Pearson family helps Tryon Garden Club mark 80 years
Published 4:50 pm Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Odessa Pearson Galda, her sister Millie Pearson and her brother Charles, the senior members of the family, live nearby.&bsp; They brought pictures of Giles William Pearson, who bought the land in 1876. Four generations of the family were present, coming from as far away as Minnesota and Virginia as well as from towns across both North and South Carolina.
Family members discussed their lineage back to the Mayflower and through John Ellis, a Civil War governor in South Carolina. They brought their pictures to share and they talked of their times walking the trails around the falls, exploring the old caves, washing their hair in the lake at the top of the falls,&bsp; the terrible storm that changed the topography of the falls in the 1960s, and fun times just being mountain kids.
The Tryon Garden Club chose the event as the time to introduce a name for the walking trail up to the falls. It is now called &uot;The Pearson Family Trail.&uot;