Marguerite Chevallier Meine

My grandmother was French, so she said.

Ma grand-mère était française, disait-elle.

Marguerite Chevallier

I was perhaps ten when I first recall seeing her. She spoke in a French accent even after 30 years of speaking English. Her maiden name, as I knew it as a child, was Marguerite Chevallier. And when she spoke of Germans, it was always with a touch of disdain. The few bits and pieces of history that I recall her telling me as a child include her parents hiding silver and valuables from the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War, and then the devastating consequences of the First World War on Graffigny-Chemin, the small village in Haute-Marne, formerly the province of Lorraine, where she and her sister grew up with their mother.

 J'avais dix ans quand je l'ai vu la premier fois. Elle parlait anglais avec un accent français fort. Son nom de jeune fille, comme je l'ai connu par enfant, était Marguerite Chevallier. Et quand elle parlait aux Allemands, c'était toujours avec une touche de dédain. Les quelques bribes de l'histoire que je me souviens qu'elle me dit comme un enfant comprennent cacher l'argent des Allemands pendant la guerre franco-prussienne, et puis les conséquences dévastatrices de la Premier Guerre mondiale. Graffigny-Chemin, où elle et sa soeur ont grandi avec leur mère, estais une petit village dans le Haute -Marne, la province de Lorraine ancienne.

Madison Pearson's 2nd Division Campaign medal

My grandmother met my grandfather in France in January of 1918. He was serving with Second Division, later the Third Division, near Graffigny. Indeed, when he first arrived, he was billeted in the town of Graffigny, as the Second Division was headquartered in the nearby town of Bourmont. The family history is that my grandfather, Madison Pearson, was injured in one of the many battles and nursed back to health by my grandmother. There are no military records of his exploits, so that can not be documented. What I do know is that my grandfather has several medals including, a Purple Heart that proves he was wounded, and the Silver Star, that shows he fought with gallantry in action. 

Ma grand-mère a rencontré mon grand-père en France en 1917. Il servait près de Graffigny, dans la deuxième division, et plus tard la troisième division. Quand il est arrivé, il était cantonné dans la ville de Graffigny, comme la deuxième division a son siège social dans la ville voisine de Bourmont. L'histoire de la famille, c'est que mon grand-père, Madison Pearson, a été blessé dans l'une des nombreuses batailles et ramené à la santé de ma grand-mère. Il n'existe aucune documents militaires. Mais, ce que je sais, c'est que mon grand-père a plusieurs médailles dont une Purple Heart qui prouve qu'il a été blessé, et la Silver Star, qui montrent qu'il a combattu avec bravoure au combat.

Marguerite Chevallier Meine

My grandmother and grandfather somehow found time during the progress of the war to court, and after the armistice in November of 1918, they married. Eventually, they returned to the United States. My grandfather remained in the military retiring as a Brigadier General. 

Mon grand-mère et grand-père a trouvé le temps à la cour pendant la guerre, et après le fin de guerre, ils se sont mariés. Finalement, ils sont retournés aux États-Unis. Mon grand-père est resté dans l'armée sa retraite comme général de brigade. 

My visits as a teenager to their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina were always enjoyable. I remember the purple irises that lined the stone driveway to their house. I enjoyed the fried chicken and Spanish rice my grandmother loved to cook. I played cards with both my grandparents, Canasta with my grandmother, and bridge with my grandfather.

Mes visites à l'adolescence dans leur maison à Chapel Hill, Caroline du Nord étaient toujours très agréables. Je me souviens des iris violets qui bordaient l'allée de pierre de leur maison. J'ai apprécié le poulet frit et riz à l'espagnole ma grand-mère aimait cuisiner. J'ai joué aux cartes avec mes deux grands-parents, Canasta avec ma grand-mère, et pont avec mon grand-père.

There was a garden in the back of the house which had lost much of its splendor with the passing of years. My grandparents, now in their seventies, had slowed down. Still, it was fun to explore the garden with its chicken coup, its trellises, its water pond, the fig tree, and crushed stone pathways that were lined with ancient flower beds gone to seed.

Il y avait un jardin à l'arrière de la maison qui avait perdu un peu de sa splendeur au fil des ans. Mes grands-parents, maintenant septuagénaires, avait ralenti. Pourtant, il était amusant d'explorer le jardin avec son poulailler, ses treilles, son bassin d'eau, et les voies qui ont été bordée de parterres de fleurs anciennes.

