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Pearson, Jesse A.Davie County Public Library Biography of Jesse A. Pearson The following information was found in History of Davie County in the forks of the Yadkin, James W. Wall, The Reprint Company, Publishers, 1985. Page 88: Jesse Pearson purchased land along the North Yadkin until he owned approximately 2,500 acres in one tract. Page 90: Jesse A. Pearson represented the Davie part of Rowan County seven terms in the General Assembly between 1807 and 1816. He was a Federalist but also supported revising the State Constitution through a state convention. In 1808 he proposed moving the capital from Raleigh to Fayetteville and called for a constitutional convention. His proposals were introduced on the last day of the session and were seen as a threat, voicing the determination of the western part of the state for greater equality in state government. Page 92: North Carolina’s quota of militia in 1812 for the War of 1812 was 7,000 and was raised mostly through volunteers. 7,000 more were called in 1814 and raised mostly by draft. Those troops were under the command of Brigadier General Joseph Graham and Colonel Jesse A. Pearson. They were sent to Alabama to battle the Creek Indians. Pearson’s forces assembled in Salisbury in January, 1814 and arrived in Alabama after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. His troops stayed near the junction of the Coosa and Tuscaloosa Rivers. By June 13, 1814 he had received the surrender of more than 600 Creek Indians. The Indian village at which the surrender occurred was called “Cooleeme” and the Creek tribe involved was the “Kulimi.” In the Creek language this meant “the place where the white oaks grow.” Upon his return to North Carolina, Colonel Pearson named his plantation on the Yadkin River “Cooleemee Hill.” Page 93: Jesse A. Pearson of “Cooleemee Hill” and Charles Fisher of Salisbury backed Archibald Murphey, state senator from Orange County from 1812 to 1818, in proposing a program to improve education, make internal improvements for increasing trade and commerce, and state constitutional reform. The program failed due to an attitude of doing nothing by state leaders from the eastern part of the state and the Panic of 1819. Page 95-96: In 1817, Major Peter Hairston, a Revolutionary War soldier purchased the 2,500 acre “Cooleemee Hill” plantation from Jesse Pearson for $20,000 ($8.00 per acre). In July, 1818 Archibald Murphey, Jesse Pearson, and 15 others from North Carolina and Virginia organized the Yadkin Navigation Company. The intent of the company was to provide a navigable path for moving goods produced in the western part of North Carolina to the coast. It began with a survey of the Yadkin River from Wilkesborough to the South Carolina line to determine what changes would be necessary. The changes included building canals, turnpikes, or railways as needed to bypass the parts of the river that could not be traversed by large boats carrying freight. The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $25,000 to the company. By 1825 the Yadkin Navigation Company has spent more than $84,000 with little to show for it. The following information was taken from the Biography- Pearson File. Jesse A. Pearson was the son of Richmond and Sarah Hayden Pearson, born about 1776. He died March 5, 1823 and is buried in the Pearson family graveyard near Cooleemee. Jesse A. Pearson represented Rowan in the House of Commons and in the Senate. He was a colonel in the campaign against the Creek Indians. He first married Ann Steel, granddaughter of Elizabeth Maxwell Steel, and then married Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, widow of Hugh Wilson. Jesse A. Pearson died childless in 1823. Rowan County Deed Book 26, page 579, 1821 records that Jesse A. Pearson deeded the parcel of land known as THE OAKES, lying and being in the forks of the Yadkin and comprising three tracts of land, to John P. Carter. Davie County Public Library The following information was found in the Biography- Pearson file. It is in a series of articles published in The Salisbury Post. This is the third article of seven by George Raynor, published on Tuesday, September 9, 1986, entitled “Politics and battlefields came naturally to settler’s sons”. In Jesse A. Pearson’s early teen years his mother, Sarah Hayden Pearson, died. His father, Richmond Pearson decided to move to Salisbury to become a merchant. Richmond retained all of his plantation holdings. There is speculation that the move to town helped Jesse obtain a classical education. It also helped him in courting Ann Nessfield Steele. Her father was John Steele, who had served as U.S. comptroller general under presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. Ann was not impressed by Jesse but yielded to his persuasion. Richmond Pearson had returned to his plantation, Richmond Hill, and wrote Jesse that he would give him slaves, farm animals, tools, the cost of a new home, and furnishings. He also sent Jesse a deed for a 679 acre plantation on the Yadkin River and a deed for a half- interest in 529 more acres. The letter was dated January 4, 1804. The couple married on February 13, 1804 and moved into temporary quarters. The house was located off what is now N.C. Highway 801 in the Fulton community. Ann wrote in September that she was pregnant and in weak health. She died October 4. Jesse remained a widower until 1810 when he married Elizabeth Causey Wilson, widow of Reverend B.M. Wilson of Georgetown, S.C. Jesse and Elizabeth continued to live in the same plantation house as he and Ann had occupied in Fulton. Jesse was an active and productive planter and also enjoyed horse racing. He also was active in the local militia, achieving the rank of major by age 28. He also was a strong Federalist, favoring a strong central government. Jesse won seven one-year terms in the House of Representatives from 1807 through 1815. In 1816 he won a seat in the state senate. These political victories were remarkable since the Federalists were in the minority during those years. Pearson, however, was not a strong party advocate when the interests of those he represented differed from the party. The Federalists favored the old state constitution which was seriously flawed in the way representatives of the various areas were allocated. The eastern part of the state dominated the assembly with more delegates even though the western part of the state was more heavily populated. Pearson fought that representational imbalance throughout his political career but had little success in making substantive changes. While in the state senate he also advocated fairer trials for slaves and benefits for veterans of the War of 1812. In 1816 he ran for the state senate and won by a narrow margin over Charles Fisher, later a political figure of statewide importance. Also in 1816, Pearson attained his highest militia rank when he was elected major general. By this time he had also been elected a justice of Rowan County, a position similar to that of a county commissioner today although there were also some lower court duties. Pearson did well in the militia, having studied militia matters, but he had little actual field experience. During the War of 1812 he was called upon to lead the Rowan County militia into battle. Toward the end of 1812 the call came from the federal government for a North Carolina regiment to relieve a Georgia regiment that was fighting the Creek Indians. Col. Jesse Pearson was to command the North Carolina regiment under brigade commander Gen. Joseph Graham. However, this Rowan militia had no arms or supplies. When they mustered in Salisbury on February 1, 1814 it was in a freezing rain and there were only enough tents for half of them. Col. Pearson advanced personal funds for the purchase of shoes and blankets prior to leaving for Georgia a month later. The march to Georgia covered six to seven miles per day although Pearson estimated 15. Although there were reports of heavy desertions those were in error as only 30 of 1,000 deserted. Unknown to Col. Pearson, Gen. Andrew Jackson’s troops outnumbered the Creek Indians and had defeated them at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on the day that the Rowan militia arrived at Fort Hawkins in Georgia. Col. Pearson’s troops continued their march into Alabama expecting to meet with hostile Indians at any time. When informed of Jackson’s victory, Pearson continued further into Alabama Davie County Public Library to round up any remaining hostile Indians. He reported from the Alabama River that he received the surrender of a total of 622 warriors, women, and children. With little else to do, the men built a new fort and named it for Andrew Jackson. While in Georgia there was a rumor that the camp would be attacked by uncaptured Indians. Pearson called his officers together and told them that he intended to stay but they and their men had his permission to leave if they wished. He pointed out that if he was in danger at a well-defended fort how much more danger would be found for a party of wagons. The officers declared they would stay with Pearson and defend the fort. The attack never came and Pearson and his men returned to Salisbury. Enlistments were set to lapse on August 1 so many of the men left for Salisbury on July 25. They had marched over 1,200 miles and never fired a shot. Pearson’s reputation was enhanced and he was promoted to brigadier