Hamilton, Mary Louise Pearre, 1838-1913
Biography
Mary Louise Pearre was born in 1838, probably in Middle Tennessee. She graduated from Franklin Female College, Franklin, Tennessee (Williamson County) in June, 1858. She then taught school for nine months at Mill Creek, Tennessee. In July, 1860 John Hall Hamilton asked her to become his teaching assistant in the fall at Union Seminary, near Lebanon, Tennessee. Pearre taught there for five months during the winter of 1860-61. The school closed in the spring of 1861, apparently because of the impact of the Civil War, which had begun in April of that year. Pearre then taught for the duration of the war at a school on Hillsboro Pike, just across the Davidson County line in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Mary and John Hall Hamilton became engaged to be married some time between September, 1860 and May, 1861 when he joined Company H, 7th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry (Confederate). Hamilton had proposed in September of 1860, but Mary had not given him any response.
John Hall Hamilton, born in 1829 at his family's Stewart's Ferry Road home outside of Nashville, fought for the Confederacy from May of 1861 through May 1865. Hamilton saw action at many battles, among them Seven Pines, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and the siege of Petersburg. Hamilton was wounded taking part in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. He was then taken prisoner by Federal forces. He remained a prisoner for three months, whereupon he was exchanged and returned to his unit. Hamilton served until after the war's end, and did not return home until May, 1865.
Mary Louise Pearre and John Hall Hamilton were married in August, 1865. Within a year of their marriage they moved to Clinton, Kentucky, where three of their children, Maggie, John Hall, Jr. and Joseph Porter were born. Maggie died before her first birthday. Shortly after Maggie's death the Hamiltons returned to Williamson County, settling in Beechville. There Joshua Pearre was born. Ida Emily, their last child, was born in Antioch, shortly before the family moved to Wilson County.
John Hall died of pneumonia, apparently at Beechville, on December 7, 1891. Mary died in Memphis, Tennessee at the home of her daughter Ida Taylor on December 24, 1913.
