By DAVID DALTON
The ccumbliog exterior ol Richmond Hill Low School.
Richmond Hill
Will Rise Again
R i c* li in
о
n <1 Pearson's uiiif|ue law
school cducaltMl many distinguished
Tar Heels.
Large, gloomy, and very, very de¬
crepit, the old building sits alone in the
woods not far from the Yadkin River,
Many names important in North
Carolina history are associated with
the old building, including congress¬
men, governors, ambassadors and su¬
preme court justices.
The roof and floors have mostly
fallen; there arc no windows or doors;
the bricks arc crumbling.
The old building was the home of
Richmond Mumford Pearson, who was
chief justice of North Carolina from
1858 Ю
1878.
The old building is going to be re¬
stored.
Grants totaling $35,000 have been
secured for the project — not nearly
enough for the whole restoration but
enough to get it started.
The General Assembly appropriated
$15.000 in July. The National Park
Service granted $5,500, the Richard¬
son Foundation of Greensboro $5.000.
and an heir of the Pearson family. Mrs.
Margaret Hobson of Greensboro, Ala.,
$10.000.
It will cost about $200.000 to
properly restore the building. Even-
tually a nature park will surround it.
Richmond Pearson was born in
Davie County on June 28, 1805. His
family tree traces back to the May¬
flower. In 1848 he moved to Yadkin
County and built his home. He lived
there while not in Raleigh.
“If a man, instead of contenting him¬
self with the quiet and comfort of a
country residence, chooses to live in a
town, he must take the inconvenience
of noise, dust, flics, rats, smoke, soot
and cinders."
This quote by Mr. Pearson, given in
a supreme court opinion in 1875, is
from an article by James Hutchens,
published in An Illustrated History of
Yadkin County by William li. Rut¬
ledge, Jr. and Max O. Welborn.
Mr. Pearson was a strong advocate
of freedom of the individual — a stand
which brought him a great deal of
criticism from civil and military
authorities, even from Jefferson Davis,
president of the confederacy.
Mr. Pearson considered the draft
laws unconstitutional, and his rulings
set free many draft evaders during the
War Between the States.
His law school was run in a very
informal fashion at his home in Yadkin
County, according to the article by
Mr. Hutchens.
He taught more than 1,000 students
during a 20-year period.
“He did not confine his instruction
to any classroom . . ." wrote Mr.
Hutchens, “but would talk to his stu¬
dents on legal subjects when an op¬
portunity arose — at dinner, on the
paths in the woods, at the fishing hole
at the river, beneath the oaks on a
summer afternoon, or down at the
spring."
During the days of the law school,
the house was surrounded by log
houses which the students lived in. The
area was sometimes called “Logtown."
None of these buildings are left today.
Stuted Well
To be without some of the things
you want is an indispensable part of
happiness. — Blur rand Russell
“Wc scent to consider it our destiny
to invite the world to a feast, and the
world is willing, of course, to come;
but its coming does not indicate that
it understands or respects or desires to
appropriate anything that lies back of
our economic productivity. From each
table that wc set they retire grumbling
for more and liking us not one whit
better." — Dr.
С.
K. Brown
io
THE STATE, September 15. 1971
