Individual Details

Rowan Co NC Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions 1815-1816
June Clodfelter Watson, no date
p.50
Deeds rec May 1815
Richmond Pearson Sr to Richmond Jr. 649 acrs. 1814. Proved by Jesse A. Pearson

An 1815 Rowan Co NC tax List shows that Billy D. Haden, a Hughes, 3 Maxwells, and Richmond Pearson Sr & Jr all lived within the bounds of Capt. Tabb's Company. Billy D. & Richmond Sr. both had acerage on the Yadkin River.
ROWAN COUNTY, NC TAX LIST 1815; Jo White Linn, 1987.
Billy D. Haden was a son of Douglas Haden, grandson of William & Unity Haden; William was a brother to Joseph Haden, Sarah Haden Pearson's father.

In 1817, R. Pearson and R. Pearson, Jr. were two of the commissioners that divided the Negroes of the estate of Sargent Hughes.
Sargent Hughes married to a daughter of William & Unity Haden.

Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions 1817-1818
June Clodfelter Watson, no date
p.145 Thus 21 May 1818
Petition of Richmond Pearson for a Bridge across the South Yadkin bet Haden's ferry and the mouth of Second Creek… it is ordered that a bridge be erected…. Commissioners appt: Richmond Pearson Jr, Nicholas W. Gaither, Ransom Powell, Jesse A. Pearson, Lewis Beard, Stephen L. Ferrand. Shall report when bridge is completed. Authorized to draw from the Trustee of the county, $500 for the use of said bridge.


1820 Census. Rowan Co NC, Battalion 3, or Forks of the Yadkin.
Richmond Pearson: 1m 26-45. 1f -10, 1f 10-16, 1f 26-45.
15 slaves. Richmond the elder had died in 1819; his will presented in Court in August. He stated in his will that a son Richmond Pearson was deceased, leaving children. His wife Eliza and some of her children appear to have been enumerated with son Jesse A. Pearson - Richmond Mumford Pearson would have been only age 15 in this census. So is this some enumeration of the estate of Richmond Sr or Jr? Or still another Richmond Pearson?

The will of Richmond Pearson makes very clear that he had an older son named Richmond, deceased, and a young son, Richmond Mumford Pearson a son of Richmond and his second wife Eliza Mumford. An online database listed a marriage to Elizabeth McLinn, 2 Mar 1808, in Craven Co NC for Richmond Jr. His brother Joseph did marry Ann McLinn in 1806 in Craven Co. However, there was a John Pearson living in Craven Co as early as 1790 and several Pearson families living there in subsequent years; a number of Pearson marriages are recorded in Craven Co. There are a number of records when both Richmond Sr and Jr are present and too early to be Richmond Mumford Pearson.

There are books, contents reprinted online, that have errors concerning Richmond's family
History of Western North Carolina, condensed from "Wheeler's Historical Sketches" about Joseph's family.
And Wheeler's Historical Sketches"
both appear online and they have been copiously copied into other articles including Wikipedia. Wheeler made a critical error - he placed the second marriage of the elder Richmond Pearson as well as all the children of that marriage, as belonging to the young Richmond, son of Richmond & Sarah Haden. The will of Richmond in 1819 makes clear that he had a second wife Eliza and some of the children named are hers and not yet of legal age. There are tax records in Rowan Co in 1815, too early to be those of Richmond Mumford who was born 1805, son of Eliza, but say Richmond Pearson Jr. This makes at least three living persons named Richmond Pearson in Rowan Co. in 1815. There are other Pearsons in Rowan Co and in neighboring counties.

Father	Richmond Pearson (1751 - 1819)
Mother	Sarah Haden (1756 - 1790)
Sibling	Betsey Pearson (1773 - 1791)
Sibling	Joseph A. Pearson (1776 - 1834)
Sibling	Jesse A. Pearson ( - 1825)
Sibling	George Pearson ( - 1819)