Lots of Pears

Last night we were out working in the yard, cutting down a tree damaged by a recent storm. Our neighbor walks over and asks if he could borrow the chain saw to cut down a bothersome tree in his yard. Next thing I know they are dragging the branches over to our burn pile and they were loaded with these...tons of pears. He said that they were hard pears and not really good to eat raw, but it just killed me to see all of that beautiful fruit go to waste. Surely they are good for something? One of the other neighbors said that his brothers wife had made some delicious preserves with pears from this same tree. So now what do I do with over six gallons of pears? I make blackberry jam every summer and I would love to make pear jam or some other yummy delight, but I don't even know what variety of pears they are or how to prepare them...if you have any thoughts, I would love to hear from you.