Individual Details

A Joseph Pearson was listed in the Rowan Co census in 1810 as a single male age 36-45.

He married first, Ann McLinn, 6 Jan 1806, Craven Co NC.

Abstracts of Deed Book 20-24 of Rowan Co NC 1807-1818
James W. Klutz 1999
#489 DB 20, p.485
6 Sep 1807 Geo Fisher to Joseph Pearson Esq for $800 248a in forks of Yadkin adj the fish dam, William D. Haden & Fisher. Wit: John Andrews, John Smith, Prvd by Andrews at Aug Ct 1815

Abstracts of Deed Books 25-29 Rowan Co NC 1818-1828
Salisbury NC 2002
James W. Klutz
#2431 DB 28, p.396
6 Dec 1825 Chas. Fisher, Sheriff to Joseph Pearson by virtue of execution of Rowan Ct against the heirs of Jesse A. Peason, dec'd. in the amount of $1236.29 which sum was recovered by Jesse Haden. Fisher seized five tracts - sold 21 Nov 1825 to Jos. Pearson as highest bidder. Ack Feb Ct 1826

#2681 DB 29, p.149
22 Nov 1826 William D. B. D. Haden to Joseph Pearson for $1000. 288a Forks of Yadkin adj John Pickler, Joseph Pearson, John Campbell and the N and S forks of the Yadkin. All the unsold parts of two tract conv to Haden from Douglas Haden, dec'd and from William Haden, dec'd. Wit: H. S. Parker, R. Pearson. Prvd to R. Pearson Nov Ct 1826

Note: Jesse & William D. "Billy" Haden were brothers, sons of Douglas Haden, grandsons of William Haden. The brothers were 2nd cousins to Joseph Pearson.


Biographical Dictionary of Congress [online]
PEARSON, Joseph, (1776 - 1834)
PEARSON, Joseph, a Representative from North Carolina; born in Rowan County, N.C., in 1776; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salisbury, N.C.; member of the State house of commons; elected as a Federalist to the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1815); while in Congress fought a duel with John George Jackson, of Virginia, and on the second fire wounded his opponent in the hip; died in Salisbury, N.C., October 27, 1834.
Bibliography
Brown, Stephen W. “Satisfaction at Bladensburg: The Pearson-Jackson Duel of 1809.” North Carolina Historical Review 58 (Winter 1981): 23-43.


The following article on Wikipedia, contains errors about Joseph's family which were taken from History of Western North Carolina, condensed from "Wheeler's Historical Sketches".
Joseph Pearson (1776 - October 27, 1834) was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina ; born in Rowan County, North Carolina , in 1776; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salisbury, North Carolina; member of the State house of commons from Rowan county in 1804 and 1805; elected as a Federalist to the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1815); while in Congress fought a duel with John G. Jackson, of Virginia, and on the second fire wounded his opponent in the hip; died in Salisbury, N.C., October 27, 1834.

The following is reported in a History of Western North Carolina, condensed from "Wheeler's 'Historical Sketches:'" Joseph Pearson's father was Richmond Pearson, born in Dinwiddie county, Va., who at the age of nineteen years came to North Carolina and settled in the forks of the Yadkin river, late of Davie county when a part of Rowan county. When the war of the Revolution broke out he was a Lieutenant in Captain Bryan's company (afterward the celebrated Colonel Bryan, of Tory memory). After the Declaration of Independence, at the first muster which occurred, he requested some on whom he could rely to load their guns. When Captain Bryan came on the ground he ordered all the men into ranks. Pearson refused, and tendered his commission to Bryan, whereupon he ordered him under arrest. This was resisted, and he was told that the men had their guns loaded. They then came to a parley, and it was agreed by the crowd, as matters stood, that Bryan and Pearson, on a fixed day, should settle this national affair by a fair fist fight, and whichever whipped, the company should belong to the side of the conqueror, whether Whig or Tory. At the appointed time and place the parties met, and the Lieutenant proved to be the victor. From this time the Fork company was for liberty, and Bryan's crowd, on Dutchman's creek, were Loyalists. The anecdote illustrates by what slight circumstances events of this period were affected. When Cornwallis came south, Pearson, with his company, endeavored to harass his advance. He was present at Cowan's Ford on the 1st of February, 1781, where General Davidson fell in attempting to resist the passage of the British.

