of Hon. Wm. Lander to the Confederate Congress, he was elected to the State Convention to fill his place.
This was the only political office he ever held and he always refused to hold any other.
He practiced his profession in competition with such lawyers as William Lander, W. P. Bynum, Haywood Guion, and J. F. Hoke, and received his full share of business.
In 1874, he received the Democratic nomination for Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, and was elected by a majority of 2,100, nearly double the former Democratic majority. His term expired in 1882. He has a large family, and like "old Chuckey," he is "spreading himself" to take care of them.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
MACON COUNTY.
James Lowrie Robinson was born in Franklin, Macon county, September 17, 1838. His father, James Robinson, came to North Carolina, from Tennessee, was a merchant of note and character, and died in the village that was the birth place of his son, June, 1843. His early training was only what the common schools of his county and the village Academy afforded; and a year at Emory & Henry College, was added to his education by his own hard-earned wages and the kind assistance of a friend and relative.
When armed men sprang up in every hamlet of North Carolina, at the call of her authorities, he volunteered as a private foot soldier in Company H, 16th North Carolina troops, and became Quarter-master Sergeant in the same regiment. At the re-organization he was elected Captain of the Company of which he was a member and its triumphs became a part of his history. Wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, he led his men over the fields of Manassas, when it was baptized with blood a second time. Participating in the engagement at Chantilly Farm, he was present at the terrible struggle that decided the Maryland campaign at Sharpsburg.
When he had laid aside his sword and returned to peaceful vocations, his people recognized in him the deliberate courage and solid qualities of mind that are valuable in civil employments, and chose him to be their Commoner in 1868. He was returned without opposition in 1870. No mark of confidence could have bestowed greater honor upon him. He had been one of a bold and true minority that had withstood the seductions of a reckless and extravagant administration, and had rendered success for the Democracy possible. When chosen a representative in 1872, he was almost by common consent, elevated to the highest honor of the body of which he was a member, and when the Speaker's gavel was again tendered him in 1874, it came as a palm of merit that he had no right to put aside.
The retribution in the history of North Carolina came in 1876. The ruined places were restored. The counties, bearing names conspicuously North Carolinian, and composing his Senatorial District, called him to serve them in the Upper
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