the name Pearson's Dragoons. The Pearson family lived in Tallapoosa County from shortly after the War of 1812 and the Battle with the Creeks. They owned a significant amount of land in the county. That land was located off modern Highway 280 and up Slaughter’s Crossing Road.
Today, the land is owned by Kimberly Clark.<br />
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The land was passed down to General Charles Lafayette Pearson, but he was born in 1854, and would have been only six or seven at the outbreak of the Civil War. His father <a href="http://www.macomberkin.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I174171&tree=macomberkin" target="_blank">James Madison Pearson</a>, born Monticello, Jasper Co., Georgia in 1817 is the more likely connection, if any, to the company name. He was an attorney and farmer, who passed the farm down to his son Charles.<a href="http://files.usgwarchives.org/al/tallapoosa/cemeteries/pearson.txt" target="_blank"> Family cemetery of Charles Lafayette Pearson, including his father James Madison Pearson.</a><br />
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There were nine children born to James Madison Pearson and his wife Mary White. My connection is to older son, <a href="http://trackingmadisonpearson.blogspot.com/2009/09/family-tree.html" target="_blank">Benjamin Rush Pearson</a>, my great-grandfather, who became a doctor and practiced in Birmingham. His son, my grandfather, was also named <a href="http://trackingmadisonpearson.blogspot.com/2009/09/family-tree.html" target="_blank">James Madison Pearson</a>.<br />
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My grandfather often spoke about his adventures in and around Dadeville and Tallopoosa County.<br />
<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-66378355005781908612012-02-04T06:13:00.000-08:002012-02-04T06:16:25.701-08:00ShipsThis article is a stub. I am trying to sort out the conflicting information on ships carrying Pearsons to America. I will put source information here and come back and sort it out.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Edward PEARSON was born in 1648 in Wimslow Parish, Pownall Fee, Cheshire, England. He died on 3 Jun 1697 in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.
Edward and his family came to America on the ship "Welcome" in 1687. They presented their credentials at the Quaker Meeting on 4/1/1687. </blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Edwards' brothers, Thomas and John came to America on the ship "Endeavor" in 1684. </blockquote>
<a href="http://www.familyorigins.com/users/p/e/a/William-H-Pearson/FAMO1-0001/d266.htm" target="_blank">http://www.familyorigins.com/users/p/e/a/William-H-Pearson/FAMO1-0001/d266.htm</a><br />
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See <a href="http://home.comcast.net/%7Erubymc/pearson.htm" target="_blank">Pearson Lineage</a> for reference to Endeavor and many other source citations.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-39607632983195450372012-02-04T05:46:00.000-08:002012-02-04T05:50:48.662-08:00Fallsington Monthly Meeting HouseThree Pearson brothers, John, Edward and Thomas, left England and arrived in Pennsylvania around 1683 - 1687. My lineal descendant is Edward.<br />
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Sources consistently record that Edward, 1651 - 1697, was born in Wilmslow Powell, Cheshire, England and died at "Falls MM, Bucks County, Pennsylvania". Edward married Sarah Burgess, 10 years his junior. She survived his death by 10 years. Source, see citation 1016 and 1017, <a href="http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/j/e/f/Lora-Jeffries/GENE12-0069.html">Family Tree Maker</a>. This source lists the last two children, Phoebe, born 1685 in Morley Meeting House in Pownall Fee, and Martha, born 1687, in Darby Meeting House, Pennsylvania. If true this would date Edward's arrival in America within those two years. <b>Note.</b> The source does not list John Pearson, 1728 - 1790, as a child of Edward and Sarah. this needs to be reconciled.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Epaxson/graphics-pax/mtghse.html#Fallsmtg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouOsZSS7FcgQ_jJpsFw9hllvaFyvZOYnNUs8nSti9GXCDbPBhlvh3h8Mmi7geku8HUUKHwK4JysKPTRAuiqd8hWI4MD6c9q6wQBwbmeReGLbIPfLk32RDvzZU2lHQIh96ReqmrieW010z/s320/Falls_mm_1933.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fallsington (Falls) Meeting House 1933</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Falls MM referred to where Edward died is a reference to Fallsington Meeting House at 9300 New Falls Road in Meetinghouse Square near the intersection of New Falls and Tyburn Roads, in Fallsington. Today, the area is part of the city of Levittown. It was the first Friends meeting established in Bucks County, which, itself, was established in 1682. As a witness to Friends' testimony for simplicity, no gravestones were used until the 1850's. <b>Image</b> from <a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Epaxson/graphics-pax/mtghse.html#Fallsmtg" target="_blank">Some Old Quaker Meeting House in Pennsylvania</a> and part of Ancestry.com. the original meeting house no longer exists, and what is pictured is a building constructed in 1789. The building today is operated by the Friends as a Day Care Center.<br />
