Eli Lide Dawson, M. D., Ouachita County, AR
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SOURCE: Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
Contributed by Carol Smith.
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Ouachita County, Arkansas - from Goodspeed's History of Arkansas
Eli Lide Dawson, M. D., is a leading physician of Buena Vista, and of Marion Township. The South Carolina branch of the Dawson family has
been and is distinguished throughout the South for its wealth and culture, numbering among its members and being connected in matrimonial
relations with many of the old planters and leading men in business and politics throughout that State, and retaining much of the old time spirit,
which esteems with just pride the memory of a virtuous and honorable ancestry. The founder of this branch of the family was John Dawson,
who was born April 14, 1735, at Rowell, Westmoreland, England, and who emigrated to the American colonies and settled in South Carolina,
previous to 1759, locating at Charleston, where he engaged in the mercantile business, becoming one of the leading and most popular
merchants of that city, also owning several large and extensive plantations. He was one of the leading men, in politics of that State, and was a
member of the South Carolina Convention of May 1788, which adopted the Federal Constitution of the United States. He died May 7, 1812,
leaving a large estate. Mr. Dawson was married in South Carolina, October 9, 1760, to Miss Joanna Broughton Monch. She was born at Milton
Plantation, Parish of St. John, Berkeley, South Carolina, October 7, 1743, and was the daughter of Col. Thomas Monch, and granddaughter of
Col. Thomas Broughton. She died July 5, 1819, leaving eleven children, all now deceased, viz: Mabel, Joanna M., John, Mary, Thomas,
Elizabeth, Anna, William, Martha, Lawrence M. and Charles P. John Dawson was born at Charleston, South Carolina, July 8, 1765. He became a
large merchant and filled several public offices in his native city, with great credit and honor to himself. He was elected mayor of Charleston in
1806, and held the office three years. He was also one of the trustees of the Orphan Asylum, and on account of his benevolence to the poor,
was called the "Howard of Charleston". In 1811, he became cashier of the State Bank of Charleston, which position he held until his death,
which occurred June 3, 1823. He is said that when a boy of fifteen he ran away from home and joined the continental army, under Gen. Greene,
shortly before the battle of Eutaw Springs, in which he took part. His father wrote Gen. Greene, who sought him out and caused him to be sent
home. He was married, November 17, 1788, to Miss Mary Huger, daughter of Col. John Huger, of Huguenot descent, who was a man of large
wealth, and filled many positions of honor in society, and who was one of the members of the Council of Safety for the Province of South
Carolina, which was composed of twelve of the most prominent gentleman of the province, nominated and appointed by the Provincial
Congress, in 1775. Mrs. Dawson died November 11, 1823, leaving twelve children, the sixth of whom, Lawrence Edwin, is the grandfather of the
subject of this sketch. He was born in Charleston, December 9, 1799. He studied law under Col. William Drayton, of South Carolina, and was
admitted to the bar January 12, 1821; he was also a graduate of Judge Gould's Law School, of Litchfield. He practiced in Charleston until 1829,
when he removed to Beaufort District, near Coosawhatchie, where he was engaged in practicing his profession until he was forced to abandon a
very heavy and lucrative practice, on account of ill health, in 1834. He then removed to St. John's Parish, Berkeley, where he was occupied in
agricultural and literary pursuits until 1842, when he emigrated to Alabama, and at the time of his death had acquired a large and lucrative
practice. He was several times a member of the South Carolina Legislature, and in 1833-34 was offered the nomination as Congressman from his
district, which he declined, preferring the profession to which he had been reared, and the ease and happiness of domestic life. He was a State's
Rights man, and in the exciting contests which resulted in nullification, gave the weight of his influence and talents to what he conscientiously
believed to be the true doctrine of the constitution. He was a communicant of the Episcopal Church from his seventeenth year, and as he lived,
so he died, February 8, 1848, in his forty-ninth year, a devoted member of that church. He was gifted with a fine and manly person, was tall and
well formed, and possessed of features exceedingly striking and attractive. Mr. Dawson was married, in 1826, to Miss Mary Wilkinson Rhodes,
of Beaufort, South Carolina, born January 8, 1808, eldest daughter of Dr. Nathaniel H. Rhodes, and granddaughter of Paul Hamilton, ex-governor
of South Carolina and secretary of the United States Navy under President Madison. Mrs. Dawson died June 6, 1851, leaving six children,
Lawrence Edwin Dawson, the fourth of the family, being the father of our subject. He was born in Beaufort District, South Carolina, June 20,
1831, and married, in January, 1853, Caroline E. Lide, daughter of Eli H. Lide, Esq. of Dallas County, Alabama. Eli Lide Dawson, the subject of
this sketch, was the second son in a family of nine children, and was born January 3, 1856, in this township, on the farm on which his father first
settled on coming to this country. He received a common school education, after which he worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-five
years of age; then, in November, 1881, he went to New Orleans and attended the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana (now called
the Tulane University), from which he graduated March 29, 1883, having taken two full courses. He then returned to this township, and has
been engaged in the practice of medicine in the community in which he was born, until the fall of 1887, when he went to Philadelphia and took a
course in the Jefferson Medical College, and from which he graduated April 4, 1888. Since that time he has been engaged in the practice of his
chosen profession in this township. Dr. Dawson is a member of the Baptist Church. He owns twenty-five acres of land in Buena Vista, on which
he lives. He, also, in partnership with his brother, John Huger Dawson, of this township, has some 1,500 acres of land in this township, of which
about 300 acres are under cultivation. The balance is fine timber, mostly pine and white and black oak. Dr. Dawson is a Democrat, but devotes
all of his time to his chosen profession, for which he has been rewarded by having the respect and confidence of the community.