Samuel McDowell Tate was born on September 6, 1830, in Morganton, North Carolina, to David and Susan Tate. His father died when he was very young. He attended school in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and by 1850, he was working as a merchant in Morganton. A decade later, he was working as a railroad agent in Burke County, North Carolina, and he owned $15,000 of real estate and $14,000 of personal property.

 

He sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, and he received a commission as a captain in Company D of the 6^th North Carolina Infantry on May 16, 1861. The regiment took part in the Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Seven Pines, the Seven Days’ Battles, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the Appomattox Campaign. He was promoted to major on June 11, 1862.

 

He was severely wounded in the Battle of Antietam, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 3, 1863. He was wounded again a Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, and a third time at Fort Stedman, Virginia. He was paroled in Morganton on May 16, 1865.

 

Tate became president of the Western North Carolina Railroad Company in June 1865. He married Jennie Pearson around 1866, and they had at least nine children: Frank, born around 1868; Susan, born around 1870; Samuel, born around 1872; Claude, born around 1875; Wilhelmina, born around 1876; Irene, born around 1879; Wilson, born around 1881; Alexander, born around 1884; Jordan, born around 1887. 

 

By 1870, Tate owned $28,000 of real estate and $19,000 of personal property, and he employed at least two Black domestic servants. In 1875, according to one local writer, “he was elected private stockholders’ commissioner to organize the [railroad] system and work the convict force on the road.” He supported the Democratic Party, reportedly serving as a delegate to “every Democratic National convention from 1860 to 1884.” He served two terms in the state legislature, acting as chairman of the Committee on Finance during each term. He also spent 25 years as a justice of the peace. He died in Morganton on June 25, 1897.

 

Image: Samuel McDowell Tate (The Morganton Herald, 1 July 1897)

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