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For additional information on the meeting house, see the above source and <a href="http://www.historicfallsington.org/html/explore/william_penn_center.htm" target="_blank">Historic Fallsington</a>.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-4925121782198003192012-02-03T06:11:00.000-08:002017-04-28T08:34:38.934-07:00Beginnings of the Pearson Family<h2>
Peter was the first Pearson </h2>
The Normans introduced the practice of surnames in England, no doubt in order to collect taxes. Later, when the feudal system was abolished and land could be owned outright, surnames took on a legal necessity. Occupational surnames became common, names such as Smith, Chapman, Brewer, Baker, Wright and Taylor. So too, baptismal names, William-son, John-son, David-son, and Peter-son.<br />
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The French speaking Normans spelled Peter "Pierre". Thus, we have Pierson, Peersonne, and Pearson. During the First World War, when my grandfather was in France, he chose for a time to revert to the spelling of his last name as Pierson. This is a good lesson for those who follow records. The spelling of names change.<br />
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<h3>
Edward Peersonne</h3>
If we have to pick a date and a place, let us choose 1575 when Edward Peersonne was born.The place of his birth is uncertain, a statement which needs some explaining, and some understanding of history.<br />
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<h3>
England in the 1570's </h3>
It is England in the
1570's. Pope Pius V excommunicates England's Queen Elizabeth I. Martin
Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay while searching for the Northwest
Passage, and Francis Drake leaves Plymouth to begin his circumnavigation
of the globe.<br />
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William Shakespeare is still a wee lad and England has not yet begun to colonize North America.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjd9qGK1FyBgHK0C36s6B_B9auKBiQv6TZBf1hNCBzwzp-gA0p8wQY3tCzgSK7CCLmnehZ3fta8bRmA1YWFl8FHAb3xsy_d48y8ca-wTH3TuBtlqeX5betQaYgauPwDiHPMZ87hBIFHTAw/s1600/St_Bartholomew%2527s_Church%252C_Wilmslow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjd9qGK1FyBgHK0C36s6B_B9auKBiQv6TZBf1hNCBzwzp-gA0p8wQY3tCzgSK7CCLmnehZ3fta8bRmA1YWFl8FHAb3xsy_d48y8ca-wTH3TuBtlqeX5betQaYgauPwDiHPMZ87hBIFHTAw/s320/St_Bartholomew%2527s_Church%252C_Wilmslow.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Bartholemew's Church, Wilmslow Parish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h3>
St. Bart's </h3>
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There is Wilmslow Parish on Mobberley Brook, in Bollin Township, Cheshire, England. Here is the 16th century church of St. Bartholemew's, and its parish records, evidence of the birth of Edward's nine children, many of whom are given Dayne Row as the place of their birth.<br />
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Today, there exists a Dane Drive and Dean Row in Wilmslow, with Dean's Row appearing to be the more ancient of the two. It is a dangerous thing, but let us assume that it is Dean Row where Edward's nine children were born. It lies about a mile east of Wilmslow in the midst of fields and from this we may guess again that the Peersonnes were tillers of the fields. The name and the occupation are coincidental of William Langland's Middle English literary creation Piers Plowman.<br />
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I said the place was uncertain.<br />
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<h3>
St. Wilfred's </h3>
There is the 13th century St. Wilfred's church in Mobberley Parish, built on the remains of an even more ancient Saxon church, lying to the west of Wilmslow. It is here in the parish cemetery that in 1656 on August the 16th, Robert Pearson was the first person buried at Mobberley Quaker Cemetery.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8uFdCTgQ8PtlCEdlRaJ1K_GqdBuCAcC2qIFpuxzRfo3nxGj1H3uv9NgcsHHcZ4B35_7Z16RJHnLe0WddjElQUK0tuiAQO6P4e2xtowvv3aPQ_hz7A2JxYIavJ1VGVcn3R0C2npB96WcMW/s1600/St_Wilfrid%2527s_Church%252C_Mobberley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8uFdCTgQ8PtlCEdlRaJ1K_GqdBuCAcC2qIFpuxzRfo3nxGj1H3uv9NgcsHHcZ4B35_7Z16RJHnLe0WddjElQUK0tuiAQO6P4e2xtowvv3aPQ_hz7A2JxYIavJ1VGVcn3R0C2npB96WcMW/s400/St_Wilfrid%2527s_Church%252C_Mobberley.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Wilfred's church, image credit churchcrawler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
All of this is known from the Wilmslow parish records. I am not taking credit for the information. That credit goes to Wally Garchow and Corinne Diller and others who took the time to look over baptisms, marriages, and deaths and record the information. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dhanke&id=I29373" target="_blank">Ancestry now provides this information to the public.</a><br />
