DEATH OF THE OLDEST LADY IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS,

Transcribed by Valerie Torp ©2006

Mrs. Eliza Pearce died suddenly Sunday morning, May 18, 1913, at the home of her son, J.J. Pearce, near Ewing, Ill., at the age of 102 years, 3 months and 18 days. The funeral was held at two o'clock Monday afternoon in the Webb Prairie Primitive Baptist church, and interment in the cemetery near by. Rev. W. I. Carnell of Lebanon, Ohio, conducted the funeral.

Mrs. Pearce was born in Johnson country, N. C., in 1811 and celebrated her 102nd birthday the first of last January. She was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rains and was the oldest child of a family of seven children, two of whom are still living. They are: Mrs. Jane Longley, of Princeton, N. C., and Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips, of Dillon, Mont.

At the age of twenty-one Mrs. Pearce was married to Richard Pearce. Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Pearce took up their residence in Tennessee. Living there only one year, they left for Illinois in 1833, settling in Saline County. They claimed that county as their home for ten years, when they moved to Benton.

After moving to Jefferson county and residing there for six years, the family moved to Franklin county, and located near the present home of their son, J. J. Pearce, where she died. In this home her husband died in 1866. Since then Mrs. Pearce has lived with her son, J. J. Pearce.

This centenarian, who bore the distinction of being the oldest lady in southern Illinois, was the mother of nine children. Only three of her children are living, namely, W. C. Pearce, J. J. Pearce and Mrs. Mary E. Campbell. She was the head of five generations, since she was called great-great-grandmother by eight children, great-grandmother by thirty children and grandmother by twenty-eight children.

Hundreds of mourning relatives and friends attended the funeral in respect to this aged lady, who was doubtless the oldest lady in this section of the State. She lived a devoted Christian life and had been a member of the Primitive Baptist church for over fifty years.

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