Captain Pearson was a successful merchant and an enterprising planter. He died in 1819, leaving three sons and one daughter: 1st, Jesse A.; 2d, Joseph (the subject of this entry); 3d, Richmond; and 4th, Elizabeth Pearson. [Capt Richmond Pearson was married twice. Early censuses indicate he may have had more than four children by his first wife, Sarah Haden. He had six children by his second wife, Eliza Mumford.]

According to this History of Western North Carolina, Joseph Pearson was thrice married. By his first wife, Miss McLinn, he had no issue. By the second, Miss Ellen Brent, daughter of Robert Brent the first mayor of Washington, D.C., he had two daughters--one, the wife of Robert Walsh, Esqr., of Philadelphia--the other, the wife of Lieutenant Farley, of the U.S. Navy. Miss Brent brought to the marriage the mansion and property known as Brentwood, Washington, D.C. , which, when she died, remained with Pearson. By the third wife (Miss Catherine Worthington, of Georgetown), he left four children. One of these, Elizabeth, married Carlile Pollock Patterson (see below). Another, Josephine, married Peter Augustus Jay, Jr., a grandson of Supreme Court Justice John Jay.

Pearson's last wife, Catherine, who survived him by 34 years and lived to 1868, was a daughter of Dr. Charles Worthington, a descendant of Capt. John Worthington of Annapolis (1650 - 1701). Dr. Worthington, who participated with the Maryland Militia in the Revolution as a doctor or medic, was born in Georgetown prior to the creation of the District of Columbia, and is said to have been so enamored of Revolutionary-era-1700s clothing styles that he eccentrically continued to wear clothes in that style into the early 1800s, long after they had become old-fashioned. He raised his family in Worthington House, built circa 1798, a historic and gracious Federal-style Georgetown manse that still stands at 3425 Prospect Street, N.W., Washington D.C., (it was the long-time Washington residence of Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell (served 1961-1997)). Dr. Charles Worthington purchased the home in 1810 and named the estate “Quality Hill,” but it soon came to be called Worthington House. Reflecting the cultural history of Georgetown from its earliest origins as a prosperous port city, the house has eight bedrooms, two bathrooms, expansive public rooms, and a large garden. It was listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historical Places. Senator Pell sold Worthington House in 2004 for almost $4 million.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, in response to requests from newly-emancipated African-Americans for establishment of a new Episcopal Church, Catherine Pearson, a member of St. John's Episcopal, Lafayette Square, donated some of her inherited Worthington land -- a lot on 23rd Street, NW, between G and H -- for a new church. Secretary of War Stanton directed that the Union Army Chapel at Kalorama Hospital be moved to the site and refurbished, and St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Foggy Bottom, Washington D.C., came into existence. . Catherine Pearson died a year after making the donation.

A daughter of Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington, Elizabeth Pearson, married Carlile Pollock Patterson, and Mr. & Mrs. Patterson hosted many social events in Washington at the Brentwood Mansion during the Administration of President Grant. Catherine Worthington Pearson, her father, her daughter Eliza Patterson and son-in-law C.P. Patterson, and many members of her family (but not her husband, who died while on a trip to North Carolina and was buried there) are buried in the Worthington vault at Oak Hill Cemetery , Washington D.C.

Birth	1776	Rowan County, North Carolina
Marriage	18 Jan 1821	Washington, D. C. - Catharine Worthington
Death	27 Oct 1834	Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina

Spouse	Catharine Worthington (1791 - 1868)
Child	Joseph Rowan Pearson (1821 - 1837)
Child	Catharine W. Pearson (1825 - 1837)
Child	Eliza Worthington Pearson (1826 - 1902)
Child	Sarah Ellen Pearson (1827 - 1842)
Child	Josephine Pearson (1829 - 1852)
Child	Charles W. Pearson (1831 - 1835)
Child	William Gaston Pearson (1834 - 1861)

Father	Richmond Pearson (1751 - 1819)
Mother	Sarah Haden (1756 - 1790)
Sibling	Betsey Pearson (1773 - 1791)
Sibling	Jesse A. Pearson ( - 1825)
Sibling	Richmond Pearson Jr. ( - )
Sibling	George Pearson ( - 1819)