The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-14


patty with the toiling masses, and as 4
legislator or citizen he is their answering
friend. He is disciple of those great
tribunes of the plain people, the dead
Vance and the living Bryan, and his fight
is the peoples fight.
Mr. Pearson is the youngest son of the
late Robert G. Pearson, a large property
owner, and one OF the leading citizens
of Burke county. He was a man of
force and character, enjoying the conf
dence to q wonderful extent of the people.
He was Il member of the county court,
manager of the branch State Bank at
Morganton, and first vice-president of the
North Carolina Railroad. Mr.. Pearson
inherits his fathers force of character.
He is a man of large business capacity,
and one of the most successful business
men in Burke county. He has been may
or of his town, and in that office showed
that he had executive ability of high
order. He is an active and aggressive
political leader in his counay.
Miss Pearson married, about 1880, Miss
Florence Walton. daughter of Col. ThOs.
G. Walton, and they have one of the most
delightful and hospitabe homes in West
ern North Carolina.
JAMES HARRISON CATHEY.
Mr.. Cathey was born in the county or
Jackson December /, 1866. He was
reared to manhood in his native county
and moved to Swain about nine years
ago, and has made his residence there
since.
He received his education in the com
mon schools of his native county with
the exception Of two months at Weaver
vile College, where, and during which
time, he stood at the head of his classes,
being elected president of his literary
society, and it was particularly remarked
by his fellow-studen and the faculty
of his powers of elocution and debate.
Mr.. Cathey was married in 1887, ami
has a wife and four children.
He was a candidate of a large portion
of the people in 1894 for the nomination
for Representative in the lower House Of
the General Assembly, but in the conven-
ton he was defeated after the 4Sth bal
lot. His friends claimed unjuStly
He was the chosen candidate of his
party and the Populists of his county
again in 1896, and after the warmest
campaign ever waged in the county, won
over his competitor, JAS. A. Franks, a
shrewd politician, by majority of AZ
votes.
He has served on the following COM
mittees! Edueation, Counties, Cities,
Towns and Townships special commit
tee appointed to visit the State institu-
tons; special committee to investigate al
legged frauds in the Senatorial contest.
the committee on Public Printing, q spc-
eial committee on the same subject
He was editor of the Bryson City
Times in 1892 and 1898.
Mr. Cathey is broad and liberal in his
views, true friend of those Democratic
principles embodied in the Chicago plat
form, and a loyal supporter of a State
government of the white people, by the
white people, for the white people. He is
a gentleman of commanding appearance,
of robust build, and of strong mental and
physical development.
DIR. BEN. FRANKLIN DIXON.
The county of Cleveland and the State
of North Carolina was fortunate in hay-
ing among the law-making power in this
year of grace so broad-minded Christian
statesman as DR. Benjamin Franklin
Dixon. Born in the county he now rep
resents, on March 81, 1916, from the
marriage Of Thomas and Mary Wenter
Dixon, and educated at Charleston, S. c.,
his life furnishes a bright page in North
Carolina history At the age of fifteen
be left school, in 81, and enlisted as pri-
vate in Co. ID, 18th n. G. Volunteers regi-
ment afterwards known as the 14th Regi-
ment. Was elected lieutenant of Co. G.,
10th Regiment in '63, when barely seven
teen years of age, and soon after pro-
NOTED to the captaincy for meritorious
conduct-the youngest captain Of a vet
eran company in the Confederate service;
was wounded at Drewry's Bluff, at NAL
yern Hill and at Petersburg. When
the war ended, he returned to Cleve-
land county, where for two years he
taught school, devoting his spare time to
the study of medicine. In '6S he joined
the South Carolina Conference of the
NJ f. Church, South, and was given
charge of the church at Sumter, $. c.,
where he remained one year. His next
charge was at Monroe, for two years,
reaping large reward for his church by
his earnestness and religious zeal. Next,
he went to the Shelby Circuit, and when
his term expired there, completed his
medical course and located at King
Mountain and successfully practiced
medicine for ten years-until elected in
1884 as Superintendent of the Oxford
Orphan Asylum, where he efficiently
conducted that institution till called, in
80, to take charge of the Greensboro
Female College as its president. Both
as superintendent of the Oxford Asylum
and president of the Greensboro College,
he exhibited peculiar ability and fitness
for the positions, getting from the trus-
tees and the public many deserved en-
comiums. To sum up briefly, as a Chris
tan, a Mason, physician and an educa-
tor, he stands in the hearts of those who
know him above reproach. The crown
ing epoch in his life Of varied usefulness
mankind and his own happiness was his
marriage in 'S7 to Miss Nora G. Tracy,
daughter of DIR. j w. Tracy, of Kings
Mountain, from which happy union he
has been blessed with three bright and
promising children, girl and two boys
Pearl, Benz. f., and Wright T. Unex-
pectedly to himself, he was forced by the
urgency OF friends 10 take a hand in the
political campaign Of '96, being chairman
Of