marguerite

My grandmother was born Marguerite Chevalier Meine in the small village of Graffigny-Chemin in Haute-Marne. Haute-Marne encompasses the ancient region of Lorraine. Because of its close location to Germany, near the Vosge Mountains and the Alsace, it was an area much in dispute between France and Germany.

The family history can be traced back to Franaria Brunel, a soldier in the infantry of King Louis XV (1767). Thereafter, nothing is known until my grandmother, Marguerite.

Marguerite was living in Graffigny during World War I. It was at that time that she met my grandfather, James Madison Pearson, who came to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force under General Jack Black Pershing.
My grandfather fought with the 2nd Division. He received the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and Distinguished Service Medal in addition to the French Croix de Guerre.

Wounded in action, he met my grandmother. Her house in Graffigny was next to the church and with enough rooms to accomodate the sick and wounded.

At the end of the war, they married and returned to the United States, eventually my grandfather retired and settled down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.