<br />
<h3>
Making sense of history </h3>
<br />
Making sense of a few records is no easy matter.<br />
<br />
What happened in Edward Peersonne's life is for the most part unknown and always will be. Between Edward's birth in 1575 and Robert's death in 1656, many historical events took place. Kings would come and go, a Commonwealth was for a time the government. William Shakespeare had written all of his plays and was now dead and buried many years. America was a thriving colony that beckoned many Englishmen and women seeking a better life.<br />
<br />
And yes, George Fox had a vision that man could directly receive a vision from God. Quakerism, his religion was gaining in popularity and counted among its adherents 60,000 souls. Pennsylvania would call on many Quakers, including some named Pearson.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-12547410428046845242012-02-02T09:21:00.000-08:002012-02-03T06:28:49.472-08:00Elizabeth Janey (Janney) - mother of Edward Pearson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9duJInXorjtnVXZmk1SWrwZ_1x94ebJ01V5fVxo_-HbU-EFL2jJHBUqkpoI-4LTFvYqUDcfZTaYmf4Un7YXXZ7AIM5VgEXK50rSM-Ow-n05kbwKzlY8g0yuXjYLNn3hh37C9uhn46IJI/s1600/St_Wilfrid's_Church,_Mobberley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9duJInXorjtnVXZmk1SWrwZ_1x94ebJ01V5fVxo_-HbU-EFL2jJHBUqkpoI-4LTFvYqUDcfZTaYmf4Un7YXXZ7AIM5VgEXK50rSM-Ow-n05kbwKzlY8g0yuXjYLNn3hh37C9uhn46IJI/s320/St_Wilfrid's_Church,_Mobberley.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Wilfrid%27s_Church,_Mobberley.jpg" target="_blank">Image of St, Wilfred's from Wikipedia</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Elizabeth Janey (Janney), 1620 - 1675, wife of Lawrence Pearson and mother of Edward and Thomas Pearson, is buried in St. Wilfred's Church, Mobberley, England. <a href="http://www.ourfamilytreepages.com/getperson.php?personID=I5968&tree=ourfamily" target="_blank">See Elizabeth Janney.</a><br />
<br />
For an image of the church and other information, visit the website of Craig Thornber.<br />
<br />
A thumbnail history of Lawrence and Elizabeth is given by <a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Eparisho/p/pearson2.html" target="_blank">Rootsdigger</a>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Lawrence was married in the Quaker meeting to Elizabeth Janney, of a very active Quaker family. Elizabeth, wife of Lawrence, was buried 13 Aug 1662 at Mobberly. She was dau[ghter] of Randle Janney and Ellen Allred. In 1657, Lawrence Pearson of Wilmslow Parish refused to pay a tithe, and had a horse worth three pounds confiscated to pay an eight shilling tithe. In 1665 Lawrence Pearson of Pownall Fee was arrested at a Quaker meeting and jailed for two months. In 1650, Lawrence Pearson was imprisoned for testifying in the streets at Highfield, County Derby. In 1660, Robert Pearson, his brother, was put in jail for refusing to take an oath.</blockquote>
The story has a ring of truth. Elizabeth lived until 1662, Lawrence until 1673 or 1674. In his will he identified his profession as mason. His will left "unto my sonne Edward the dishboard, the little plow, and the little pair of plow irons, etc." The other children, including Thomas, received shares of the tiny estate.<br />
<br />
Consider that Lawrence and Elizabeth's two sons Edward and Thomas left England about 1683 and settled in Quaker communities in Pennsylvania.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-36250541365462483152012-02-02T09:11:00.000-08:002012-02-04T05:52:55.522-08:00Brothers John, Thomas, and Edward<br />
* I just found that brother John preceded Thomas and Edward to America. Here is the site. <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kmgb2345&id=I37793" target="_blank">Ancestry</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
It was Thomas' brother John who made the first move to Pennsylvania. He became one of William Penn's First Purchases in England by receiving the grant of 259 acres of land to be laid out in the Province, the deeds of lease for the end release for the tract being signed by Penn, March 2, and 3, 1681, in his land office, in historic old George Yard in Lombard Street. Thomas accompanied his brother to Pennsylvania. John's grant of land was surveyed for him in Marple Township, October 25, 1683, and there he and Thomas proceeded at once to make their settlement. Later John formally deeded the tract to Thomas and went to live a little further to the North over the line in Newton Township. In 1684. at the Chester County Court, Thomas was made road supervisor, as well as constable of Marple Township. On several occasions he served in the grad Inquest of the court. In 1686 he was brought to the bar for drunkenness and swearing. This backsliding of his young manhood, however, was of short duration, for soon he was participating in other public was well as Quaker meeting service. In 1689, he became tax collector for Marple, and in 1690, overseer of the Springfield Meeting. He died in 1734 on the Marple homestead of his first settlement, and doubtless lies buried in the Springfield graveyard with his wife and others of this family in unmarked graves.
