Col. N. H. R. Dawson--Became a citizen of Selma in 1858, and engaged in the practice of law, and soon after formed a partnership with Col. E. W. Pettus, which firm has existed up to the present, having enjoyed a most extensive practice. The firm in 1875 became Pettus, Dawson & Tillman. Col. Dawson was born in Charleston, S. C., in 1829, but came to Dallas county in 1842; was educated at St Joseph College at Mobile, and read law with his father, Col. L. E. Dawson and the Hon. George R. Evans, of Cahawba, and admitted to the bar at Cahawba in 1851. He was one of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, and among that portion of the delegation who withdrew from that convention and agreed to go to Richmond, In 1860 he was elected Captain of the "Magnolia Cadets," a volunteer military company, composed of the best young men of the city of Selma, and in 1861, when the tocsin of war was sounded, and fighting men were called for the sustain the new government that had been formed at Montgomery, Col. Dawson and his gallant cadets responded without a dissenting voice, and at once rallied under the standard of Beauregard in Virginia, and were in the hottest of the battle of the first Manassas. In 1863 Col. Dawson was elected to represent Dallas county in the State Legislature, and at the close of the war in 1865 was in command of a battalion of cavalry operating on the State coast. Since the war closed Col. Dawson has been engaged in his profession, and with those who knew him well as very popular, because it is impossible to properly appreciate his good and benevolent nature, unless he is intimately known.
