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Myrtle Terrell Pearson was born in Rockwall County on August 27, 1890 to Mary Broyles Terrell and James Robert Terrell. When she was seven years old, they moved to Haskell, Texas. After a brief stay in Haskell, she made the trip along with the rest of her family to Crosby County; that trip taking 15 days for the approximately 100 mile journey.She attended school at Emma and was an honor graduate of the class of 1910. Later she attended Seth Ward College at Plainview, where she was Valedictorian of the Class of 1912. Afterward she attended West Texas State Teachers College, then known as Canyon Normal in Canyon, Texas.
On July 17, 1918, Myrtle Terrell and Henry Claybourne Pearson were married at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Robert Terrell. To this union were born three children; Myrtle Lois Pearson Moran, Houston Claybourne Pearson and Robert Donelson Pearson.
Myrtle was always a student; she cherished literature, especially poetry. She was an avid Bible student and taught a Sunday School Class most of her life. She loved flowers and spent much time in her flower garden, donated flowers for many Lorenzo funerals and on Sundays in the spring and summer provided flowers from her garden for the Sunday church services at the First Methodist Church. Frequently she was asked to serve as a speaker for banquets, church, PTA, WSCS and study club meetings. She was a very active member of the Lorenzo Methodist Church and the Women's Society of Christian Service where she served as an officer locally as well as on the district and conference levels.
Myrtle became ill on a trip to Central America and Mexico in 1951. When she returned, her illness was diagnosed as acute leukemia and she lived only a few days, dying in a Dallas hospital on March 23, 1951.
Henry Claybourne "Clabe" Pearson was born in Milam County, Texas on January 13, 1876. He was the third child of Houston Stanley and Mary Frances Donelson Pearson. When he was very young, they moved to Coleman County, Texas, and he attended school in Santa Anna.
In the 1890's Clabe and his brother, Foster, came to Crosby County, where his father had bought 6400 acres of Llano Estacado land for $25 per section.
Clabe's occupations were many: cowboy, farmer, stockman, and next to his family, he loved a good cutting horse. He sold coal, plows, some jewelry and real estate and owned the first store and gin in Lorenzo. He was very interested in seeing his hometown develop and make progress, so at various times he gave the building sites for the Masonic Lodge, the first public school and both times a new church was built, the lots for the Methodist Church. Through the years he was a member of the school board, city council, Lions Club, the Shorthorn Breeders Association, the board of stewards of the Methodist Church and was a 32nd Degree Mason. Clabe, along with his brother, Foster, and several other men founded the First Bank in Lorenzo and it was located in a building he owned on the northeast corner of the block across the street south of the present Lorenzo State Bank.
Clabe Pearson was killed in a car accident 18 miles south of Plainview, Texas in 1954.
Funeral services for Henry Claybourn Pearson, 78, widely known Lorenzo farmer, businessman and banker, were held at 2 p.m. Monday in the Lorenzo First Methodist church.Rev. H.M. Secord, pastor, officiated at the services, assisted by Rev. Wayne Cook of Lubbock.
Pearson was returning to Lorenzo alone Saturday at about 5:30 p.m. after a visit with his daughter in Dimmitt when his automobile struck a stalk cutter which was being towed on a trailer behind the pickup of Harold Hegi, 39, of Plainview. Neither Hegi nor his 18 month old daughter, Shelley, riding with him, were injured. The accident occured about 18 miles south of Plainview.
Although Mr. Pearson's automobile was wrecked it did not overturn. He received fatal head injuries from the shearing action of the stalk cutter, dying in Plainview Hospital at 9:30 p.m. the same day.
Pearsn was a pioneer of this area, moving to Lorenzo in 1898. He was a member of the Methodist church, a Scottish Rite Mason, Lorenzo Lions Club and the Shorthorn Breeders Association.
A one-time director of the Lorenzo State Bank, Pearson had a long and colorful career in this area. In 1898 he came to Lorenzo and bought the farm the family still holds. He planted a Bermuda grass plot with seed he brought in a can from Coleman county, and the plot still flourishes. He donated the land on which the Masonic Lodge was built, and became a charter member. Opening the first real estate office in Lorenzo, he also had the first cotton gin, the first drug store, first hardware business, and helped build the first brick school building.
His many activities also included the hauling of frieght (lumber, coal and grain) from Amarillo, hauling from Canyon after the railroad reached that town.
Mr. Pearson's first wife died around the turn of the century, only a few months after their marriage. His second wife, the former Myrtle Terrell, died in 1951 and he married Mrs. Clara Pearson about 18 months ago.
Survivors include the wife; two sons, Houston and Robert, both of Lorenzo; a daughter, Mrs. R.A. Moran of Dimmitt; three brothers, Roy of Ranger, Floyd and H.F. of Lorenzo; a sister, Mrs. V.T. Glenn, Amarillo, and six grandchildren.
Pallbearers were O.H. Kemp, Joe Jennings, C.O. Lackey, J.R. Peterson, Leon Keene and James O'Rear. Honorary pallbearers were R.P. Nicholson, Haskell Stephens, John Alexander, E.S. Smith, Elis Brown, Fed Wiese, Ralph Wiese, J.A. Stobaugh, T.C. Hendricks, Roy Abell, F.B. Campbell, John Hughes, Fred Maxey, Emzy Pieratt, Judge Walter Davies, J.Edd McLaughlin, J.T. Lott, and J.F. Procter.
Burial was in Lorenzo cemetery under direction of Marr-Carter Funeral Home.
©Crosbyton Review, September 24, 1954
Submitted by Ralls Historical Museum
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Crosby County TXGenWeb Project
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