Yadkin County NcArchives Biographies.....Pearson, Richmond ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Rosie H. Guthrie n/a January 3, 2010, 8:16 pm Source: National Cyclopedia of American Biographies - 1910 Author: James T. White Co. Richmond Pearson, diplomat, was born at Richmond Hill, Yadkin County, NC, Jan. 26, 1852, son of Richmond Mumford and Margaret McClung (Williams) Pearson. His father (q.v.) was an eminent lawyer, a judge of the superior court and chief justice of the supreme court of North Carolina from 1858-78. His mother was a daughter of "Col. John Williams of Knox," United States senator from Tennessee and his wife Malinda White, whose father, Gen. James White (q.v.) was founder of the city of Knoxville. His grandfather was Richmond Pearson, who married Elizabeth Mumford, became a lieutenant in the revolutionary army and was commander of a company at Cowan's Ford when Gen. William Lee Davidson was killed. He is also a descendant, through his paternal grandmother, of William Brewster, the Pilgrim, and among his ancestors of this line was Richard Christopher, a judge of the district court in Connecticut. Richmond Pearson, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Horner's school, Oxford, NC, and at Princeton University, being graduated at the latter A.B. in 1872 and A.M in 1875, when he delivered the valedictory and the master's oration. His chief study being law, he was licensed to practice in July, 1874, and in the following August was appointed US counsul at Verviers and Liege, Belgium. This post he resigned in 1877 and resumed the practice of law in partnership with John D. Davis in St. Louis, Mo., until the death of his father, in 1878, called him back to North Carolina to administer the estate. He soon became interested in politics and affiliating himself with the Republican party, was elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1884 and again in 1886. In 1894 he was elected to represent in congress the 9th Carolina district, which had been Democratic for twenty-five years. He was reelected in 1896 and again in 1898, serving in congress on the committee of foreign affairs as well as on its sub-committee of three, which drafted the resolutions declaring war against Spain. His retirement was soon followed by an appointment as consul to Genoa, Italy, in 1901, and in the following year he became American minister to Persia. He discharged the duties of this office with such success that Pres. Roosevelt cabled his "commendations for energetic and efficient service," and in 1907 he was accordingly advanced to the more important post of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Greece and Montenegro. Mr. Pearson is a man of great tact and keen judgment, his legal and social training admirably fitting him as an intermediary in international questions, and to represent his country with the dignity befitting a great nation. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, DC, the American Whig Society of Princeton, and the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. He was married in Richmond, Va., Mar. 30, 1882, to Gabrielle, daughter of James Thomas, Jr., of Richmond, and has two children, Marjorie Noel and James Thomas. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/yadkin/bios/pearson161bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 3.6 Kb