George Warren Pearson

  General Notes:

Great Grandfather of Kathy Pearson Gardner. KG4KINFOLK@aol.com

George Warren Pearson was born in England. His mother died when he wa s young. His father remarried and then also died. In those days, th e eldest living son was eligible to inheret the estate and titles at a ge 13. The stepmother wanter her son to inheret. So she arranged fo r George to be taken to sea and killed before his 13th birthday. Shep aid a sea captain approximately 200 lbs to throw Geore overboard ona t rip to America. The boat sailed from Liverpool, England(?). On the w ay to America, George and the captain became friends. The captaintaug ht George to be a good cabin boy. On arrival in New York the captain took George to a family to raise. The sea Captain gave all of the mon ey the stepmother had given him to raise George well. When Great Grea t Grandpa was old enough, he said goodbye to his adopted familyand hea ded west. It was said that he moved through Kentucky and then to Misso uri where he supposedly married or mated with an Indian women and had his first family while a riverboat captain on the Ohio and theMississi ppi Rivers. We don't know what happened to the first family. But Geo rge moved to Illinois and settled in Clay County some time before 1855 . In 1856 he married Nancy King. They first had a son named Lewis, t hen a son named Uriah, who died before his second birthday. In 1961, they had a son namede George Warren Pearson. The first George died o n Dec 10, 1862, at the age of 40. Nancy remarried a man named John W . Killingsworth. During his life, GGGrandpa, through thriftand being a riverboat man, had acquired a nice sum of money. After Nancy Killin gsworth, who was a school teacher and apparently a gambler,he lost al l the family fortune. It was said that GGGrandpa may have been a black smith. On Feb 14, 1879, Nancy also died, leaving George Warren an orp han at the age of 17. Nancy was 49 years old and 9 days old. She wa s buried at the Oskaloosa Cemetary in an unmarked grave. Lewis, Georg e's brother, died before the 1880 census was taken on Mar 21, 1880 of pneumonia. Then George went to live with a William and Susa King, wh o I think were his aunt and uncle. John Killingsworth died in 1901 of a CVA. He was buried in Oskaloosa Cemetary in an unmarked grave.

George married Nancy King, daughter of Warren King and Caroline Matilda Purcell, on Dec 18, 1856 in Clay County, IL.⁹⁵ (Nancy King was born on Feb 5, 1832 in Warrick Co, IN ¹⁵⁷ and died on Feb 14, 1879 in Clay County, IL ¹⁵⁷.)