general. He was also re-elected to the assembly. Pearson and his troops had occupied an Indian village named Cooleemee and he named his Yadkin River plantation Cooleemee Hill when he returned. The following information was found in the Biography- Pearson file. It is in a series of articles published in The Salisbury Post. This is the fourth article of seven by George Raynor, published on Wednesday, September 10, 1986, entitled “Financial woes destroyed Yadkin River dreams”. Transporting the cotton, grains, tobacco, and other commodities produced on the farms and plantations surrounding the Yadkin River to market was a problem. The Pearson’s were quite aware of the difficulty and felt that the solution was the river itself. Jesse Pearson’s father and brother, Richmond Sr. and Richmond Jr. respectively, were deeply interested in finding a way to use the river since it flowed past their plantations. However, from the headwaters of the Yadkin River in Wilkes County to its passage through the Uwharrie Mountains, there were and still are shallows and rocky obstructions that made passage for the large vessels required for the commodities trade impossible. The Pearson’s and Archibald D. Murphey of Hillsborough turned their attention to finding a way to use the river to accommodate those vessels. In 1815 Jesse Pearson was a member of the House of Commons and Murphey presented the first in a series of reports on improvements to the Yadkin River. One proposal was for the Yadkin and Cape Fear Rivers to be joined by a canal so that the Yadkin traffic could go to North Carolina ports instead of Georgetown and Charleston in South Carolina. This was soon to be found impractical if not impossible with the primitive earth-moving equipment available at that time. By the time the river improvements moved into the planning and fund-raising stages, Jesse Pearson had become a shopkeeper. He and Alexander Nesbit, one of his officers in the militia trip to Alabama, decided to open a store in Mocksville. The store bore the name of Nesbit so he was probably the manager and major stockholder. Jesse was apparently doing well financially. In 1810 his slave roster numbered 40. In 1814 he listed 1,800 acres of land plus 944 through his wife. A. Nesbit and Co. apparently did well and opened another store in the western part of the county. The company also used storehouses and agents in Sneedsborough and Cheraw, river towns in the east, and a factory in Charleston. A partial listing of stock shows many spices and a variety of liquors including imported brandy and wine. Morocco hats and silk shawls could be found among the clothing and fabric included muslin, flannel, Jackard, Irish, and Scot goods. Hardware included locks, nails, knives, saddlebags, and silver-plated stirrups. The store took in farm produce such as whiskey and cotton to apply against the farmer’s credits and shipped the goods to markets as far as Petersburg, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. But transportation costs cut into profits. Hauling a bushel of salt worth $2.50 retail from Charleston to Mocksville cost 50 cents. As an owner in the shop, Pearson recognized how these transportation costs affected profits and was more determined to use the Yadkin River for shipping goods to and from the interior of North Carolina. Davie County Public Library He and Murphey and 15 other investors organized the Yadkin Navigation Co. The one area of the river for which they saw no solution was The Narrows, near present day Badin, now the site of a hydroelectric power plant. They thought the best way to navigate The Narrows was to portage the goods around that section. These men risked much of their capital and severely affected their fortunes when the project failed. Murphey died bankrupt in 1832 and Jesse Pearson died in 1823 heavily in debt. Pearson had raised most of his contribution to the Yadkin Navigation Co. by selling most of his land to Peter Hairston. Hairston, a large landowner in Stokes County, paid Pearson $20,000 or $8 per acre for Cooleemee Hill and other properties containing about 3,500 acres. The Yadkin Navigation Co. had surveys made of the river and its obstacles. In 1819 a one mile long canal was cut at Bean Shoals. More improvements were made in 1820 but in August of that year, Hiram Jennings, one of the construction superintendents noted that additional funds were needed. However, Jesse Pearson, Archibald Murphey, and eight others had foolishly organized the Clinton Town Co. and split their financial resources. Clinton was to be the port city for the navigable Yadkin and was located on 327 acres on the point where the South Yadkin and Yadkin Rivers meet. The tract was purchased from Joseph Pearson for $8,748. (After