In a letter dated May 19th – 26th, 1974, he writes:
I know my father was born 11th February 1862; he was followed by Ann, who married Hickey an English-man, who worked for the Ferrocarril Sud (a branch of the British railway in Argentina). He was a sharp operator as through his work he was aware where the future railway lines were going to run; with this knowledge he bought great swathes of land encompassing those the railway intended to purchase.
When the time was ripe he sold his holdings to the railway, making a great profit for himself. My grandfather disapproved of his behaviour and considered it was a great stain on the family's reputation.
The first car my father saw at the age of 6 belonged to Uncle Hickey. Alice married Mitchell, he was not a relative, (just a coincidence, their daughter was Mabel).
Joseph also worked in the railway and reached a very high position in the organization. Julia never married and died young only 35 years old.
We took advanlage of the peace and quiet as some of them had gone away and we began reminiscing about the deeds and circumstances that surrounded the past history of our family, Richard was able to fill in some of the holes in the family history: Robert Edgar, my grandfather (i:e Hugh Pearson's) married Alice Mitchell, and lived in Patagonia. He moved north, he lived in Lobos, later in Ezeiza and finally settled in Lomas de Zamora, we believe this happened around 1875.
My grandfather was primarily a farmer proprietor and sheep breeder. He was also a blacksmith and in this capacity he repaired all the tools on his own estate, but he also took work in from his neighbours. He repaired their ploughs and other agricultural implements; he was also a dab hand at repairing firearms.
My grandfather was not born in the British Embassy, but as it was the custom of that time his birth was registered there, thus his nationality was 'English '. My grandfather married Alice Mitchell in Buenos Aires, as I have told you in a previous letter. Alice Mitchell, was born in Barracas al Norte that is somewhere between the Riachuelo and the Metropolis.
She lived in the same block as Almirante Guillermo Brown who was a friend of the family (Alte. Brown was an Irish seaman, hero of the Wars of Independence). My grandfather, Robert Edgar, lived with his parents, who were sheep breeders and this business took them frequently to Uruguay. During one of those trips once they had collected the money from the sale of their sheep, they stopped for the night in a hotel, here they were robbed and murdered. My own grandfather was then only a wee boy (5 years old) who realized that he was in danger; he hid and saved himself ( my version inside a wardrobe and according to Richard's underneath the bed). The fact remains that his presence of mind saved his life, and a family by the name of Nowell took him in.
They were Puritans of the old school and in order to give this adopted child a good and sound education they did not spare the rod, any infringement was punished severely with excessive corporal beatings. The marks 'of these were still visible on his body in 1910, Richard (my brother) lived with them for 8 years, and was able to see the scars he still had (Richard lived with his grandparents roughly from 1910 to 1918.
