I feel like this post might be something of a cop-out. I've tried my best to come up with a "new" idea about the strength of my (Pearson and other peripheral) ancestors, but I've discussed that very trait in so many of my previous posts! Specifically, strong women seem to be first and foremost in many of my musings. Of course, men had to be strong - physically, at least - but women bore (and lost) children, kept their households running, and sometimes had to accomplish tasks more typically left to men.
For example, I would consider Ann Elizabeth Echols Green Pearson a strong woman. She raised her two daughters alone while her husband fought in the Civil War. She attempted to coexist with her husband after he returned from the Civil War, but when she discovered that was impossible, she was strong enough to accept that divorce was necessary. It is clear that she did not have a replacement in mind when she and Thomas Green divorced, as she did not remarry for almost 4 years, so she was once again raising her daughters without a husband.
Ann's husband remarried, and he produced a few strong women, as well - his daughter, Leona, and her daughter, Jennie Grace. Leona married and had a daughter with Charles Terpinitz, but when that marriage ended, Leona did not remarry (as was the case with so many women who depended on their husbands to support them). Leona boarded and worked nearby while Jennie Grace pursued a degree at the University of Illinois. After Jennie Grace married, Leona pursued a career on the East Coast as a corsetiere. Jennie Grace, an obviously strong-minded woman, pursued a career in music, and performed overseas. With the arrival of World War II came the need for women to enlist to serve their country. Jennie Grace did that, too.
Someone else who fits the bill of a strong woman is Nancy Ann Fields Pearson. In a time when infant mortality was extraordinarily high, Nancy had the misfortune to lose 4 of her 10 children in their infancies. Not a single one made it to his/her first birthday. The strength it must have taken to bury those babies and then go about her business is something I cannot comprehend. Also, not long after her husband's death, there is a story of Nancy being assaulted in Cairo, Illinois. (Cuzzin Heather wrote about this incident in one of her previous posts.) While the report says "grave fears are entertained of her recovery," she did recover, and she ended up outliving one (possibly two) of her remaining six children.
Finally (although I'm sure many more deserve the title of 'strong'), my great grandmother, Lena Pearson, falls into this category for many reasons. In 1923, after only 7 years of marriage, she lost her first husband to (I believe) tuberculosis. He left behind not only his wife but a young daughter, Lois. Lena remarried to my great grandfather, Daniel Benton, and had 2 more children. In 1937, Lena was instrumental in saving both her young son (my grandfather) and Lois (now married with a child of her own) from a fire! In her later years, Lena survived stomach cancer. Can't get much stronger than that.
If you've read to the end of this post, I encourage you to click on the link to each woman's story. What I have written here is simply a precursor to a much more detailed account...just to whet your appetite. ;)
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