George W. Pearson papers

The scope of these records is mainly daily life in Toledo, Ohio, from 1893 to 1902, and the events at a summer bible camp in August of 1920. A brief genealogical study of the Pearson family is also provided.

The first item, a genealogical sketch of the Pearson family, was prepared by request of Bertha Evans, secretary to Grove Patterson. Patterson was editor of the Toledo Blade when George Pearson retired in 1947.

The genealogical sketch gives details of George Pearson's relatives as well as a brief overview of his earlier life. The sketch gives details of the Pearson family's arrival to Van Wert, Ohio, and then provides biographical sketches of Pearson's brothers and sisters. Information is given about Pearson's son and daughter as well. The sketch itself is incomplete and contains many crossed-out typos. It has little historical value outside of a study of the Pearson family.

The second item is a stenographer's notebook from August 20th to August 30th, 1920. The notebook covers daily activities at and notes for a summer bible camp at Camp Wilson in Bellefontaine, Ohio. It provides notes for daily schedules at the camp and outlines for scripture lessons to be given to campers. Although much of the writing is difficult to read due to the scribbled nature of the notes, the scrapbook does seem to supply a good reflection of early-20th century Christian values.

The third item of the collection is a business ledger. The first section of the ledger covers what appear to be business transactions from January to September of 1883. Since Pearson did not graduate high school until 1888, it seems unlikely the records directly relate to him.

The second section of the ledger details the personal expenses of Pearson from January 1st, 1896, to April 12th, 1897. There are some breaks in the record and later parts include less details then earlier in 1896. This part of the ledger provides an interesting amount of detail about the daily expenses of a person living in Toledo at the end of the 19th century. There are legibility problems in both sections of the ledger, but they are a valuable resource nonetheless.

The final item in the collection is a scrapbook of newspaper articles from 1893 to 1902. Generally, the articles collected cover daily life in Toledo during this time, largely concentrating on social events like religious gatherings and legion reunions. The articles also briefly cover labor strife in Toledo and the opening of a glass plant in Rossford, Ohio.

Most of the articles are not credited and it is therefore impossible to tell for sure if George Pearson wrote all of the articles in the scrapbook. However, they do correspond with his tenure as a reporter in Toledo and match subjects Pearson covered. Also, Pearson is credited as the writer in several of the later articles.

While the scrapbook does provide a good survey of life in turn of the century Toledo, it is not in chronological order and several of the dates on articles are missing. The scrapbook itself is in poor physical condition with loose articles and pages.