A lifelong Searcy County, Arkansas resident celebrated her 100th birthday over the weekend of September 14, 2004, and friends and relatives attended a reception, a garden party, between 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. at the home of Dr. Charles and Sharon Daniel. Pearl Ferguson Daniel was born Sept. 14, 1904, at Silver Hill, Arkansas one of 11 children born to Z.V. and Mamie Myatt Ferguson. The other children were Mae, J. Vance, Jess, Nell, Grace, Raz, Ralph, Laverne, Denival Lee and Betty Zeb. Pearl lived in Marshall in a house she and her husband built almost 50 years ago, and a sister, Grace, who lived in Sacramento, Calif.
At the age of 12, Pearl and her family moved from Silver Hill to a home in a neighborhood near today's Marshall Elementary School in Marshall, Arkasas. Her father bought out V.C. Bratton's business on the square and operated the Z.V. Ferguson Mercantile on the northeast corner of the Marshall square.
Pearl graduated from Marshall High School at a young age and enrolled in Galloway College at Searcy. She attended the Methodist girls college for three years, until the Depression ended her education. She returned to Marshall and worked in her father's store. She sold dry goods, hardware, feed, seed, flour, canned food other necessities to help Depression-era families survive. She said all six sisters attended college, and one returned to Marshall and worked as a principal.
At the age of 25, Pearl married longtime classmate Elmer Hatchet Daniel in 1929. He was a grade behind her during grade school and high school, and later attended the University of Arkansas and Hendrix University. The newlyweds rode on a train to Colorado Springs, Colo., on their honeymoon and went up Pike's Peak. After the couple's five children were grown, she again enjoyed traveling.
After the newlyweds returned to Searcy County, Elmer first operated Marshall Grocery. He later opened Daniel Hardware on the south side of the square, a fixture for more than 50 years that remains a landmark today.
In July 1950, the couple built a new house beside the home of his parents, Dr. Sam G. and Melissa Daniel. As the house neared completion, the couple wrote their names, the names of the children and placed a footprint of son James in fresh concrete on the back porch, a testament that remains almost 55 years later.
Elmer died suddenly at the age of 50. After his death Pearl was left to support their five children who were either college age or near college age. Their children include Dr. Sam Daniel, Martha Grace Bianchi, George Daniel, Dr. Charles Daniel and James Daniel.
Pearl "made a decision" to work, according to the couple's only daughter, who was in college at the time of her father's death. "She chose to keep the store," operating it daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. "A week after daddy died, she took over the store" at age 51 and sent all five of their children to college, without the help of scholarships. In an interview, Pearl said she survived the heavy burden "by the grace of God. I didn't have much of a social life. I was just a workhorse, staying with the business." She remained in the store until the age of 82, when the couple's son, George, took over the business. But she still lives in sight of the store where she worked countless hours.
Asked about a memory of her mother, Grace smiled and remembered that her mother "grew up in an age where women didn't drive. At age 67, she took driving lessons in California and learned to drive on Interstate 80. She returned home and bought a car." "I just needed to know how to drive," Pearl added. How did she raise five children while operating a store 12 hours each day, "I demanded my kinds mind," Pearl replied, slowly picking up her glasses off the top of the shiny dining room table.
Pearl died on June 20, 2005 at the age of 100.
THE LINEAGE:
(Pearl Ferguson Daniel was the daughter of Zebulon Vance and Manie Lee Myatt Ferguson, granddaughter of James Hardy and Permelia Emily Vinson Myatt and great-granddaughter of Thomas Allison and Alpha Gemima Sholar Vinson. Alpha was the ninth child of Allen and Jemima Bridges Sholar. Jemima was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges)
