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Now the residence of the Lofton family and located on Rt. 581 on Little River in Wayne Co., NC, this was the home of my great3-grandparents, Lazarus Pearson (1814-1865) and Sarah Edgerton Pearson (1816-1872), after 1850, and later of my great-grandfather, Joseph Lazarus Pearson (1859-1944), and his first wife, Mary Deans Pearson (1861-1917), until they moved to Goldsboro, NC after 1901 and then to Prince Edward Co., VA, in 1911. Supposedly all 8 of my maternal grandmother's half-siblings were born on this farm. Lazarus Pearson, a prominent slaveless planter, landowner, Quaker abolitionist, and Union sympathizer, was a leader of the Underground Railroad before the Civil War whose prominence, work ethics, and moral superiority aroused resentment and hostility from his Confederate slaveholding neighbors, but died of typhoid fever just a few weeks before the war ended. This home and the nearby home of my great2-grandparents, John Thomas Pearson (1837-1877) and Dicena Newlin Pearson (1836-1897), are now surrounded by a neighborhood. There is a picture included elsewhere on this home page of some descendants of Lazarus Pearson in 1886, which I assume was taken at this home, especially since Joseph and Mary were sitting on the porch with their two children at that time. However, the porch on the left in the current photograph does not show siding to the right, whereas one can see siding on the right in the 1886 photo. The owners say there were 4 porches on the house at one time, and the porch on the side in this picture is an addition to the house which may not have been there in 1886. Perhaps the 1886 photo was taken on a porch that was part of the main house but no longer exists, possibly because it may have been removed to make way for the smaller house that attaches to the main one.
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