Volume X
Number 21
October 24
1942
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Entered
»•
weonit tUM matter. Jane 1, 1933. at the Toetoflre at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March
Я,
I
«70.
Yadkin
County
It was tin* homo off Sen¬
ator Clingmaii anil Rich¬
mond Pearson. The lat¬
ter's law school was one
of the state's outstand¬
ing educational institu¬
tions.
MR. HI) KITTI.KIXSK run* the
newspaper ai Yadkinville. It
known a* tin* Yadkin Ripple
which is just about n« unusual a
name as you could select for a paper.
“Well, I’ll tell you." said Ed, in
response to our query. "The paper was
started fifty years ago by Miss Mattie
Johnson. There used to bo a dam
across the Yadkin River but it. was
abandoned and gradually disintegrat¬
es, leaving only a few rocks above the
surface of the water. These rocks creat¬
ed a number of ripples in the smooth
flow of the stream, so when Miss
Johnson got ready to start her
рл|н*г
and give it a name, she selected The
Ripple as being very appropriate.”
Incidentally. Mr. Rutledge has been
running the paper himself for 33
years. It is one of the few Republican
papers in the state.
But then, Yadkin County has been
outstandingly Republican for a long
time.
The solicitor for that judicial dis¬
trict, Mr. Avalon Kail, is the only Re¬
publican office-holder on the pay roll
of the state at the present time which,
in itself, is quite a distinction.
One of Yadkin County’s outstanding
sons was Richmond Pearson, teacher
3nd Chief Justice' of the North Caro¬
lina Supreme Court. His home was
known as Richmond Hill and it was
here that the Judge had his famous
The home of the Clingmans at Huntsville, down in the lower part of
Yadkin County.
law school, which was operated from
184? until his death in 1878. The
large, square, porehlesn brick house is
located in grounds t lint are overgrown
with brush. Of the 1,000 students who
read law under bis direction. Thomas
Settle, David Reid. W. B. Rodman,
W. P. Bynum, and R. P. Dick became
justices of the State Supreme Court.
Another student, James Hobson, mar¬
ried Sallie, Judge Pearson's third
daughter, and their son, Richmond
Pearson Hobson, sank the Merrimac
in Santiago Harbor during the Span-
ish-American War. The judge’s only
sou, Richmond Pearson, served as
Minister to Persia and Grceco from
1902 to 1909.
The. school proper was in an old
log cabin, close to the brick house. This
property, including 15 acres of land,
was recently donated by the Yoklcy
family, of .Mount Airy, to the North
Carolina Society for the Preservation
of Antiquities. The Society planned
to restore the house, but the war came
along and plans had to bo abandoned.
The roof has been patched, the win¬
dows have been boarded up and some
other temporary repairs have been
made for the time being.
Yadkin County was formed in 1850
from the southern part of Surry and
derives its name from the river which
runs through it. "Yadkin” i« an In¬
dian word but nobody seems to know
exactly what it moans. When we were
in the town of Yadkiuvillc recently,
we asked several people there if that
had always been the name of the
county seat, and they said it had.
Somehow or other, however, we be¬
lieve they’re mistaken. Wheeler says
in his history: "The capital of Yad¬
kin County is called Wilson, in honor
of Louis D. Wilson, late of Edge¬
combe, who served with distinction
during the War with Mexico.” Regard¬
less of who ir right, it i- evident that
if the county seat were named Wilson,
it did not retain that name for any
great length of time.
Yadkin County lacks a lot of being
one of the leading industrial counties
in North Carolina. It is a fine fann¬
ing section but its industries are com-