</blockquote>
<br />
SOURCE: Steve Pearson's Descendants of Edward Peeresonne
<br />
<br />
__________________________________________________________________________ <br />
Brothers Thomas, 1653 - 1722, and Edward Pearson, 1651 - 1697, came to America to settle in Willima Penn's colony, sailing aboard the <i>Comfort of Bristol</i> in 1683. Thomas would settle in East Cain Township, Pennsylvania acting as Deputy Surveyor for William Penn , while older brother Edward went to Falls Township, Pennsylvania. See <a href="http://eancestry.org/getperson.php?personID=I1592&tree=nichols" target="_blank">Thomas Pierson</a>.<br />
<br />
Then again, a different family record has the same brother Thomas "marrying Margery Ellen Smith, daughter of Robert Smith and Ellen Williamson on February 3, 1682 in Cheshire, England;" and, in 1683, the two departing from Liverpool and crossing in the ship "Endeavor". See <a href="http://todmar.net/ancestry/pearson_main.htm" target="_blank">Pearson</a>. See also <a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Eparisho/p/pearson2.html" target="_blank">Rootsdigger</a>.<br />
<br />
Edward and Thomas were sons of Lawrence Pearson and Elizabeth Janey. Father Lawrence was an active Quaker back in the tiny community of Wilmslow, England. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In 1657, Lawrence Pearson of Wilmslow Parish refused to pay a tithe, and had a horse worth three pounds confiscated to pay an eight shilling tithe. In 1665 Lawrence Pearson of Pownall Fee was arrested at a Quaker meeting and jailed for two months. In 1650, Lawrence Pearson was imprisoned for testifying in the streets at Highfield, County Derby. In 1660, Robert Pearson, his brother, was put in jail for refusing to take an oath.</blockquote>
<a href="http://id./">id.</a><a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Eparisho/p/pearson2.html" target="_blank">http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~parisho/p/pearson2.html</a><br />
<br />
Edward and Thomas' reasons for departing England, thus, seem primarily religious. They were, like their father Quakers. And by 1680 Quakers, in England, were imprisoned and even executed for failing to follow the Anglican faith. The Quakers, formally called Religious Society of Friends, began in England in 1652, based on the teachings of George Fox, 1624-1691. Quakers, so-called because of their ecstatic revelations, were considered radical Puritans, because the Quakers carried to extremes many Puritan convictions. But radicalism would seem a misnomer. Quakers taught a renunciation of violence, freedom of conscience, and a sober deportment which glorified of "plainness." Theologically, they preached an indwelling of the "Light of Christ" in every person, and in their meetings houses shared that light.you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3130091208507843223.post-53094799997570200422012-02-02T07:11:00.000-08:002018-11-12T08:39:06.781-08:00The Family Tree - Edward Peeresonne<h2>
The Family Tree of Edward Peeresonne </h2>
<br />
This is the family tree of Edward Peeresonne, as it relates to my grandfather, James Madison Pearson, his father, Benjamin Rush Pearson, and his father, James Madison Pearson, all of Tallapoosa County, Alabama.<br />
<br />
In a bit, I will get to the first recorded Pearson, Edward Peersonne, who, about 1575, was born in Bollin Township, Wilmslow Parish,
Cheshire, England. But let us try to do this in some semblance of reverse chronological order. It is those we have known that we remember.<br />
<br />
James Madison Pearson was my grandfather, known to me and my cousins as Daddy Matt. For the time that I knew him, he lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, arriving there after he retired from a long career in the Army.<br />
<br />
We knew him by his middle name Matt and not James. The practice of taking a middle name rather than a first name, was a common one. First, it was a way tricking the devil, who took children early in life. Second, he might have been Matt to avoid confusion with his grandfather, for whom he was named.<br />
<br />
My grandfather had three daughters and a son, Fletcher, who died early in life. The daughters all married (Davis, Fletcher, and Campbell are the names) and now there are cousins everywhere. My cousin George Campbell, like me, has taken an interest in the family name. <br />
<br />
<h3>
What is in a name?</h3>
<br />
Names are identifiers.<br />
<br />
Saying "hey you" gets confusing in a group. So, someone came up with names like Peter, Paul, John, etc. These names all had meanings. Peter meant rock in Hebrew, the French version, Pierre, still means stone, but for most of us names just become names. Incidentally, my name Arthur, could be derived from the Celtic elements artos "bear". I like that, but it is just a guess.<br />
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<h3>
Pierresonne </h3>
Along came William the Conqueror in 1066, and defeated King Harold for the Kingdom of England. French entered the language.<br />
<br />
Edward is a good Anglo-Saxon name. In fact, it was the crown of the childless King Edward the Confessor. Our Edward had a father named Peter or Pierre, and to distinguish father and son, Edward became Edward Pierresonne. It is as likely that Edward could have become Edward Peterson, but he didn't and so the name of Pearson entered history.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Edward Peersonne</h3>
Our Edward Peersonne enters history in 1575.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Descendants of Edward Peeresonne<br />
<br />
Generation No. 1<br />
<br />
1.