the town failed, he bought back 276 unsold acres for $2,484.) The inability to clear the Yadkin River was the main reason for the collapse of Clinton but the Panic of 1819 contributed to its demise. Jesse Pearson suffered a severe financial setback but he and his wife retreated to the Oaks Plantation that she had received as a dowry. They stayed there about a year and sold it to John P. Carter. Pearson built a new house and moved into Mocksville. Jesse Pearson died when his horse shied and threw him against a tree. He was taken to Alfred McKay’s plantation house at Milford Hills and died there three days later. The following information was found in the Biography- Pearson file. It is in a series of articles published in The Salisbury Post. This is the fifth article of seven by George Raynor, published on Thursday, September 11, 1986, entitled “Pearsons’ political careers long though undistinguished”. Jesse Pearson was known as “quick in quarrel.” Montford Stokes, a Salisbury lawyer and political figure, wrote a flyer, “A Few Citizens of Rowan,” that Jesse felt insulted his brother, Joseph. Jesse challenged Stokes to a duel and Stokes, also quick-tempered, accepted. The duel was held near Salisbury and Jesse wounded the future governor. Jesse Pearson is buried in the family cemetery in Cooleemee. The following information and picture were found in the Biography- Pearson file. “Quick-tempered Pearsons fought duels” by George Raynor, The Salisbury Post, September 9, 1986. Jesse Pearson became involved in a duel in his brother Joseph’s honor in 1810. Joseph was campaigning for re-election to Congress. One of the Republican opponents was the powerful Montford Stokes. Stokes wrote a flyer entitled “A Few Citizens of Rowan”, reflecting strongly on Joseph Pearson. Jesse had a short temper as did Stokes and soon they faced each other with pistols at Mason’s Old Field near Salisbury. Pearson wounded Stokes severely but Stokes recovered and went on to become governor and U.S. Senator. Although the duel itself is not recorded in detail it is interesting that Jesse and Joseph’s deceased sister Betsy had been married to Judge John Stokes, brother of Montford. (The picture below is found in the same article in The Salisbury Post.) Davie County Public Library Davie County Public Library The following information was found in The Pearson Family 10th-20th Century, by Eugene Jefferson Pearson,Gateway Press, Inc., 1978, pages 55-61. Page 55: Jesse Pearson was born about 1769. When war was declared against the British on June 18, 1812 Jesse was a colonel in and Regional Commander of the Provincial Militia of North Carolina. In 1814 he was ordered by the governor of North Carolina, Governor Hawkins, to raise infantry, cavalry, and artillery companies in Salisbury and march to Fort Hawkins in Georgia. From there he was to march to the Indian Campaign in Alabama. He was able to raise the necessary troops, although there were no funds for food or uniforms, and arrived in Fort Hawkins at the end of March. He reported to Governor Hawkins on April 1 that he and his troops were ready to proceed into Indian country. However, before he could join General Andrew Jackson, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend had taken place and the power of the Indians was broken. General Jackson moved west to New Orleans and Colonel Pearson finished the campaign, capturing about 800 Indians and building four small forts along the Alabama River. In June, the regulars relieved the Militia and Colonel Pearson began his journey home about June 25. Page 61: Upon his return home he offered his services for another campaign and was promoted to the rank of Major General. He was sent to defend Norfolk, Virginia. After that he did not engage in any other military operations. Page 57: In 1817, Jesse Pearson sold the 2,500 acre Cooleemee Hill Plantation to Colonel Peter Hairston for $20,000 ($8.00 per acre). Page 56: Davie County Public Library The following information is found in Dictionary of North Carolina Biography Volume 5 P-S, edited by William S. Powell, 1994, The University of North Carolina Press, page 48. As a young man Jesse Pearson was a fan of horse racing. He was a manager of the Jockey Club of Salisbury at one time, promoting the Salisbury races. He died of injuries sustained when his horse threw him while returning from the funeral of Colonel Francis Locke. In 1859 kinsman and friend John Foard erected a marker to Pearson in the Pearson family graveyard. Davie County Public Library From http://ncpedia.org/biography/pearson-jesse Image of oil portrait of Jesse A. Pearson, made circa 1820. Attributed to James McGibbon. Item # H.1980.20.1 , from the collections of the North Carolina Museum of History.