George W. Pearson

1814-1878

Born 1814, Tennessee

Died 1878

Father: George Pearson

Mother: Allah Pearson

Children include Mary

George W. Pearson was born in Tennessee in November 1814 and moved his family west in two stages. He spent the early eighteen forties in Missouri and reached Cherokee County, Texas by 1846. He was paying tax there by 1850 with four children under his roof. In 1860 he was in the county's Beat 2, with his wife and the three younger children still at home.

The Civil War probably took one of his boys. An Alfred H. Pearson of the 7th Texas Infantry died of camp sickness at Hopkinsville, Kentucky in January 1862, at about eighteen. By 1870 George and Catharine were alone apart from a girl of ten and a young Alabama man. He registered to vote in the county in January 1869. He died on 11 October 1878, aged sixty three, and was buried at Rusk in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Catharine was laid beside him six years later. Land he had sold was still being described by his name in deeds drawn in 1887.

His father was George Pearson of McMinn County, Tennessee, who made his will in May 1824 when this boy was nine. The will names a son George Washington Pearson among seven children and asks that their education be "attended to with all possible care". In August 1839 George W. Pearson of McMinn County signed his share of his father's land over to his mother Ally to sell, and that winter she took up a headright in Texas. Her 640 acres lay six miles south of Rusk, in the county where he settled. Two of the brothers named in the will were Jesse Wilson and William Henry, and those are the two names his own Missouri-born son went by.

Parents

Allah Pearson b. 1785 George Pearson b. 1781

Children

Mary Jane Pearson (1838-1907)

Sources

THE HOUSEHOLD, Cherokee County, Texas, 1850. G. W. PEARSON, thirty four, born Tennessee. CATHARINE L. D. PEARSON, thirty six, born Tennessee. MARY I. PEARSON, born Tennessee about 1839. JESSE W. PEARSON, born Missouri about 1841. ALFRED H. PEARSON, born Missouri about 1843. LUCINDA L. PEARSON, born Texas about 1846. And in the house with them, L. T. HERENDEN, twenty, born Alabama. The children's birthplaces are the family's road: Tennessee to about 1840, Missouri through the early forties, Texas by 1846. G. W. Pearson paid tax in the county that same year and was still registering to vote there in January 1869. WHY THIS IS HER FAMILY. It is the only Pearson household in the county in 1850. The eldest daughter is a Mary of the right age with the right birth state, and Mary Jane Pearson married in that county eight years later. Mary I. is how a clerk's J is indexed as often as not. AND THE MOTHER LIES IN THE SAME GROUND. The stone reads CATHARINE L. D. EDINGTON PEARSON, born 26 January 1819, died 27 February 1884, at Rusk in Cherokee County, which is where Mary Jane Pearson Townsend was buried twenty three years later. Edington is her maiden name and it is in no other known record. A THIRD STRAND, FROM THE NAMES. The son Mary Jane bore in 1875 was christened SHEPARD HERNDON TOWNSEND, and Herenden is the young man who was living in her father's house when she was eleven. This family used surnames for middle names, Lilla Mead and Helena Berryman as well, so a name out of the childhood household turning up on a son is worth something. NO DOCUMENT SAYS DAUGHTER OF. Three strands agree and none of them is a statement of parentage, so the link is asserted, not proven. A statement of parentage would be in G. W. Pearson's estate in Cherokee County after January 1869, which would name his children, or in the Cherokee County deed books, where he was conveying land as late as 1887.

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas. Photograph on Find a Grave memorial 61349841.

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas. Photograph on Find a Grave memorial 61349840.

United States Census, 1860, Beat 2, Cherokee County, Texas, page 70, NARA M653 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXFP-TVB). United States Census, 1870, Beat 1, Cherokee County, Texas, page 1, line 36, NARA M593 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXGG-MHM).

McMinn County, Tennessee, Wills 1819-1830, page 68, will no. 10, manuscript copy (FamilySearch image 3:1:S7WF-SJPT-H9); typed county transcription, Wills 1828-1834, pages 58 and 59 (FamilySearch image 3:1:3QHK-935R-F6J9).

McMinn County, Tennessee, Register of Deeds, Book F, pages 284 and 285, registered 13 December 1839. FamilySearch image 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-R39J-G.

McMinn County, Tennessee, Register of Deeds, Book F, page 286, acknowledged at Athens 9 December 1839. FamilySearch image 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-R39N-5.

United States Census 1850, Cherokee County, Texas (FamilySearch 1:1:MXLV-YKS); 1860, Beat 2, Cherokee County, page 70 (1:1:MXFP-TVB); 1870, Beat 1, Cherokee County, page 1 (1:1:MXGG-MHM). Headstone, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Rusk, Find a Grave memorial 61349841. Alfred H. Pearson, Find a Grave memorial 67784256, Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Texas voter registration, Cherokee County, 1869. Cherokee County deed of 1887, Book C, pages 508 and 509. Will of George Pearson, 13 May 1824, McMinn County, Tennessee (FamilySearch images 3:1:S7WF-SJPT-H9 and 3:1:3QHK-935R-F6J9). Lineage form of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution for Lucinda Catherine Pearson and Benjamin Franklin Vining (3:1:3QHV-B3RG-6P4F). McMinn County, Tennessee, Register of Deeds, Book F, pages 278 to 286: powers of attorney of P. H. Pearson and W. H. Pearson (Benton County, Alabama, 20 February 1839) and of George W. Pearson (McMinn County, 14 August 1839) to Ally Pearson, and deed of 17 September 1839 to David Maxwell, registered December 1839 (FamilySearch images 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-R3S7-M, 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-R39J-G and 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-R39N-5). Texas General Land Office, Cherokee County abstract 679, Nacogdoches third class, file 158, grantee and patentee Alley Pearson, certificate 83, 640 acres, patent 363, volume 4, 8 December 1847. Cherokee County, Texas tax rolls, 1846 to 1866, original grantee Ally Pearson (FamilySearch images 3:1:939F-WZ5Q-1 and 3:1:939F-WZBF-4).

If George W. Pearson is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "George W. Pearson (1814-1878)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/george-w-pearson-1814-1878-bd2a8b.