Thomas E. Pearson
Thomas E. Pearson, who has been successfully engaged in the transfer business at Denison for the past seventeen years, was born in Kendall county, Illinois. on the 7th of August, 1860, his parents being Thomas P. and Sarah M. (Seely) Pearson.
The father, whose birth occurred in England in 1823, accompanied his parents on their emigration to the United States in 1883, the family first locating in Utica, New York. Three years later they removed to Kendall county, Illinois, where the grandfather of our subject entered land and erected a log cabin with clapboard roof and puncheon floor. Thomas P. Pearson there grew to manhood and in 1847 wedded Miss Sarah M. Seely, who was born in New York in 1829. In 1856 he went to Mendota, La Salle county, Illinois, there making his home until 1865, which year witnessed his removal to Cedar Rapids, Linn county, Iowa. In 1876 he took up his abode in Crawford county, here residing until 1895, when he removed to Elmwood, Illinois, where his demise occurred in 1902. His widow, who still survives him, is living in Canton, Illinois, and has attained the age of eighty-two years.
They were the parents of five children, as follows: Millicent S., who is deceased; F. M., who is a resident of Carney, Oklahoma; Ida M., the wife of Frank Richards, of Kane county, Illinois; Thomas E., of this review; and lola B., the wife of George Ainsworth, of Canton, Illinois.
Thomas E. Pearson was educated in the common schools and remained under the parental roof until twenty-five years of age, when he was married and established a home of his own. Following that important event in his life he purchased a half interest in the old homestead farm of two hundred and seventynine acres on sections 24 and 25, Goodrich township, residing thereon until 1894. In that year he disposed of the property and came to Denison, where he has since made his home, now owning two fine residences, six lots and a transfer barn. During the period of his residence in Denison he has been engaged in the dray and transfer business and has built up an extensive and profitable enterprise in this connection.
As a companion and helpmate on the journey of life Mr. Pearson chose Miss Eva Adelle Haskin, whose birth occurred in Dane county, Wisconsin, or. the 17th of September, 1859. her parents being John W. and Orre1 M. (Watterman) Haskins, the former a native of New York and the latter of Holland, Massachusetts. They removed to Wisconsin with their respective parents and later took up their abode in Richland county, that state, where Mr. Haskin died in 1901. His wife passed away in Crawford county, Iowa, in 1910. Mrs. Pearson was one of a family of eight children, seven of whom are yet living. She taught school for seven years prior to her marriage.
She is now the mother of three children. Townsend A., whose natal day was March 18, 1886, is a student in the Northwestern University Dental School of Chicago. Laura Ida, who was born on the 30th of November, 1889, is a graduate of the Denison high school and now attends the Columbia School of Music in Chicago. Margaret, the younger daughter, was born on the 17th of April, 1898.
In politics Mr. Pearson is a republican, loyally supporting the men and measures of that party by his ballot. He has served as a member of the school board and has likewise acted as a street commissioner. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World, belonging to Lodge No. 76 at Denison, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Baptist church, with which his wife is also affiliated. Mrs. Pearson is the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the seventeenth district of Iowa and also belongs to the Relief Corps. Mr. Pearson is a progressive, wide-awake business man of known reliability, and the success that has come to him is but the just reward of his own industry and good management.
Source: History of Crawford County, Iowa. Vol. II. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911.