Eddy, Lena 'Pearl'

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Young, Pearl Eddy at 16

20201106HAv- re-added, longer thread...

Words of Gold
Favorites · 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! See Less

Comments
Author
Words of Gold
Wow! This story was published a year ago -- and it is still getting attention! Thats wonderful. Yes, cousins-- we missed a lot because we didn't know her, didn't we?
· Reply · 2y

Roy McMillian
Beautiful story Delores Weiss and I wouldn't have expected any less.
· Reply · 3y
Delores Weiss
This is my friend JeannetteBuck's article. She was sharing her Words of Gold on FB. She writes regularly about our rural life & her memories. She's is a great writer in my opinion.
· Reply · 3y
Roy McMillian
Yes, honestly I missed that you liked the picture and history. Oh well it's all good. She is a good friend to have.
· Reply · 3y
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Ed Stevens
Very interesting Sam, thanks for sharing. .
· Reply · 2y
Missy Maschoff
Beautiful story! ??
· Reply · 3y
Holly Hoover Maze
Love !!!
· Reply · 3y
Terri Thompson
Awesome story thanks for sharing
· Reply · 2y
Richard Lewis Sr.
What a wonderful story..I am 89 and that brings back a lot of memories of my past..
· Reply · 3y
Lynne Roeske
Great story, thanks for sharing.
· Reply · 3y
Arlene Heidt Bristol
Thank u for sharing.
· Reply · 2y
Paula Pesock Mitchell
wonderful story, Valentine's Day probably named from that one ????
· Reply · 3y
Lana Beers
what a beautiful story
· Reply · 3y
Robin Freeman
Uncle Ron always took Roses to Aunt Grace after she passed. Then Millie did now I do it! I didn't know this story! Really hit my heart!! Love you Nette!
· Reply · 2y · Edited
Josephine Kibbe
And you do favor her! I loved this story!
· Reply · 3y

Author
Words of Gold
Thank you! That is such a compliment!
· Reply · 3y · Edited
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Robin Freeman
Nette, the house they lived in in Ulysses is that the house that Harold & Della Barber?
· Reply · 2y

Author
Words of Gold
Yesl, Robin Grandpa Eddy built that house for them. I have always heard that it had an open staircase -- and how lovely it was.
· Reply · 2y
Robin Freeman
It's beautiful
· Reply · 2y
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Paula Gilmore Hess
Wonderful story !!
· Reply · 3y
Kym Graves Cavey
I really enjoyed your story. Thanks for sharing. How was Mr. Ted Young's, the Ulysses school teacher related?
· Reply · 3y

Author
Words of Gold
Yes, Kym. Ted was my cousin-another of her grandchildren.
· Reply · 3y
Sam Young Jeffers
The farm house that is referred in this story is where Roger and I live. Pearl was my great grandmother. The house in Ulysses that was built for John and Pearl is where Harold and Della Barber live.
· Reply · 2y
Robin Freeman
Uncle Ted was my dads brother Kym.
· Reply · 2y
Ed Stevens
Back in the day Paul Low and I use to work on the farm with your uncle Ted, he was also one of my teachers back in grade school
· Reply · 2y
Kym Graves Cavey
Robin Freeman he was a good teacher, I was a little scared of him at first but has the year went on I felt very comfortable and remember as a kid thinking he had big hands.
· Reply · 2y · Edited
Robin Freeman
He had huge hands!!
· Reply · 2y
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Christina Morgan
Wonderful story. Brought tears to my eyes as I am a hopeless romantic ????
· Reply · 3y

Author
Words of Gold
????
· Reply · 3y
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Linda Goodnoe Russell
So enjoy these stories, thank you
· Reply · 3y
Janet Anderson
I always looked at her portrait the same way - I wished to have known her!
· Reply · 2y
Nick Grego
Very Nice!!!
· Reply · 2y

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