EDWARD1 PEERESONNE was born Abt. 1575 in Bollin Twp., Wilmslow Parish,
Cheshire, England, and died July 25, 1648 in Wilmslow, Cheshire,
England.<br />
<br />
Notes for EDWARD PEERESONNE:<br />
Source: Wilmslow Parish Records </blockquote>
<a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dhanke&id=I29373" target="_blank">Pierson Family</a><br />
<br />
There are claims that family has its roots in the Vikings of Scandinavia. That is a claim that can't be proven except for the blond hair and blue eyes that occasionally pop up, as it did in me.<br />
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<h3>
The first Edward Peersonne as churchwarden</h3>
<br />
This first Edward Peersonne is found in the Wilmslow churchwarden's books of 1631.<br />
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The Parish priest was assisted each year by at least two churchwardens, one chosen by the priest, one by the parishioners. The churchwarden served for a year and entered in the books transactions on the church and its land holdings. They also wrote Settlement Certificates identifying church goers as members of the parish.<br />
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In 1631, Edward transcribed some of these records and was reimbursed for his efforts. One writing lists Edward as a thatcher. Yes, a thatcher is one who places straw on a roof.<br />
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<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">England</b></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Edward Peeresonne lived in
Pownall Fee, near the modern city of Manchester, England. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Edward Peeresonne, 1575 – unk., m. unk.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Edward Peeresonne, 1594 – 1648, m. unk.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Lawrence Pearson, 1620 – 1675, m. Elizabeth Janey, 1620
-1701</div>
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<br /></div>
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<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">America</b></h3>
The first Pearson in America was Edward Pearson, son of Lawrence. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
He was born in Wilmslow Powell, Cheshire, England and died in Falls MM, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. (Falls MM refers to Fallsington Monthly Meeting in Falls Township in eastern Pa. near the Susquehanna River. See my later post on Fallsington.) Pennsylvania was created as a colony for English Quakers. It was organized by William Penn. Bucks County was established in 1682, and was a destination for Quaker immigrants.<br />
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______________________________________________________<br />
<b>This section is questionable.</b><br />
Edward's wife Sarah Burgess came to America in 1683, on a ship from the Barbados. COLDHAM, PETER WILSON. Bonded Passengers to America. 9 vols. in 3. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983. Vol. 3. London, 1656-1775. 179p. Another source says that Edward and Sarah were married in Pownall Fee, Cheshire England and had several children there before leaving for America. <a href="http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/j/e/f/Lora-Jeffries/GENE12-0069.html" target="_blank">Family Tree Maker</a>.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Edward Pearson, 1651 – 1697, m. Sarah Burgess, 1641 – 1707<br />
<br />
Enoch Pearson, 1683 - 1758, m. Margaret Smith. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Pearson, 1728 – 1790, m. Sarah Hall, unk. John Pearson was born in Pennsylvania,
married, also in Pa., to Sarah Hall in 1756, and died in Union, South Carolina.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Enoch Pearson, 1757 -1831, m. Diana Head, 1760 -1833. There is a photo of a grave stone for E. Pearson in the Pearson Cemetery in Union, South Carolina.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
William Head Pearson, 1780 – 1841, m. Mary White, 1790 –
1883.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
James Madison Pearson, 1817 – 1891, m. Elizabeth Ann Brown,
1823 - 1861</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Benjamin Rush Pearson, 1849 – 1906, m. Sally Coleman
Ferrell, 1852 - 1906</div>
you are what you readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397887493073863245noreply@blogger.com2