- Words of Gold
Page Liked · February 8 · 2017
We never knew her. The huge picture of the beautiful young woman hung on our grandfather’s bedroom wall; the ornate frame nearly as intriguing as the photo. On the rare occasions when I was upstairs in Grandpa Young’s house I would slip into his room and gaze at the portrait; wishing sometimes, that she would turn from staring off into the distance and look at me. I wanted so much to know her.
She was our grandmother, our mother‘s mother. Her name was Lena Pearl Eddy Young. Her children called her Mama. Everyone else called her Pearl.
The picture was taken when she graduated from the Ulysses Academy; one of the five members of the first graduating class in 1893. Few young women graduated from high school in those days. But Pearl was an only child, the daughter of E. Reed and Grace Monroe Eddy, and somewhat privileged. She graduated a couple of years later from what was then called the Mansfield Normal School and came back to the Ulysses area as a teacher.
I have no idea where she met our grandfather, John Young. He was 8 years younger than she and probably didn’t go to school beyond the sixth grade. Most of the country boys of that era were lucky if they got that far.
John and Pearl were married December 15th, 1903. She was 27 and he was 19. Marriage in those days meant the end of a teacher’s career. For a few years they lived in Ulysses in the house that her father built for them and John worked for his father’s livery stable. But one summer the hired man who lived in the house on the family farm on the Pushersiding left abruptly and John and Pearl moved over there. Just for the summer, they said. However, they never went back to Ulysses to live. The farm became theirs.
In 1905 their first son, Rawson, was born. And over the next fourteen years, John and Pearl became the parents of nine children. Sadly, only five of them would live to adulthood. My mother clearly remembered seeing her parents sit together in the parlor of their home during one of the funerals, holding the tiny casket on their knees.
Their lives were not all sadness, however; not at all. The Young clan was a happy bunch and there were innumerable stories of times spent with family members, neighbors and school mates with whom they shared a good many giggles.
Pearl was apparently a natural teacher and her daughters learned to be excellent housekeepers and cooks under her direction. All of her family, including her husband, adored her.
Pearl became ill and when the local doctors could not help her, she was sent to the Guthrie Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania. My mother, then only 18, went to stay with her. At some point, she was sent home with the knowledge that there was no practical help for her illness; a condition which could be treated today with a simple routine injection.
Pearl died in September of 1933, leaving her family devastated.
When I was old enough to wonder about it, I puzzled over the seemingly odd match between Pearl and John Young. She was older, better educated and a town girl. He was a farm boy with a love of horses and the cattle he pastured on the hill above the barn. But when I began third grade, the school in Gold had been taken up and we were sent to Ulysses to school. There was a cafeteria there for the first time and every day, we lined up to push our trays along the shelf while ladies in white uniforms loaded our plates with food. One tall imposing woman looked at me closely the first time or two that she saw me. When she learned who I was, she knew that Pearl Young was my grandmother. I looked some like her, she told me. Then, she tossed her head back and said, “John and Pearl! John and Pearl! That was a love match, that was!” I doubt she ever had any idea how much those words would mean to me.
My grandfather, although he was remarried for a short time, never stopped grieving for Pearl and took a dozen red roses to her grave on Memorial Day for as long as he lived.
The lovely portrait hung on his bedroom wall, fascinating those of us who came into the world too late to have met her. Today, it has found a home at my sister’s house. Oh, how I wish we could have known her!
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Kym Graves Cavey
Kym Graves Cavey I really enjoyed your story. Thanks for sharing. How was Mr. Ted Young's, the Ulysses school teacher related?
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · 1 · February 8 at 10:41pm
Words of Gold
Words of Gold Yes, Kym. Ted was my cousin-another of her grandchildren.
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 8:20am
Christina Morgan
Christina Morgan Wonderful story. Brought tears to my eyes as I am a hopeless romantic :)
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · February 8 at 2:50pm
Words of Gold
Words of Gold :)
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · February 8 at 2:51pm
Josephine Kibbe
Josephine Kibbe And you do favor her! I loved this story!
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · February 8 at 5:45pm
Words of Gold
Words of Gold Thank you! That is such a compliment!
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · February 8 at 6:24pm · Edited
Paula Pesock Gibson Mitchell
Paula Pesock Gibson Mitchell wonderful story, Valentine's Day probably named from that one :)
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 6:13am
Richard Lewis Sr.
Richard Lewis Sr. What a wonderful story..I am 89 and that brings back a lot of memories of my past..
LikeShow more reactions · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 10:44am
Lynne Roeske
Lynne Roeske Great story, thanks for sharing.
Like · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 6:18am
Linda Goodnoe Russell
Linda Goodnoe Russell So enjoy these stories, thank you
Like · Reply · 1 · February 8 at 7:58pm
Lana Beers
Lana Beers what a beautiful story
Like · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 9:03am
Missy Maschoff
Missy Maschoff Beautiful story! ??
Like · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 8:27am
Paula Gilmore Hess
Paula Gilmore Hess Wonderful story !!
Like · Reply · 1 · February 9 at 5:52am
Roy McMillian
Roy McMillian Beautiful story Delores Weiss and I wouldn't have expected any less.
Like · Reply · February 9 at 3:26pm
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Holly Hoover Maze
Holly Hoover Maze Love !!!
Like · Reply · February 9 at 2:21pm
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Jeannette Buck The first graduating class from the Ulysses Academy.
November 9 at 10:08am · Like · 2
Jeannette Buck
Lena Pearl Eddy on left, Nellie Eaton on far right-- other names, Gerona Burt, Leavitt Cushing, Ida Geier. (obviously, short one name) This was the class of 1893.
November 9 at 10:21am · Edited · Like · 1
Julie Varney I'm guessing our relative would be in the back left ( Leavitt Cushing). His facial structure certainly fits our family tree :-)
November 9 at 10:35am · Like
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Jeannette Buck
First graduating class from the Ulysses Academy, 1893.
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22 people like this.
Jeannette Buck Lisa Chamberlain Soule, Brad's great grandmother, Pearl Eddy Young is on the far left. Nellie Eaton on the far right. Not sure about the others. One of the men is a Cushing. The other two women are Gerona Burt and Ida Geier don't know which is which and don't know who the other man is.
February 1 at 11:41am · Like · 1
Lisa Chamberlain Soule
That's awesome!
February 1 at 11:50am · Like
Cathy Thompson Bowers Amazing!
February 1 at 11:53am · Like
Jeannette Buck
Year 1893. our grandmother was 8 or 9 years older than our grandpa and he never went to high school -- but they adored each other (as I have often been told) and had a beautiful family. She died young-- only 53, leaving him heartbroken. Our mother was #5 in a family of 9. (only 5 lived to grow up.)
February 1 at 12:18pm · Like · 3
Susan Perry
If only they had smiled just a bit more....
February 1 at 1:29pm · Like · 2
Eileen Stilson
Love these old pics-thanks for sharing
February 1 at 2:15pm · Like · 2
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Abt 1876 - 
