WILLIAM DICKSON PEARSALL LETTER
Southern Historical Collection 
The Library of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Pearsall Letter, #582- Z
(Handwritten note at the top of this letter states:  "Copy made from original July 17, 1916."

Feb. 17, 1892 

Dear Philander:

You asked me some months ago to give you such historical facts as I possessed of the 
Pearsall & Dickson Families in Duplin County.  You probably supposed that in as much as 
I am the oldest living Pearsall I know more about their nativity than any other person.  I being 
the youngest child of my parents James Pearsall & his wife Anne who was a daughter of 
Joseph Dickson & my father having died near the time of my birth (to-wit) November 12th, 1812 
the only account I had of the Pearsall origin was from my mother & that was limited from the 
fact that grandfather Pearsall the first & only one of the name who settled in this State had 
died before she  was grown.  He lived near the center of the County-married respectable & 
had three sons-Jeremiah-James & Edward.  His native Country was Ireland.  Jeremiah Pearsall 
settled on the farm now owned by Joseph Pearsall.  He raised two sons-Edward & James;  
they emigrated to Tennessee several years before I was born.  Uncle Edward Pearsall married 
a Johnston-had only one son-John who became one of the very few College bred young men of 
Duplin County.  After finishing his education he became very popular-was elected a member of 
the Legislature-married a Miss James of New Hanover County & settled on the farm now 
occupied by John A. Bryan-his father being the owner of all between that & the one belonging 
to and including the farm of John A. Bryan.  John Pearsall emigrated first to Wayne County & 
then caught the Tennessee fever-carried his slaves to that State & on his return for his wife & 
children took sick & died at Salisbury, N.C.  His family afterwards went to Tennessee & I lost 
sight of them.  My father James Pearsall first settled where the town of Kenansville now stands.
Duplin County then embraced all of Sampson & the Court House was located three miles West 
of Warsaw on the road to Clinton .  After Sampson was cut off from Duplin the County site for a 
new Court House was selected at the Cross Roads two miles South of Kenansville-that being 
most central.  Father proposed to the Commissioners to give a few acres of land for public 
buildings if they would locate the Court House on his farm & that the famous Spring of Cold, 
soft & healthy water there would be a great public convenience & a blessing to all settlers.  
This proposition was accepted-the Court House was built near the Spring which is still flowing 
its limpid stream for the delight of all the inhabitants of Kenansville & thousands of visitors there 
for business & other purposes.

