Patrick Irving - SI Article

[william e king]

Great to see some interest in Duke, family and university, history on the board. However, having spent thirty years as University Archivist, I know how confusing it can be.
Here are a few thoughts. On the initial reference to Washington Duke and slavery. He did own one slave. On the eve of the Civil War he found himself widowed for the second time and with four young children when his second wife and a young boy died at the same time from “the fever.” He had a young slave girl to help him raise the children and cook and run the house. However, as the prospect of war approached Washington did not favor secession, and he opposed slavery. When the Confederate Congress raised the draft age to 45 he was conscripted to a cause he did not support. At a sophomore picnic at the family homestead, the historic site in Durham, I heard a student say “So this is the Duke plantation.” It was a modest farmhouse for a struggling farm Duke left as soon as he was comfortable doing so. He clearly was not part of the Southern plantation life or ideal. He fact later in life he said he felt really poor twice in his life—once when he started out on his own and again when he had to start all over again at the end of the war.
As outlined W. Duke & Sons became successful competitors in the manufacture of tobacco products and, went really big time when James B. left Durham for NYC and organized the American Tobacco Company. That is the basis for the family fortune but there were other reasons for wealth as well. JB began helping friends invest in electric power production and when the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was enforced breaking up the tobacco trust in 1912, JB Duke did not slow down moving over to the building up and organizing another industry. Also a significant corollary was investment in textiles which used the power being produced. Benjamin Duke was at one time the largest textile manufacturer in NC. He was president of Erwin Cotton Mills on 9th street, only one of his mills. All the family members held stock in all of their enterprises including the multiple tobacco companies after the break up. And the British American Tobacco Company was not touched by US gov’t action.
In reality when he set up the family philanthropic organization, The Duke Endowment, in 1924, it was based primarily on electric power and not tobacco. Hence, the University in reality was built and supported with power company wealth. However, one can not escape noticing JB’s big cigar in his hand on the statue in the main quad. (He did not smoke cigarettes!)
There have been critics of the family and university and always will be but the best reply is a little knowledge and a positive argument. Historical assessments change with the times, think robber barons vs. industrial entrepreneurs. In perhaps my biased opinion I would argue that James B. Duke is the most significant single man in the history of NC. He organized two major industries that formed the basis of the developing economy of the state and he established a philanthropic agency that is still playing a significant role in the state and will for many years to come. And that is only one of the philanthropies of the family. Check out the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Trust as the most visible of others. The Dukes are one of America’s most significant and consistent philanthropic families.
Plus he helped found one of the major research universities in the world in transitioning Trinity from a college to a university. And uniquely this major benefaction was in his hometown. Why did you end up spending four plus years of your life in Durham, NC? In all my research I think I can say that only Duke and Brown are major universities founded my philanthropists that benefit and continue to benefit their hometowns. (Vandy has been mentioned and the Vanderbilt that endowed it never set foot in the state of TN.) If this reads like a commercial, IT IS. Go Duke

[Indoor66]

Thanks WEK. Your perspecitive as University Archivist states the history much better than I could. I fully agree with your presentation and interpretation.