Contributed by: Esther Stewart
My father's mother was Pearallee Cousins. She was born October 20, 1861, in Williamsville, Porter Township, Cass County, Michigan. Her first name was Pearallee/Paralee, but, somehow the name evolved into Pearlie. She married Charles Creacy Stewart November 21, 1879, in Vandalia at the age of eighteen. She and Charles were the parents of six children, though only two lived. Those two were my father and my Aunt Florence..
I don't remember my grandmother being much of a talker. I do remember that her hair was snow white and she wore it in a tight little bun. At night, when she took out the silver bobby pins, her hair being like spun silk, though very thin, reached the floor. I loved it when she would allow me comb it. She kept her teeth in a cup of water on the dresser. Behind her back, I, all of four years old, would dip the brush into the water and comb her hair. If she knew I was doing this, she never said anything.
Grandma had a nail in the top of her head! She told me how it got there but, the years have robbed me of that memory. I do remember seeing the head of the nail whenever I parted her hair down the middle.
Grandma Stewart was born before telephones and electricity were invented. Would you believe that Kansas became a state the same year of her birth? The Apache Nation declared war on the United States in that same year. She was six months old when the Civil War broke out. One month later, President Lincoln was elected as the sixteenth president of the U.S. The 13th Amendment (slavery abolishment) was enacted when Pearlie Cousins was only three. History shows that she was living during the time of the well known Native American Chiefs Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Cochise. I never liked History much while attending school. Some how I just couldn't relate. Now, however, when researching my Ancestors, history becomes all too real.
The following is an article printed in the Delavan Enterprize, a Walworth County Wisconsin newspaper.
10/30/1952 -Mrs. Pearlee Stewart Observes 91st Birthday
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred White, Darien, entertained at a family dinner Sunday in honor of the 91st birthday anniversary of Mrs. White's mother, Mrs. Pearlee Cousins Stewart, who has made her home for the last six years.
Mrs. Stewart is in good health and spends much of her time reading, listening to her favorite radio programs, and doing light household tasks. She was born in Cass County Michigan, the eldest of a family of four children. In her early girlhood she was married to Charles Stewart also of Michigan. Two of their six children are now living, a son, Fred, of Chicago, and a daughter, Mrs. Alfred White of Darien.I did not get to know my grandma as much as I would have liked to. She "graduated" January 10, 1956. I was only thirteen. My family says she was a wise but cantankerous old lady, and very set in her ways. People tell me I’m a lot like her. Hmmmm . . . The memory of my grandmother is an indelible picture in my mind for I shall never forget her.