Bartlett S. Durham
Encyclopedia
Dr. Bartlett Leonidas Snipes Durham (November 3, 1824-February 2, 1859) was an American physician and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 whose land, donated for a railway station, became the location of Durham
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...

, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, named for him.

Biography

Bartlett S. Durham was born and raised roughly 12 miles (19.3 km) west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...

, in rural Orange County
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...

. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 Medical School, he returned to Orange County and, in 1847 or 1848, purchased 100 acre (0.404686 km²) of undeveloped land in the eastern portion of the county, between settlements known as Prattsburg and Pinhook, likely as a speculative investment, in advance of the planned North Carolina Railroad
North Carolina Railroad
The North Carolina Railroad is a state-owned rail corridor extending from Morehead City, North Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina. The railroad carries over seventy freight trains and eight passenger trains daily...

. In 1849, Durham donated 4 acres (16,187.4 m²), directly adjacent to his estate, "Pandora's Box", to the railroad. The railroad, in turn, named the stop, Durham's Station in his honor.

The collection of stores and houses a mile to the west of Prattsburg became "Durhamville" and the site of the new station by the early 1850s. Shortly thereafter, Durham became the first railroad agent in the vicinity of Durhamville, with a liquor license and a stake in the general store. At some point during the early 1850s, Durham was elected to represent Orange County in the North Carolina General Assembly, having introduced a bill to form a chapter of the Sons of Temperance
Sons of Temperance
The Sons of Temperance was a brotherhood of men who promoted the temperance movement and mutual support. It began spreading rapidly during the 1840s throughout the United States and parts of Canada....

.

Bartlett Durham died a bachelor, from pneumonia on February 2, 1859. Ten years later, fueled by the post-Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 boom, the North Carolina General Assembly would incorporate Durham, North Carolina on the site of the railway station named in his honor. Twelve years after that, the eastern portion of Orange County and the western tip of Wake County
Wake County, North Carolina
Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 900,993 making it North Carolina's second most populated county...

 would be combined to form Durham County
Durham County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 223,314 people, 89,015 households, and 54,032 families residing in the county. The population density was 769 people per square mile . There were 95,452 housing units at an average density of 329 per square mile...

.

Final resting place

Durham was laid to rest in a windowed iron coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...

 in an unmarked grave on the grounds of Antioch Cemetery in Orange County, wearing "gold-rimmed" glasses. Shortly after Durham County was formed, Julian S. Carr began a public campaign advocating the exhumation and reburial of Bartlett Durham's remains within his namesake city. Nearly a decade after Carr, himself, had died, Durham officials exhumed the coffin on June 27, 1933, with Mayor W.F. Carr and County Commissioner John Harris officially accepting the remains for the city and county. It was transported to Hall-Wynne Funeral Home, where it lay in state for several days. Reburial took place Jan. 2, 1934, in Maplewood Cemetery, under a marker that lists incorrect middle name, and erroneous dates of birth and death.
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