All family histories are a mixture of memories both sweet and sad. Our grandparents pass on as do our parents, and we are left with but a few things to remember them by.

Les histoires de toutes familles sont un mélange de souvenirs doux et triste. Nos grands-parents se transmettent comme nos parents, et nous nous retrouvons avec quelques petites choses à leur souvenir.

My grandmother was French, as I said, but there is always more to the story…

Ma grand-mère était française, comme je l'ai dit, mais il ya toujours plus à l'histoire ...

Who was first?

An O'Farrell Family History gives an extensive listing of relatives including many Pearsons.

There is another Pearson line, but it is uncertain how these Pearsons connect up to our family. One can also do a research of Pearsons in England.




Bishop John Pearson (February 28, 1612 – July 16, 1686) bishop of Chester. Was he the father of Bishop John Pearson (1636 - 1716)? Who knows?

My grandfather was James Madison Pearson of Tallapoosa, Alabama. His family came from Georgia. His family tree goes like this:

Bishop John Pearson – great x 6 grandfather (1636? – 1716?)


Edward Pearson – great x 5 grandfather (1661? – 1746?)


Enoch Pearson – great x 4 grandfather (1682/3 - 1758)


John Pearson – great x 3 grandfather (1728 - 1815)


Enoch Pearson - great great grandfather (1757 - 1831)

William Head Pearson - great grandfather (1780 - 1841)

James Madison Pearson - grandfather (1817 - 1909)

Benjamin Rush Pearson - father of James Madison Pearson

meanwhile back in the colonies

George introduced me today to a new line of our family - the Whites.

"[Art,] I added a file here on some documents that I had received from a distant cousin in California awhile back on the White Family. This would be Daddy Mat's G-grandmother's line Mary White b1790- d 1883."

George included a link to a pdf file so that all of the correspondence and documentation on the Whites would be available. Thanks George.

So, who are these people?

The original White was William White, a minister from Wiltshire, England. He and his family were granted land in the colonies by Robert Beverly because, "they were hard workers and because they oposed the Colony's old ruling clique and fundalistic economy." (Comment of Stanley Williams, dated 1985). The use of the term fundalistic is a bit obscure at this point, but it may be that Beverly and White both opposed the idea of slavery as the basis for a new world economy.

This William White died in 1658, appointing his brother Reverend Jeremiah White as guardian to his children. Another brother, John White, vicar of Cheriton, Wilshire, England left a bequest to his brother William's children in a will dated 1668.

William married twice in his lifetime. By his first marriage, he had six children: John, William, Edward,Deborah, Mary, and Jeremiah. His wife's name is lost to time, or someone else will discover it. William's second wife was named Martha, widow of Major Thomas Brice. These two, William and Martha married in 1657, a year before both William and Martha died.

One of William's sons, who it is not clear, fathered John White who married Mary Elliot sometime before 1705. Mary Elliot was the daughter of Thomas Elliot (Ellet) of King William County, Virginia. John and Mary had at least six children: Daniel, Jeremiah, Henry, Thomas, James, and another John. (The birth order is uncertain as is the number of children.) John, Senior died by 1743.

Daniel, the son of John and Mary, died in 1790 in Culpepper, Virginia, but not before producing at least one offspring Henry White.

Henry married Celia Page(?) (whose father was John Page of Buckingham County, Virginia?) Henry and Celia had six or more children: Jacob (Cpt.), William, Thomas, James, Stephen, Obadiah, and possibly, Henry.

And who is Captain Jacob White? Jacob is a great great grandfather of our family and our connection to the American Revolution. Jacob was born in 1765 and married Hannah Spiers (between 1781 and 1786). Jacob and Hannah had a girl child, Mary White, who married a Pearson. The state of Virginia years ago started a project to preserve the history of the American Revolution and from them this photograph of the gravestone of our ancestor's gravestone is possible.



I will leave it to George or Kathy to tidy up the direct connection to James Madison Pearson.

the end of the war

World War I ended officially in an armistice that took effect at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 11, 1918.






It was at this hour on this day that a telegram was received at headquarters 1st Army requesting transfer of Major James Madison Pearson, "Madison F. Pierson" to headquarters Third Division.

The war was over.

The choice of words was significant - the war ended in an "armistice" and not a "surrender". The German Army, as a result, remained intact and the rumor ran throughout the German Army and population that the German Army was not defeated, but "stabbed in the back".

