Washington Duke

")Washington Duke, industrialist and philanthropist, was born on his parents' farm, located on the Little River in what was then part of Orange County, in North Carolina. He once said that he considered himself very poor twice in his life—first, when he began making a living with nothing but "willing hands and a stout heart" and second, upon returning to his home after the Civil War. In the first instance he made a modest living farming, and in the second, he grew wealthy by turning to the manufacture of tobacco products. With the assistance of his two sons, Benjamin Newton and James Buchanan , and his daughter, Mary Elizabeth, Washington Duke's early manufacturing business consisted of beating cured tobacco by hand with sticks, sifting it through a fine wire sieve, and packing it in small bags for sale. Selling the finished product took Duke or his boys through as many as thirty-two states, after which they would return and work the farm. The Duke Homestead , a state historic site located about four miles north of campus, is open to the public as an example of a 19th century family farm and small-scale tobacco factory. By 1880, James B. Duke turned the firm of W. Duke Sons & Co. toward the mass manufacture and mass marketing of a new product, cigarettes. After a "tobacco war" among the five principal manufacturers, James B. Duke emerged as president of the American Tobacco company, which quickly became a multinational corporation. In the mid-1880s, Washington Duke built an impressive Victorian style mansion near the factory of W. Duke and Sons on Durham's Main Street. Known as "Fairview," the house was surrounded by handsome grounds which included an impressive glass greenhouse. Duke's deceased wife's maiden sister, Miss Ann Roney, was housekeeper, and, after the death of his daughter, Mary Duke Lyon, in 1893, her children resided at Fairview. Washington Duke died in 1905, and his statue , at the entrance of Duke's East Campus, was dedicated in 1908. After the completion of Duke University's Chapel in 1932, Washington Duke was interred in its Memorial Chapel along with his sons, Benjamin and James. Durden, Robert F. The Dukes of Durham, 1865-1929 . Durham: Duke University Press, 1975. (view catalog record for this book ) Washington Duke Papers, 1764-1987 (view this collection guide ) Duke Family Genealogy and History Guide (view this LibGuide )