A collaborative effort between Cuzzins Rachel and Heather
Any letter excerpts included are from the compiled Letters to Raintree County by James B. Cash
In a country on the verge of being torn apart by war, two brothers - Virginians - must decide where their loyalties lie. 11 years separate Joseph Allen and Benjamin Everett Pearson, but will the divide become become more than just a gap in age?
Rachel's contributions in Verdana.
Heather's contributions in Courier.
Joseph Allen Pearson (Cuzzin Heather and I have decided he shall be played by Viggo Mortensen) was born in Franklin County, Virginia, on October 5th, 1814, one of the ten children of Thomas and Elizabeth Pearson. By the time his last sibling was born in 1829, rumblings concerning the role of slavery in the United States were increasing. In the late 1840s, it would seem Joseph did not want to be in Virginia when the conflict reached its crescendo. It is uncertain exactly when he left the family homestead, but he stopped long enough in McCracken County, Kentucky, to marry Nancy Ann Fields and have a daughter, Lizzie Pearson. By July of 1849, though, he had most certainly settled in Illinois. A letter from his parents to his sister and brother-in-law notes, "Everett, my son, received a letter from Joseph A. Pearson some time I think in July and that he was living in Illinois and that he was doing well." With the Compromise of 1850 on the horizon and the serial publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in progress, Joseph was probably congratulating himself on escaping a volatile situation in Virginia.
From 1849-1858, Joseph grew his family in the comparative peace of Pulaski County, Illinois. The population was just shy of 4,000 people by the 1860 census. In addition to Lizzie, Joseph and Nancy added John, Catherine, Nancy, Mary Ann, Joseph, and George to their brood, though not all of them survived. Neither John, Catherine, nor Joseph lived to see a first birthday. In March of 1858, Joseph's cousins were engaged in a correspondence in which one wrote, "I know we received a letter from Joseph Pearson and he wrote that they were all well and he has had some deaths in the family." This was likely a reference to the loss of Joseph L. who lived less than a month, July 13 - August 6, 1857.
No enlistment or service records exist for Joseph Sr. He was 47 by the time war was declared, so it seems safe to assume he chose not to take part. Joseph was arguably too old for war, and his only living son, George William, was certainly too young at only three. Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin Everett, enlisted...with the Confederacy. Many of Joseph's extended family would do the same. Joseph's wife and children, however, would remain more or less unscathed by the ravages of war. They would add another son to their brood, Thomas J. (likely Jefferson) in 1862.
Back on the east coast...
Benjamin Everett Pearson, Joseph's much younger brother and commonly referred to by his middle name (here portrayed by mutual Cuzzin agreement by Sir Richard Armitage), was born in Franklin County, Virginia on April 6th, 1825. Like his older brother, he grew up in a part of the country where slavery was commonplace and where the rumbling of ending it only increased with each passing year. Everett married at a far younger age than his brother, to Matilda Robertson in 1844, and possibly shortly after that event, Joseph set out. Home in Virginia, when Everett received Joseph's letter telling of his new home and recent marriage, he can't have let too much time go by before discussing (or perhaps, telling) his wife and his parents of his plans to go to Illinois. A July 1853 letter explains, "I am living in Nicholas, Va and have been since the first of November 1851. I sold my plantation in Franklin with the intention of going to Illinois." And yet, he was living a mere 150 miles from his birthplace.
There were plenty of possible reasons why their Illinois objective was not immediately achieved. In that window of time from November 1851 to July 1853, the couple and their small children had sold a large farm (called a plantation in the letter but not seeming to own slaves, at least not in their household), packed trunks, and traveled by wagon. Most of Virginia was well populated at this point, but the journey at any time of year, especially with young children, could only have been arduous. From records in what later became West Virginia, they seem to have gone without any other family. Not too long after setting up home near Gauley's Bridge, Everett sat down to draft a letter telling of his good fortune - "300 acres of...good land with about 40 acres of improvements with a good comfortable dwelling." Certainly he knew that War was coming, but even temporary good fortune has its pull on a man making his living from the earth.
By 1860/61, when Everett was joining his neighbors in their preparations to fight with the Confederacy on behalf of "State's Rights" and preserve his family's right to own the enslaved, Matilda can only have been filled with fear. She had 4 sons (Thomas Jefferson, John W., George B., and William D.), the eldest only 12 years old, and Mary Jane, who was 6 in 1860. Their eldest, Lucinda, had passed away from whooping cough in 1853. Fayette County during the Civil War was a very active place, full of the noise, soil and smoke of battle, and people needing everything, everywhere. We are unsure at this juncture exactly how long Everett was away. The units he belonged to did serve in Maryland, but they didn't venture as far as many other troops. He also was home long enough that in 1862 and 1864, Matilda gave birth to 2 more daughters, Eliza and Bettie.
Matilda died of scurvy in 1869. Initially I thought that must be a diagnostic error, but with the deprivation of War and having given birth twice during that time, keeping 5 older children alive, and probably also caring for a worn-out husband and aiding neighbors, it is likely she neglected her own health. Her husband, although they'd been married 25 years, was married again approximately 9 months later.