Form 84 a2

James Madison Pearson

Organizations and Staff Assignments:
58th Infantry, to October 1917
4th Machine Gun Battalion, to February 4, 1917
Headquarters 2nd Division, to September 20, 1918
Headquarters 1st Army, to November 7, 1918
Headquarters 3rd Division, to November 3, 1919
Attached to 60th Infantry, to February 9, 1920

Promotions:
2nd Lieutenant, Regular Army– May 28, 1917
1st Lieutenant – May 28, 1917
Captain – August 5, 1917
Major – Jul 1, 1918
Lieutenant Colonel - May 6, 1919
Reverted to 1st Lieutenant, Regular Army – February 17, 1920

Engagements:
Aisne-Marne
St.Mihiel
Meuse-Argonne
Defensive Sector – Toulon, Troyen,
Chateau-Thierry,
Marbache,
Limey

c.l. pearson

Let me see if I have this right - C. L. Pearson is Charles Lafayette Pearson, 1854 -1940. His older brother, our great grandfather, is Benjamin Rush Pearson, 1849 -1906.

Their father (pictured) was James Madison Pearson, 1817 -1891. The family history relates that this James Madison Pearson was a Harvard educated lawyer.

Great great grandfather James along with his first wife Elizabeth Ann Brown, 1843 -1861, had eleven children including Benjamin and Charles. James had two additional children by a subsequent marriage. Benjamin was a doctor and Charles a farmer in addition to his military career.

General Charles Lafayette Pearson is buried along with his father, James Madison Pearson in the Pearson family cemetery in Talapoosa County Alabama.

4th Machine Gun Battalion

The Basic Hotchkiss Machine Gun

By the end of the war, the machine gun company was reduced by casualties. Field promotions resulted in temporary rank increases.

At the end of the war in November, Lt. Col. James Madison Pearson is pictured with his unit, presumably the Fourth Machine Gun Company that he wrote about in April of 1918.


"The machine gun company, commanded by a captain, had an assigned strength of six commissioned officers and 172 enlisted men, and carried 16 guns, four of which were spares. Within the company there were three platoons and a headquarters section. A first lieutenant led the first platoon, while second lieutenants led platoons two and three. Each platoon with four guns was made up of two sections, each having two guns and led by a sergeant. Within each section were two gun squads, each with one gun and nine men, led by corporals. The gun squad had one combat cart, pulled by a mule, to transport its gun and ammunition as close to the firing position as enemy fire allowed. From there the crews moved the guns and ammunition forward by hand."

Contributed By Wilson A. Heefner

4th Machine Gun Battalion

4th Machine Gun Battalion


The following is a summary of notes made by my grandfather James Madison Pearson in early 1918 prior to major action:

The 4th Machine Gun Battalion was organized at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, W.R. Mills Commanding. Captain White commanded Company C. Other officers included 1st. Lt. Hilton, 2nd Lt. Edward Hines, Jopsen, Vail, and Everett.
After sailing from the United States, via Liverpool and Winchester, England, arrived in Le Harve, France January 11, 1918. Left the same date and arrived in Bourmont, France January 14, 1918. Marched to Graffigny-Chemin for billeting. The battalion stayed in training until March when the battalion name was changed to 2 Co. (?) and company C was changed to company B. The battalion was placed in reserve at St. Michel at what was called Camp Gibralter. The Battalion remained there about a week. Company B was sent to Troyen (Troyes). Headquarters Company was sent to Bois de Gauffier.
Lt. Hines went to the hospital, Base 15 at Chaumont, and died in April of 1918.

Subsequent to my grandfather’s deployment near Graffigny-Chemin, serious action began in the spring of 1918.

With the advantage of 50 German Divisions released by the collapse of the Russian Empire on Germany’s Eastern Front, the Germans launched a Spring Offensive on the Western Front hoping to defeat the Allies before the mobilization of the American Forces. There were four coordinated German attacks against the British and French Forces in the north, witgh the goal of reaching French ports and end British resupply of material and soldiers. Along the Marne, the Germans achieved success.

“Victory seemed near for the Germans, who had captured just over 50,000 Allied soldiers and well over 800 guns by 30 May 1918. But after having advanced within 56 km of Paris on 3 June, the German armies were beset by numerous problems, including supply shortages, fatigue, lack of reserves and many casualties along with counter-attacks by and stiff resistance from newly arrived American divisions, who engaged them in the Battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.”
Hoping to capitalize on this success, the Germans launched an offensive further south in what was called the “Second Battle of the Marne”.


