History of Warren County North Carolina United States of America

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Biographies:

Weldon Nathaniel Edwards, representative, was born in Warren county, N.C., in 1788. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1810 and located in Warrenton, N.C. He was a member of the house of commons, 1814-15, and a representative in the 14th-19th congresses, 1816-27. He then served in the state senate, 1833-44, and again in 1850, when he was president of the senate. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1835 and president of the secession convention of 1861. He died in Warren county, N.C., Dec. 18, 1873.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Benjamin Hawkins, senator, was born in Bute (Warren) county, N.C., Aug. 15, 1754; son of Col. Philemon and Delia Hawkins. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, a signer of the state constitution, and a member of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution. Benjamin was educated at the College of New Jersey, where he had obtained a thorough knowledge of the French language, When the college doors closed he was in his senior year and was invited by General Washington to join his staff where he served as interpreter between the American and French general officers. He took an active part in all the battles in which Washington commanded, including the battle of Monmouth (1779), and at the close of the war was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783. He represented his district in the North Carolina legislature for several terms; was commercial agent for his state, 1780; a delegate to the Continental congress, 1781-84 and 1786-87; a U.S. senator in the 1st, 2d and 3d congresses, 1789-95; and was appointed by President Washington agent of the three great Indian tribes and other Indians south of the Ohio river. He established his headquarters at Fort Hawkins, Creek Nation (afterward Hawkinsville, Ga.), December, 1796, and held the office under the successive administrations, to each of which he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted. He kept the Indians at peace up to the time of his death. He was married to Lavina Downs of Georgia, and left a property valued at $160,000. He was a trustee of the University of North Carolina, 1789-98. He died at Fort Hawkins, Ga., June 6, 1816.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Nathaniel Macon, statesman, was born in Warren county, N.C., Dec. 17, 1757. He matriculated at the College of New Jersey but in 1777 when the doors of that institution closed he volunteered as a private in the Continental army. He was assigned to the company commanded by his brother John Mason and took part in the actions resulting in the surrender of Fort Moultrie, the rout at Camden, the surrender of Charleston, May 12, 1780, and in the retreat of Generals Morgan and Greene through North Carolina to Virginia in February, 1781. He was elected to the North Carolina senate in 1781 and although he had first declined to leave the army he was prevailed upon by General Greene to accept civil office. During his term as state senator, which expired in 1785, he removed to a plantation on the Roanoke river. He opposed the adoption of the Federal constitution as conferring too much power on the new government. He was a representative in the 2d-13th congresses, 1791-1815, serving as speaker of the house in the 7th, 8th and 9th congresses, 1801-07. He was elected U.S. senator in place of David Stone, resigned, 1814, and of Francis Locke who did not take his seat, 1815, and served by re-election 1815-28, resigning in 1828 when he was succeeded by James Iredell. He twice declined the position of postmaster-general from President Jefferson; was president pro tempore of the senate in the 19th and 20th congresses, 1825-28; and received 24 electoral votes for Vice-President in 1825. He was a member and president of the constitutional convention of North Carolina in 1835 and presidential elector on the Van Buren and Johnson ticket in 1837. He was opposed to all schemes of internal improvement; opposed a grant of land to Count De Grasse and to General Lafayette; and to a ballot being given to free negroes. He died in Warren county, N.C., June 29, 1837.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Thomas Jefferson Green, soldier, was born in Warren county, N.C., Feb. 14, 1802; son of Solomon and Fanny (Hawkins) Green. He attended Chapel Hill college and the U.S. military Academy. In 1822 he was elected to the general assembly of North Carolina and shortly after was married to Sarah A., daughter of the Hon. Jesse Wharton of Nashville, Tenn. He then removed to a plantation in Florida, where he remained till the death of his wife in 1832, having in the meantime represented his county in the Florida legislature. In 1836 he went to Texas, where he was commissioned brigadier-general and sent back to the United States to raise a brigade, which he did at the expense of his entire fortune. Returning with his brigade, he arrived at Velasco after the battle of San Jacinto and on the day that Santa Anna was released and placed on a war vessel to be carried to Vera Cruz, General Green, believing the release of Santa Anna to be a mistake, protested, and trader the authority of President Burnet, reimpressioned the Mexican. This action was sustained by the government and Santa Anna was consigned to the care of General Green, who treated him as a guest. Subsequently when their positions were reversed General Green was heavily ironed and ordered to work on the roads, which last he refused to do though threatened with death. Santa Anna, after his release, again began his incursions of Texas, and in 1843 General Sommerville, with a command of about seven hundred Texans, crossed into Mexico; then under implied executive authority, started homeward before striking a blow. General Green and others refused to return, recrossed the Rio Grande and attacked the town of Mier. After a nineteen hours' fight in which the enemy lost twice the entire force of their assailants, the battle went against the Texans and 261 men and officers were captured and imprisoned in the dungeons of Perote near the city of Mexico. After six months' labor in digging through an eight-foot wall of volcanic rock, General Green with fifteen others escaped on July 2, 1843, and he with seven others returned to Texas. Subsequently he was a representative in the Texas congress, where he used every effort to secure the release of the men whom he had left in the Mexican dungeons. He also introduced the bill which made the Rio Grande the boundary line between Texas and Mexico, the Nueces having been previously recognized as the line. President Polk based his claims and right to send troops to the mouth of the river in dispute upon this bill, and the Mexican war and the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico and California was the consequence. General Green also demonstrated the feasibility and absolute necessity of a railroad across this territory to the Pacific as a war measure in a memorial to Congress in 1850, and he afterward took an original part in the projection and building of the Southern Pacific railroad. During the pending of negotiations for the annexation of Texas to the United States he was tendered by President Polk the post of confidential agent of the United States, but declined on the ground that he was then a citizen of the other contracting power, In 1845 he returned to the United States and was married to the widow of John S. Ellery of Boston, Mass. Later he went to Texas and in 1849 journeyed through Mexico to California. After working there in the mines he was elected a member of the first state senate, served one term, and was a candidate for the U.S. senate the ensuing year. As major-general of the California militia he subdued and effected a treaty with hostile Indian tribes. During his citizenship in Texas he assisted in purchasing the land and laying out the town of Velasco. While in California he projected and laid out the towns of Ore and Vallejo and introduced into the legislature the bill for the establishment of the state university. In his declining years he returned to Warren county N.C., and settled on "Esmeralda" plantation on Shocco Creek, cultivating corn and tobacco. He is the author of The Texan Expedition Against Mier (1845). He died at "Esmeralda" plantation, Warren county, N.C., Dec. 12, 1863.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Warren County North Carolina

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