Washington Duke was an American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist.
10 Facts About Washington Duke
2.
Washington Duke was born on December 18,1820, in eastern Orange County, North Carolina, in what is today the township of Bahama in Durham County.
3.
In 1852, Washington Duke built a homestead for his second wife, Artelia Roney, who was from Alamance County, North Carolina.
4.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Washington Duke was 40 years old, too old for the initial conscription into service for the Confederacy.
5.
Washington Duke enlisted in the Confederate navy, and served in Charleston, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, until his capture by Union forces in April 1865.
6.
In 1874, Washington Duke sold his farm and moved his family into the rapidly growing city of Durham.
7.
In 1880, at the age of 60, Washington Duke sold his share in the business to Richard Harvey Wright, a farmer from nearby Franklin County.
8.
Washington Duke helped to bring Trinity College, a Methodist college, to Durham from Randolph County in 1890.
9.
Washington Duke died at his home in Durham on May 8,1905, at the age of 84.
10.
Today, a statue of Washington Duke sits on Duke University's East Campus.