“The 2nd Infantry Division drew its first blood in the nightmare landscape of the Battle of Belleau Wood and contributed to shattering the four-year-old stalemate on the battlefield during the Château-Thierry campaign that followed. On July 28, 1918, Major General Lejeune assumed command of the 2nd Infantry Division and remained in that capacity until August 1919, when the unit was demobilized.
The division went on to win hard-fought victories at Soissons and Blanc Mont. Finally the Indianhead Division participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive which spelled the end of any German hope for victory. On November 11, 1918 the Armistice was declared, and the 2nd Infantry Division marched into Germany, where it performed occupation duties until April 1919. 2nd Infantry Division returned to U. S. in July 1919.

The 2nd Infantry Division was three times awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry under fire at Belleau Wood, Soissons, and Blanc Mont.”

Second, 2nd Division (Regulars and Marines)
Nickname: Indian Head Division
9th, 23rd Infantry (Inf.)
12th, 15th, 17th Artillery (Art.)
4th, 5th, 6th Machine Gun (M. G.)
2nd Engineers (Eng.)
5th, 6th Marines
Generals Commanding: Omar Bundy, J. G. Harbord, J. A. LeJeune.
Engaged: Bouresches, Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, Argonne, Rhine.
Shoulder/Sleeve Insignia:

there is a connection

While googling the other day, I came across an archive record compiled by Barbara Taylor for grave stones in the Pearson Family Cemetery, Tallapoosa County, Alabama. The exact location of the cemetary and the first headstones are as follows:

"Turn off Hwy 280 onto Slaughter’s Crossing Road.  Go .9 mi - turn left,
over RR track, take right at 1.6 ½ miles, R at 2.4
(walk to top of hill, cemetery is on the left.)
N32 degrees 49.788 minutes   W 085 degrees 41.344 minutes"

Gen. C. L. Pearson    April 10, 1854 Jan. 12, 1940

One or two broken

James Madison Pearson   17th Oct 1817   Died 11th Nov. 1891 Age 74 yrs. 25 days.
Son of Wm. H. & Mary W. Pearson  born Jasper Co, Ga.

Edward W. Pearson     Nov. 21, 1860   July 31, 1862  Son of James W. and
Elizabeth A. Pearson

Mrs. Elizabeth A. Pearson   Wife of James M. Pearson and Daughter of
James N. & Martha Brown

 My grandfather James Madison Pearson was born in 1884 in Dadeville,
Tallapoosa County, Alabama. His father Dr.Benjamin Rush Pearson, was
born 1849, also in Dadeville,Tallapoosa, County, Alabama.Dr. Pearson 

received his diploma to practice medicine in 1881 from the Medical

College of Alabama in Mobile.Thereafter, he practiced in the city of Montgomery.

There is a connection, but where?

C.L. Pearson had a farm in Tallapoosa County on which
cotton was grown. A picture taken in the 1930's shows workers
on the farm.

Somewhere there
is a connection betweem General C. L. Pearson, his father
James Madison Pearson and Benjamin Rush Pearson and his son General James Madison Pearson.
Alabama Department of Archives.

the 3rd Infantry Division

My grandfather James Madison Pearson is the officer seated center front row. To his right and left are a captain and lieutenant. Staff Sergeants flank the two officers.

My grandfather saw action at Chateau-Thierry, the Meuse-Argonne, Champagne, Aisne, and Verdun, as well as the Defensive Sector.

I have no other information about the photograph. Perhaps someone out there knows more or recognizes other soldiers. If so, please post a comment.

Medals of General James Madison Pearson

This is a complete collection of the medals of General Madison Pearson for service during the First and Second World Wars.


Top row: Distinguished Service Medal, 2nd Infantry Division, Silver Star, Purple Heart, Chateau-Thierry.

Second Row: Unknown, Unknown, Legion of Merit, Victory Medal, Unknown.

Third Row: Various Victory Medals, Verdun Battle Medal.

I will try to identify the unknowns.

victory medal

The Victory Medal was created after the end of World War I and was awarded to all servicemen. Those servicemen who saw active duty in campaigns had the campaigns listed on the ribbon.

The four campaigns listed are:Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Michel, and Meuse-Argonne, as well as , the defensive sector near Verdun.

General James Madison Pearson received medals from the country of France for the battles of Verdun and Chateau-Thierry, as well as the Croix de Guerre, for bravery in action.