Who is the mother of John Hardy Pridgen?

Well once again, I seem to be having mother issues.

Today I decided to research Phoebe Eason, who I had listed as the wife of Alexander Pridgen and mother of John Hardy. Well I'm trying to verify that this is indeed, the true information, especially since yesterday when I found out I had the wrong mother listed for Neverson Bone.

It's listed in a Pridgen book that Phoebe and Alexander married and had several children together. But now i'm not so sure. Other than this book, I can't seem to find any other record to prove that Phoebe is the mother of John. I've found sources that do say Alex and Phoebe were married, but could this be a first wife? Or is there another Alexander Pridgen? Or am I just overthinking this? I'm so confused!

Then today as I was doing a search on Ancestry, I pulled up a record that said the wife of Alexander was this woman named Cleta N, and that she was also the mother of "hardy" (and a few more children that were listed in my tree along side John Hardy). This is the first time I've come across this name. So then I do a google search for Alexander and Cleta Pridgen. I don't really find anything. Then what I realize is that what I really need to find is the 1880 census. I needed to find out who exactly was living in that household. And I was having a hard time finding that particular census year. Well through this family search site, by amazing luck, I found it! The image was at ancestry.com but for whatever reason, it never would come up when I did a search through ancestry.com. I pulled up the census image and got some surprising info.

First of all, and this isn't related to John Hardy, but I discovered Sophia Daughtridge! She's my great,great,great grandmother. I knew it was her even though it was just listed as S. Daughtridge b/c it had some of her children listed and that matched what i had. Plus Neverson Haywood Bone and Susan A were listed as well, her daugher and son-in-law.

Anyway, back to the point, I scroll down and see a listing for Alex Pridgen. It clearly says that his wife is Cleta N. Then it has a listing of children in the household. Hardy is listed, age 8, which would put him being born about 1872 which is about right. And I know Hardy had a brother named Ulysses and he was listed as being one year old. And that's about right too b/c i had his birth year as being 1879.

So now I'm wondering...is Cleta N really John Hardy's mother after all? Is it not Phoebe Eason? I sure have had a very hard time finding anything on Phoebe Eason. If the information I have is wrong, maybe that's why? Still don't know her parents names. Who is Phoebe Eason? Who is Cleta N? And who is John Hardy's mother? These are definitely questions that will take a lot of research to answer.