2026 #52Ancestors - Week 4: A Theory in Progress

 

Back to tangential Pearsons this week.  I've written about this fellow before, but it's probably time for an update.  When I first wrote about Pierson McClure/Joseph Marion Miller, I was only able to track him from his birth in 1914 until the early 1940s.  During those 26+ years, Pierson McClure became Joseph Marion Miller, moved with his mother and various stepfathers from Illinois to Michigan, and was eventually employed in the merchant marines. Considering he experienced a name change (and his mother's last name changed four times) during that period, I consider it a blessing I was able to track him at all.

Receiving his merchant marine file filled in a few more blanks.  I was able to determine that he moved with his mother back to Mattoon, Illinois, (a place familiar to them, as they lived there in the early 1920s). I learned that, while living in Mattoon, he got into an altercation with a neighbor; this article also identified Joseph as being blind. That information allowed me to identify him in another newspaper article, this time in East St. Louis, but there was still plenty about Pierson/Joseph that I didn't know. For example, why did he and his mother move back to Mattoon in the late 1940s, and when/why did they then make the decision to move to East St. Louis?  What was the extent of his previously mentioned blindness?  Oh...and where/when did he die?

So, here is my theory in progress.  Nettie-of-the-many-marriages must have divorced/been divorced by husband #5 some time in the mid-to-late 1940s (I haven't found a divorce record yet). Because she was now caretaker to her disabled son, she wanted to move somewhere that felt familiar. Maybe she had some friends in Mattoon and wanted a fresh start for herself and Joseph.  

Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet Joseph was more than a little difficult to handle.  The altercation referenced in his merchant marine file and the article about assaulting his neighbor lends credence to that theory, and various articles about Nettie indicate she was no shrinking violet.  On top of their strong personalities, Nettie probably realized she needed to get Joseph closer to services for the blind.  After all, she wasn't going to live forever. Somehow, she found out about The St. Louis Society for the Blind.  They offered classes on life skills, and assisted the blind with transportation, resources, and access to social workers.  She and Joseph didn’t necessarily need to live in St. Louis.  East St. Louis was just over the river, and she thought she might still be able to find her way around based on the time she spent there with her 1st and 3rd husbands.  

I like this theory because it explains why Joseph and Nettie had different addresses in East St. Louis at the time of Nettie's death in 1968; he had learned the skills necessary to function autonomously thanks to The St. Louis Society for the Blind. The above theory offers at least a partial answer to all my questions...except where/when Joseph died.  All I have to go on is his last known address in 1968, and it is now an open field.

2026 #52Ancestors, Week 1: An Ancestor I Admire

Well, I certainly fell off the genealogical bandwagon in 2025!  I think I got through the first month and a half of #52Ancestors and then self-destructed. 😳 I'm hoping for a better showing this year. That being said, let's move on to the prompt for the first week of January - an ancestor I admire.

Now, I could be predictable and write about Horace for the dozenth time.  (If you are new to this blog and don't know about Horace, please go to the above link.  He was an amazing and resilient man.)  I could also write about his ancestor, Thomas Pearson, who fought in the Revolutionary War. Instead, I'm going to write about Horace's paternal grandfather, Joseph Allen Pearson.

**Any letter excerpts included are from the compiled Letters to Raintree County by James B. Cash**

Joseph was born in Franklin County, Virginia, in 1814.  He was a third generation Franklin County Pearson, and many of his siblings remained in the area and gave birth to a 4th generation of Franklin County Pearsons.  Joseph, for whatever reason, had other plans. In the late 1840s, it seems he succumbed to wanderlust.  It is uncertain exactly when or why he left the family homestead, but he traveled west and stopped long enough in McCracken County, Kentucky, to marry Nancy Ann Fields and have a daughter, Lizzie Pearson (born in July of 1848).  By July of 1849, though, he had most certainly settled in Illinois.  A November 1849 letter from his parents to his sister and brother-in-law notes they had "received a letter from Joseph A. Pearson some time...in July and that he was living in Illinois and that he was doing well."  As far as I have been able to ascertain, he did not have any connections to Pulaski County, Illinois, but that is where he chose to settle. The 1850 census indicates he was a farmer.

Far from his family and the familiarity of his childhood home, Joseph built a life for himself, his wife, and their children. They had (at least) 10 children between 1848 and 1872, but it was not all joy.  Their first son, John, born in 1849, died in 1850 from croup.  Their next daughter, Catherine, born in 1850, died in 1851. Two more girls would follow, Nancy (1853) and Mary Ann (1855).  They survived infancy, but Joseph and Nancy's next son, Joseph, did not. Born 13 Jul. 1857, he died on August 6th. It was not until my great great grandfather was born (in 1858) that a son survived. Next came Thomas J. (1862) and Mattie (1870). A final daughter, Lila, was born to Joseph and Nancy in 1872, but she died in July 1873.  John, Catherine, Joseph, and Lila were buried in a small family cemetery.  I like to believe that Joseph and Nancy made it a point to visit them from time to time.  

In spite of  his decision to move half-way across the country, it is obvious Joseph missed his family back in Virginia.  In 1870, he wrote to his sister, Nancy, and brother-in-law, Aaron, and was clearly trying to convince members of his family to join him.  He suggested, "Tell Little niece Nannia Coble I have a charming beau picked out for her," and seemed to be encouraging his family to move when he wrote "good land here is worth about half what it is up there."  His youngest brother, Benjamin Everett, did briefly join him in Pulaski County after the Civil War, but Joseph lived the majority of his adult life far from his kin.  

In 1880, the census indicates Joseph was suffering from rheumatism, but he was still farming. When he died in 1882, he was buried beside his 4 infant children in the family cemetery.  

It takes courage to leave the comfort of family and travel 650 miles to a place that is utterly foreign.  It takes fortitude to establish a home on the pioneer and learn to grow and harvest unfamiliar crops. It takes perseverance to weather several infant deaths.  It takes determination to continue working through old age, joint pain, and stiffness.  He didn't have to overcome physical disabilities like his grandson Horace Pearson, and he didn't fight for his country's independence like his grandfather Thomas Pearson, but Joseph came to Pulaski County with a wife, a daughter, and the goal of starting a new life for himself.  He succeeded.