Cousins

        Maybe it was because I felt like I was the one to uncover some of the details of her life 100 years after she died, or maybe it was because she is buried in an unmarked grave in the Hinch Cemetery on Hinch mountain, but for whatever reason, her story has stuck with me, and I felt compelled to share it for this week’s theme. 

Who was Pearl? What was her story? Well, she was one of my dad’s first cousins, but there was no other information on this pedigree chart that a second cousin had sent me a couple years ago. All her 5 siblings had birth and death dates, as well as marriage information listed. But not Pearl. There was the name of a spouse, but that was all.

I flagged that page, and planned to continue with comparing this new document to my tree, but I couldn’t let Pearl’s missing information rest. Her name on the page kept calling to me. What I gradually uncovered is still with me.

I knew her parents’ and siblings’ names, so I was able to find her in the 1910 US census. Her name there was Daisie P Hinch, and her age was listed as 6 in 1910.  The next vital record I found was that she married Gaither Sherrill in 1918. On the marriage license they stated that they were both at least 16, but I think she was at least one or two  year younger than that. 

Pearl ran away from home

I found some of the details of her short life's story in newspaper articles. Here is the first article I found (above), dated a few weeks after she was married on Oct 11, 1918. (note that Gaither was the first name of her father and also her husband. It was quite a common given name back then)

Daisie Pearl and husband Gaither had a baby girl named Ethel in February 1920. Unfortunately baby Ethel died at the age of 16 months of Acute Colitis on June 12, 2021.

Then about one year later, in March 1922, Daisie Pearl and her husband had a son they named Oliver. But only two months after that Daisie herself became quite ill, and a doctor went to see her. Sadly, she was not expected to live. She passed away at her parents home on May 15, 1922. And if that isn’t tragic enough, her son Oliver died one month after Daisie Pearl. He was also buried on Hinch Mountain Cemetery, no marker for either of them.

May 1922 in Crossville Chronicle

Daisie Pearl passes away

baby Oliver passes away

So if the 1910 census data is correct, Daisie Pearl died around age 18 or so. Her husband Gaither Sherrill, married twice after being married to Daisie Pearl. His second wife was also named Pearl, and she passed away in her late twenties. His third wife was Nancy Williams. She lived a long life. Gaither Sherrill lived to be 77 years old.

I know these deaths were not an uncommon occurrences 100+ years ago, but as I said before, the deaths of Daisie Pearl and her two young children has just stuck with me. I have wondered if my dad knew Daisie Pearl. They were both raised in the same small community, even though he would have been only 11 or 12 years old when she died. 

Hinch Cemetery on HInch Mountain

Rest in peace, Daisie Pearl, and Ethel and Oliver. I will think of you the next time I visit the Hinch Cemetery.