Back in Illinois...
The war years passed more or less uneventfully for Joseph and family. Several years after the war ended, he visited his ailing father in Virginia. In April 1870, Joseph's older brother, Peyton, writes, "Brother Joseph and daughter [most likely Mary] was here last winter and left the area before Father's decease." Joseph likely visited with his extended family during this time as well. Upon his return to Illinois, he writes to his sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Aaron Ballard. He shares news of his family in Illinois, but it is obvious he misses the brothers and sisters he left behind. Specifically, he laments, "I have not heard anything more from Everett since I saw you." In the same letter, he even encourages a niece of his to send a likeness of herself because he has "a charming beau picked out for her." It seems Joseph is desperate to have his extended family nearby. In the meantime, he simply adds to his immediate family. In late April 1870, he and Nancy welcome another daughter, Mattie. She would be followed by Lila two years later.
Post-war West Virginia to Illinois
Poor Everett, despite his pre-war letter of good fortune on the farm, 1870 didn't seem to be a happy time. His decades-long marriage had ended in tragedy, he was on the losing side of an epic war, and his young wife, just a few years older than his eldest son, was having a baby (some good news!). However, in a letter from his brother Peyton to sister Nancy Ballard in November of that year, his siblings seem to not have heard from him recently, and to not yet be aware of the birth of another son, James Henry. While there is no further record of Theodosia Campbell Pearson after her marriage, and 11 months later the birth of her son, it isn't unreasonable to think that she died in childbirth or from complications a short while later.
Given Joseph's seeming anxiousness to have more family nearby, and Everett's previous desire to be in Illinois, the time had come. Whether the journey was to be by wagon or possibly by train, packing commenced. It is unknown how many of Everett's children departed with him, or when the departure took place, but the West Virginia Pearsons arrived in Illinois any time between James Henry's birth in Nov 1870 and Everett's third marriage (we know!) in August of 1873. It's not an incredible span of time, and given the other young children at home, including a newborn, my money is on 1872.
There would have been a joyous reunion of brothers, and certainly happiness among the large number of young cousins, at least one of which was becoming reacquainted. Mary Pearson had been to Virginia/West Virginia with her father. And in a reversal of fortune from the aforementioned tragedy, the journey to the West either brought Cupid along or opened the door to that deity. Before long, there were three courtships of Pearsons with members of the Echols family, established in Illinois since the early days of the state. Firstly, Everett and a divorcee of another (Union) Civil War soldier journeyed to the neighboring county's courthouse for a marriage license, securing a bonus mother for his youngest children still at home, and security for the bride and her two daughters. Ann Elizabeth Echols Green joined the Pearson household. She was closer to Everett's own age and would become the only maternal figure that little James Henry would know. It is unknown if one of the other fledgling romances was underway before the above marriage, but soon both Everett's son John and daughter Mary Jane had found mates. John's intended was his new stepmother's own eldest daughter, Emma Katherine Green. Would this have shaken up the family, or were the norms of marrying within your social circle during those times a trivial detail? Mary Jane's soon-to-be-husband was another relative of her new stepmother, but not of her own household. William A Hughes' mother and Ann's father were first cousins. The two younger couples were married on the same day, December 6, 1874.
Joseph's daughter Lila, who sadly did not survive infancy, and little James Henry Pearson had been the family's youngest members, but at 51 years young, and his recent bride's 38, another child was born. Named after their native state of Virginia, and called Jennie, the Pearson brothers had tied up at 10 children each. With that event, the years from 1875 - 1880 in Illinois bore little of note except that John and Emma Kate (Green) Pearson journeyed back to Virginia to begin their marriage and family.
Brothers separated again
In 1881, Joseph and Benjamin's mother, Elizabeth, became ill. Their sister, also Elizabeth, writes in early September, "Our dear aged mother, she is on her death bed I fear. She has been down five weeks. This morning she went out soon in the morning. They say she could not tell why she went out so early before any of the family had arose from bed and fell and hurt her hip. It seemed to be only the flesh but she is still helpless and her mind almost entirely left her." Elizabeth (Heckman) Pearson died on September 30, 1881.
More bad fortune was on the way. Less than five months after the death of his mother, Joseph Pearson shuffled off this mortal coil as well. A mention in the local newspaper read, "Joseph Pearson, aged 70 years, died at his residence near America, Pulaski County, where he had resided for about 40 years." And so, the brothers were separated once again. We are uncertain at what point Benjamin decided to return to Virginia, but it seems likely his mother's and brother's deaths were catalysts for the decision. He had come to Illinois at the behest of his brother, and now his brother was gone. What we know for certain is that when Benjamin's wife, Ann, is asked to give a deposition in regards to her ex-husband's request for a pension in 1886, their home address is Pearisburg, Virginia.
***In a rather odd turn of events, John W. (Benjamin's son) and Emma Kate separated, and Joseph’s son, George William, married her in 1883.***
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