Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#584
RICHMOND M. PEARSON PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Richmond M. Pearson, who lived successively in
Rowan, Davie, and Surry (later Yadkin) counties, N.C.,
was a lawyer; legislator; Superior and Supreme Court
judge, chief justice of North Carolina, 1858-1878;
noted teacher of law; unionist Whig; and, after the
Civil War, Republican.
Papers include correspondence with physicians and
others about the mental illness of Pearson's first
wife; with his brothers, sisters, and children about
family and plantation life; with his second wife, Mary
(McDowell) Bynum Pearson; and with his son-in-law,
Daniel Gould Fowle, lawyer of Raleigh, N.C., later
governor of North Carolina. Also included are
scattered papers relating to personal finances,
property, and estate settlements, and a few items
pertaining to judicial and political affairs, several
of them during the Civil War and Reconstruction
periods.
Online Catalog Terms:
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
Fowle, Daniel G. (Daniel Gould), 1831-1891.
Mentally ill--Care--North Carolina--History--19th century.
North Carolina--Politics and government--19th century.
Pearson family.
Pearson, Mary McDowell Bynum, fl. 1856-1874.
Pearson, Richmond Mumford, 1805-1874.
Plantation life--North Carolina.
Reconstruction--North Carolina.
Size: About 372 items (0.5 linear feet).
Provenance: Received from Mrs. Richmond M. Pearson, Marjorie
Pearson, and the North Carolina Historical
Society.
Access: No restrictions.
Related Collection: Richmond Pearson Papers (#3647).
Processing Note: This collection was processed with support
from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.