Pearl Family History & Genealogy

My Great Grandfather Harry C Pearl married Leila Willingham, daughter of John Henry Willingham and Savannah Powell. I have found him and his family on the 1910 Census in Walker County Alabama and in the 1920 Census in Fayette County Alabama. Harry claimed he was born in Kentucky along with his mother but claimed his father was born in Ireland. He is buried in Studdard's crossroads and Leila is buried in Bethel Cemetery in Arley. She moved to Arley after he passed away. She passed away in 1927, the children were taken in by people of the community. The oldest four, Dolphus, Rufus, Minnie and Lilly, went to live with thier grandfather John, Tony went with Cyntha and Keudris Parris, Mae and James went with James and Epsie Bierd/Baird, and Dan went with a Spears family. The property in Fayette County was sold on the courthouse steps to JC Shepherd. We were given a letter from a gentleman, Clarence Studdard:
This letter was written Oct 1, 1985:
The following are somethings I remember about a man whose name was Harry Pearl that lived in Fayette County Alabama when I was a young boy and I saw him often and know him as a friend and a neighbor. About the yers of 1915 to 19?, He was very intelligent and honest and he always kept his word when he was doing business with my father James Jackson Studdard. In the summer he would go to the ship yards to work and he would make an agreement with my father to sharpen plow tools for his boys to use while making a crop during the summer months and also to sell them a few bushells of corn and when he came home he would pay my father and no questions asked. One day I was plowing by myself and he came by where I was and he had some whiskey in a quart jar and offered me a drink and I was afraid not to take a drink with him. He would take one and then say you take one. I would just take a sip so it would not make me drunk.
One time they told me my cousin got him to splice a steel rope at a saw mill and my cousin thought his charges were to high and Harry told him he would just cut the rope into and of course my cousin paid the charges. Sometimes he would have to much to drink and get into a family trouble and I was told he would hold some of the children over an open well, but he never did drop none of them. After Robert Johnson hit him in the head with a slege hammer he lived several years but never did fully recover from that blow. This is all I remember about him.
Signed: Clarence G. Studdard 83 years old (2/15/1902 - 9/28/1994)
*According to the 1920 Census of Fayette Co., North River Dist. #3 Clarence was living w/his parents and family on a general farm which they owned on Fayette and Jasper Rd. FM-84 Line 36. pg 9.
There were several Studdard and Johnson families in this area.
Harry is our brick wall. Any information would be greatly appreciated.