My father was married three times.  First to a Miss Uzzel of Lenoir County by whom he raised 
two sons-Edward & James .  His second wife was a Whitfield of the same county & a sister of 
Mrs. Stephen Miller.  She died without children & lastly he married my Mother Anne 
Dickson-only daughter of Joseph Dickson who lived midway between Kenansville & Warsaw.  
By this last marriage four sons were raised-Jeremiah, Joseph Dickson, Hugh & William 
Dickson.  It is some what remarkable what a desire these old fathers had to acquire large 
acres of real estate as well as the success the y had in doing so.  In carrying out this idea 
My father exchanged his village property for a large tract of land on Goshen Swamp to which 
he added brother Jeremiah's lands on the latters removal to Tennessee.  This enabling him to 
settle all his sons-six in number on good plantations & all adjoining.  Joseph Dickson Pearsall 
died single at the age of twenty-five years.  The other five brothers all married & had numerous 
children.  My great-grandfather Dickson came from Scotland-settled & married in Duplin County. 
He raised six sons-James, Joseph, Edward, Robert, William & Alexander.  By these the 
Dicksons became very numerous.  The prevalent idea to acquire large acres of land caused 
them to scatter far & wide before my recollection, even before I was born Joseph Dickson-My 
Grand Father prompted by this idea of furnishing his children with homes, emigrated to 
Tennessee with his eight grown sons who in course of time spread all over that State, Alabama 
& Mississippi.  Alexander Dickson having no children bequeathed a portion of hi s estate 
(to-wit) ten thousand dollars for the education of the Poor of Duplin County of which you have 
heard much in Court Proceedings as the "Dickson Charity Fund."  William Dickson was the 
most popular of all the name but all were highly esteemed.  A number of them as well as of the 
Pearsalls filled honorable positions such as members of the Legislature & of State Conventions 
to alter & amend the Constitution-Clerks of the Court & other minor offices.  Both Pearsalls & 
Dicksons were considered born patriots in Revolutionary times-& I have heard my mother tell 
of the hairbreadth escapes the elders had from being captured by British Dragoons who 
scoured the Country as did Shermans & Terrys armies during the Civil War of 61 to 65.  
Such is a supericial sketch of the two families & I hope it will not be considered egotistical 
for me to say we have much to be proud of & nothing to cause a blush from the nativity and 
general reputation of these our Ancestors.  While none mounted to the topmount rounds of the 
ladder of Fame none wallowed in the dust at its base.  While none became preeminent in 
literature or scientific discoveries none were idiots of sots -While none acquired pricely fortunes 
none were paupers or defaulters.  All were more or less educated.  All were more or less 
successful as farmers, Legislators, Officers, Doctors of Medicine & Attorneys at law.  Not a 
case of illegitimacy or bastardy & what is better than all they were a God fearing-law abiding 
people except in times of Revolution when they were considered patriots still holding that God 
would uphold the right.  Fully nine-tenths of all the adults confessed Christ before men & 
connected themselves with some branch of his Church, while every individual of the two first 
generations to this State were Presbyterians.  This gives you the general characteristics of 
the two families.  I do not hold the opinion that honorable parentage without individual merit 
entitles a man to respectability, but I do think it should be & generally is, an incentive to noble 
acts & honest dealings.  I trust it has had, and will continue to have such an influence over 
your movements that you will be stimulated to equal or even excel the best of your 
predecessors.  To do either will be praiseworthy.  To fail in both will be making a retrograde 
movement unworthy of your ancestry & unworthy of your manhood.

As you were but a child at the commencement & during the Civil War & inasmuch as I felt it 
necessary soon after its close to advise you & your brother while yet in your teens to go out 
in the wide-wide world to make a living & a name you know but little of my private & domestic 
troubles & movements except as to the general results.  This being true I feel inclined to go 
somewhat into a detail thereof.  But my strength is failing-My fingers are cramped & besides 
these you might think me claiming a little preeminence over some of my kindred.  I will 
therefore content myself by saying while I have desired the good will of all men I have never 
felt inclined to abandon principle for popularity, nor have I sought or desired political fame-never 
was declared a candidate for any office yet I have had several conferred upon me & have acted 
in a fiduciary capacity in cases where large amounts of property have been in controversy & 
large amounts of money were held by me for years & finally settled amicably without a breath 
of complaint or charge of mismanagement.

One thing you know-on the 26th day of January 1847 your mother & I were united by marriage.  
Her maiden name was Whitaker & she had numerous relatives of that name residing in Wake 
& Halifax Counties whose reputation for honesty, morality & Christianity was equal to that of 
the Pearsalls & Dicksons of Duplin County.

Now having passed my seventy-ninth birth-day & your mothers seventy-third as well as our 
fifty-first marriage anniversary our lamp of life is giving only a flickering light & I can justly say 
my departure is at hand, for my age-with my atenuated limbs & wasted vitality brought on more
rapidly during the last six months by a complication of diseases it will be folly for me to expect 
a restoration to robust health.  I will not say I have fought a good fight but I will venture the 
assertion my trust is in God & I will praise him while I have breath for the many blessings he 
has conferred upon me both of a temporal & spiritual nature.  Prominent among the former I 
behold a loving wife & a group of affectionate children who are a great blessing and comfort 
to me now & prevent me from saying the evil days have come when I have no pleasure in them.  
I hope death will not be the King of terrors to me but only the gate through which I will pass 
from a life of varied successes & failures-pecuniarily commingled (sic) with pleasure & pain, 
joy & sorrow, for one of uninterrupted happenings & where I will meet all my loved ones & unite 
our voices in praising God from whom all blessings flow while eternity rolls its ages on.


Your affectionate Father, 

William Dickson Pearsall

(Handwritten note at the bottom of the letter:  "The writer of this paper died at Fernside near 
Wilmington Apl 2nd 1892.  P. Pearsall")




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