| Office1: | North Carolina House of Representatives |
| Term Start1: | 1901 |
| Term End1: | 1901 |
| Office2: | Mayor of Fayetteville |
| Term Start2: | 1921 |
| Term End2: | 1923 |
| Office3: | North Carolina Senate |
| Term Start3: | 1925 |
| Term End3: | 1929 |
| Birth Date: | September 7, 1869 |
| Birth Place: | Cool Spring Place, Fayetteville, North Carolina |
| Party: | Democrat |
| Spouse: | Lulie Williams Biggs (m. 1906) |
Edwin Robeson MacKethan (September 7, 1869 - December 16, 1951) was a lawyer, mayor, and state legislator in North Carolina. He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives and the North Carolina Senate.
MacKethan was born September 7, 1869 to Edwin Turner MacKethan and Janie Wright MacKethan (nee Robeson) in the family home Cool Spring Place in Fayetteville, North Carolina.[1] The house belonged to his family for generations since his grandfather Alfred A. MacKethan purchased it in 1860.[2] [3]
Edwin was the eldest of five children with three brothers and one sister. He attended Davidson College, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1891 and received his law degree in 1892 from the law school at the same university. After living in Savannah, Georgia for a few years, he returned to Fayetteville and worked as a lawyer.
He served in the Spanish American War and continued to serve after the war as an officer in the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry. He served as rank of captain until he retired around 1911 and was given the rank of Major.[4]
MacKethan married Lulie Williams Biggs in 1906, the granddaughter of Asa Biggs, they married in her home town Oxford, North Carolina.[5] He had three children,[6] including a son Edwin Robeson MacKethan Jr. and grandson Edwin Robeson MacKethan III.[7]
He was a Democrat and a white supremacist and was elected in March 1900 as the president if the White Supremacy Club in Fayetteville.[8] He retired from the post by the end of the year as he was running for a seat in the House of Representatives.[9]
MacKethan was elected a represent Cumberland County in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1901.[10] [11] Due to his military service he was selected as the chairman of the House's Committee on Military Affairs. He later served as mayor of Fayetteville 1921-1923 and then he served in the North Carolina Senate from 1925-1929.
He was one of the incorporators of the Cumberland County Genealogical and Historical Society.[12] He was a state commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a member of the Sons of the Revolution.
MacKethan died December 16, 1951 aged 82 after suffering a long illness.[13]