| "Was born January 26,1852 at 'Richmond Hill' in Yadkin County, North Carolina to Hon. Richmond M. Pearson (1805-1878) and his first wife, Miss Hayden. He was the fourth of five children. He attended Horner's School, Oxford, NC and was graduated from Princeton College in 1872. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1874. This same year he was appointed United States consul to Verviers and Liege, Belgium which he resigned in 1877. He was a member of the State house of representatives from 1884-1886, and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses (March 4 1895-March 3, 1899. He successfully contested the election of William Crawford to the Fifty-sixth Congress and served from May 10, 1900 to March 3, 1901. He was appointed by President Roosevelt as United States consul to Genoa, Italy, Dec. 11, 1901; as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia [Iran] in 1902, and as Minister to Greece and Montenegro in 1907. He resigned from the diplomatic service in 1909. He supported Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party campaign in 1912, opposing John Motley Morehead's Republican efforts for Taft in the State. He died at "Richmond Hill," Asheville, NC on Sept. 12, 1923. He is interred in Riverside Cemetery. (Google [internet] search: Pearson, Richmond. Biographical Directory of U. S. Congress 1774 to Present.) |
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| [Richmond Hill, an Asheville showplace from 1880 until it was moved to its present location, now serves as a restaurant and hotel.] "Six hundred acres were acquired in 1867 by Hon. Richmond Mumford Pearson. The land was bequeathed to Richmond Pearson in 1878, who gave the estate its name and built the four-story, 30-room mansion on 100 acres with views of Asheville and the Craggy Mountains." (Brower, Nancy. "Auction...Signals End Of Former Showplace Estate," Asheville Citizen-Times. Sunday, June 3, 1973.) |
| Bibliography:
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/pearson/pearson.htm Richmond Pearson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Manuscript Department.
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