William Pearson

PEARSON, BRYAN, PICKRELL, WILLIAMS, SCOTT

Posted By: Pamela Davies (email)
Date: 7/9/2007 at 14:59:18

Mahaska County Biographies, page 401

Rev. William Pearson, Sr., an old and honored resident of Prairie Township, is spending his declining years in the peace and quiet earned by a goodly life and conscientious labor in the cause of thruth and justice. He is a native of Wayne County, N.C., and was born Oct. 22, 1797. In 1814 he removed with a married sister to Logan County, Ohio and in 1816 was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Pickrell, the daughter of Henry and Achsa Pickerell. To them eleven children were born, two of whom died in infancy, the remainder attaining their majority, but only four are living at the present time: Lydia A., widow of John C. Williams: Mary, Mrs. Scott; William, Jr., and Catherine, wife of W.C. Bryan. Mrs. Pearson died Oct. 8, 1864.

Mr. Pearson resided in Logan County, Ohio, until 1850, and followed farming, being principally engaged in raising corn and hogs, and became one of the leading pork growers of Logan County. He came to Mahaska County in 1850, and located on the south side of south Skunk River, on a farm purchased of George Bare, and after a residence there of six years purchased the farm where he now lives, on section 23, Prairie Township. He at one time owned 300 acres of land, but as he advanced in years sold portions of it, until he has now only a life lease of ten acres. He was reared in the belief of the Society of Friends, and has been a minister of that church from the age of twenty-five years. While a resident of Ohio he was three times sent to North Carolina to confer with societies there, and once since he became a resident of this state. The Society of Friends do not send preachers to any place, but when one is prepared for the ministry he is liberated by the Society, and may go and preach anywhere.

Mr. Pearson has traveled and preached in Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and other States. His early political leanings were toward the Whig party, but he became in early life a Free-soiler and an Abolistionist, and since the organization of the Republican party has affiliated with it. He was an attendant at the first free-soil meeting held at Oskaloosa.

Father Pearson is now in his ninetieth year, and enjoys excellent health for one so aged, and at small religious gatherings still preaches to his people. It is to men who, like Father Pearson, had the courage to express their convictions, that the country is to-day indebted for the abolition of slavery, and the prosperity that has attended us since the removal of that foul strain upon our national honor. His whole life has been spent in the cause of humanity, and he has sought to make men better, and consequently happier, by pointing out to them the way of salvation, and exhorting them to walk therein, and none enjoy in a greater degree the admiration and esteem of friends than does this noble old man.
=============================

Pioneer History of Pickrelltown and Neighborhood by Will Hamilton

Excerpt
...William Pearson married Katherine, the daughter of Henry Pickrell in 1815, and when John Paxson left the farm which he had traded to William pearson, Pearson established himself upon it in 1816 and continued to occupy it until he went to Iowa a few years ago.

William Pearson's marriage was the first event of the kind that took place in the neighborhood. On this event the following particulars are related by one who was then a near neighbor. There was some disparity in the size of the young people, William being a very small man, and Katherine quite tall and stout. When William asked Henry for his daughter, the old gentleman replied by asking him if he was not too small a man for a woman of her majesty of size. William assured him, that he thought himself sufficient, and that if he lacked any thing, her sufficiency would make equal his deficit.

...It is said that at the time of his marriage William Pearson was considered a wild young man, but in 1819, four years later, a great change took place in him, and he appeared in the ministry of the gospel, in which he still continues, a consistent and respected servant in the church militant.