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Description
Pearson, born in Rowan County, served as a major
general in the War of 1812, and in the House of Commons of the North
Carolina General Assembly (1807-1808 and 1812-1815), and North
Carolina Senate (1816). Owner of Cooleemee Hill Plantation from
1804, he sold it to Peter Hairston of Stokes County in 1817, and
later that year became involved in the Yadkin Navigation Company,
attempting to make the Yadkin River navigable for freight and
passenger boats with links all the way to Wilmington, North
Carolina. Pearson also helped organize the Clinton Town Company in
1818, which mapped out a new town on 327 acres of land in "the
Point" where the Yadkin and South Yadkin rivers meet. Plans for the
town floundered when the navigation project failed. Pearson also
served as a manager of the Jockey Club of Salisbury. He died in 1823
from injuries sustained when thrown by his horse while returning
from a funeral in Salisbury. He lies buried in the Pearson graveyard
in southern Davie County.