As a coal miner/farmer he was more likely to be somewhere out in rural PA. There were certainly plenty of coal miners heading to that part of the world.
You could look to see whether any of either John or Jane's family members disappear and then check if they also went to the US, because people often followed family members, or if there was a large scale movement from the particular location they were living in when Ellen was born to the US at that time.
The closest I can find to your John is in the 1870 census of Hickory, Mercer, Pennsylvania: there is a John Pierson, 35, b. England, coal miner. He is living with this family:
John Patterson, 40, coal miner b. Scotland
Eleanor, 37, keeps house b. England
children Margaret, 14, Alice, 12, William, 10, John, 8, b. England
children Elizabeth, 3, Agnes, 11/12 (b. July) born Pennsylvania
(see
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html )
I believe this family are in the 1861 census at Hunwick and Helmington, Durham. Interestingly there is a John Pearson b. Hornby aged 26 in the same area in 1861 - father James, mother Eleanor. It looks, from your other posts, that this might be your John's family. In that case, it does seem quite possible that John might have headed to an area of the US where, if not a relative, a friend from home was already residing.
