De Witt Clinton Benbow

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/benbow-de-witt-clinton

De Witt Clinton Benbow, businessman and philanthropist, was born near Oak Ridge in Guilford County, the youngest of five children of Charles Benbow and Mary Saunders. His earliest ancestor in America emigrated from Wales in 1718 as a boy of fifteen, bound for his passage money to a Quaker who settled first in Pennsylvania and then in North Carolina. Quakers became numerous in Guilford County, and some, like the Benbows, prospered. After a basic education near home, De Witt Clinton was able to attend the Moses Brown Friends' School, Providence, R.I., and the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. He received his professional degree in 1855, returned to his native state to practice at Fayetteville, and became secretary and youngest charter member of the North Carolina Dental Society. Benbow practiced dentistry for six years. Part of his work was itinerant: he would advertise locations and hours in the newspapers and then journey to Wilmington, Raleigh, Greensboro, and other places to perform his services. Increasingly during this period he ventured into business. He bought and operated the Cross Creek Cotton Factory, where he had once worked as a boy, and invested in valuable property, expecially large tracts of pine land. Fayetteville in 1861, however, was an uncomfortable spot for an able-bodied pacifist who appeared to be profiting while other young men were marching off to war. The hostility, felt most keenly by his wife, was such that Benbow hired a substitute to fight, sold both his dental practice and the cotton mill, and moved to Greensboro.

In that small county seat he found a fair field for his enterprise. He acquired property, erected buildings, and engaged in merchandising on South Elm Street, the town's main thoroughfare. Then, convinced that Greensboro's location at the junction of the North Carolina and Piedmont railroads was justification, he decided to build a hotel. When it was still only partly finished, about sixty newspaper editors from New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey visited Greensboro as part of a long-planned excursion into the upper South. Their welcome and entertainment by Benbow, other leading men, and the general populace stimulated widespread, favorable publicity. The hotel formally opened on 30 May 1871, with ex-governor Zebulon B. Vance, who made a speech to the northern editors, and was the first to sign the register. Completed the next year, the Benbow House astonished almost everyone with its four stories, seventy-four rooms, and cost of $40,000. The doctor's diagnosis was correct: a first-class hotel would attract commercial travelers and other patrons from scores of miles around. A dairy, a vegetable garden, and a vineyard were adjuncts of the establishment. But there was no bar; the proprietor used neither alcohol nor tobacco. Unquestionably, the Benbow provided major impetus toward transforming Greensboro from a little town to an important city.

Benbow's success in business continued for the next twenty years. Of greatest significance in his career between 1872 and 1892 was his role as civic leader and generous benefactor. As an alderman in the mid-1870s, he campaigned, against strong opposition, for graded schools both white and black and for a city market. When educators were struggling to establish the school that later became Bennett College for black women, he assisted with both money and leadership. Similarly, he rescued the white Greensboro Female College. During reconstruction of its fire-gutted main building, the work superintendent died in a fall, and a bank failure deprived the institution of most of its funds. Benbow immediately took charge of the work and paid all wages and bills.

Beginning in 1879, Benbow called for the establishment of a school to train young women as teachers in the public schools. Twelve years later a crusade led by Sidney M. Finger, Edwin A. Alderman, Charles D. McIver, and Benbow culminated in the establishment of the Normal and Industrial School for White Girls. In this instance and in that of the Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, established the same year, 1891, Greensboro outbid other cities for the schools. Benbow was the acknowledged leader of both efforts. In launching his campaign, he made what his friends regarded as "the speech of his life." He rallied businessmen and other citizens to subscribe privately $30,000 for the Normal School and $8,000 for the A. & M. College, so that Greensboro would get these institutions even if the required bond issues failed to pass. This kind of support so pleased the people that their approval at the ballot box was almost unanimous.

From 1881, Benbow served as a trustee of the Quaker school that evolved into Guilford College, and in 1891 he was present at the establishment of the Greensboro Monthly Meeting of Friends. He was one of five incorporators of the Guilford Battleground Company. In politics he affiliated with the Republicans.

By 1892, Benbow's fortune was estimated at about half a million dollars. In addition to various other enterprises, he had invested in the North State Improvement Company, which undertook to build the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad. Though the railroad did benefit Greensboro and the rest of its territory, the company was ruined by the financial panic of that time. The principal men, involved in a desperate move, decided to endorse notes individually, and this decision was their undoing. For ten years, Benbow defended himself against various lawsuits, most of which were eventually compromised, but the strain and his age took their toll. One consolation there was, nevertheless: he lived to supervise the building of a new Benbow House, to see his son operate it, and to reside there himself. It was altogether fitting that, when he died, the services were conducted at the new Benbow by two Friends ministers. Burial was at Greene Hill Cemetery.

Mary Elizabeth Scott, whom Benbow married on 30 Nov. 1857, had died five years earlier. Three of their children survived them: Charles D., who became closely associated with his father's business interests and who later played a part in the development of St. Petersburg, Fla.; Mrs. Mary B. Crawford; and Lily.

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Source: www.benbowfamily.com

Such a name causes curiosity. While the reason for the name choice is a certainty, one can guess. There was a man named DeWitt Clinton who was born in 1769 and died in 1828. Clinton was a Jeffersonian attorney who also held public offices as a NY state senator, a US senator, mayor of New York City, lieutenant governor, and he was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1812. He was responsible for promoting the Erie Canal, and he was a member of the commission which supervised the construction of the canal connecting the New York City port with the MidWest (Encyclopedia Britannica, II: 1001). The most likely reason for the choice of the name in the Benbow family is the fact that Clinton was also an advocate for free public education and the arts and sciences. Since DWC's father was an advocate for education and was involved in the start of Oak Ridge Institute, following established Quaker traditions supporting education, this seems the most likely reason for the choice of the name. And it is fitting that DWC turned out to be a great friend to education.

"It is for county historical societies to preserve the local folk lore and traditions, which, in many cases, are more to be relied upon to "keep a history straight" then the many more imposing efforts of historians and biographers. Guilford has been fortunate in having among her citizens statesmen, professional men, divines, and teachers, who have added to her reputation and placed her in the forefront of the counties of the state - among them Calvin H. Wiley, the first State Superintendent of Education - and whose memories are cherished, not only by the citizens of Guilford, but by the people of the state. A few of their portraits adorn the walls of the Public Library, and it is well that statues and busts and portraits should remind us, and especially those of later generations who have no personal recollections of them, of our obligation to them.

"There died in Greensboro, in 1902, one citizen of whom it is not exaggeration to say the City of Greensboro is more indebted than to any other of her citizens for his activities since the War Between the States in the upbuilding of her business and industrial life, and no one surpassed him in his efforts in behalf of the educational advantages she now possesses. For many years he was foremost among the leading spirits of enterprise. He never sought popularity. He was a thinker, not a talker, unless he was approached for information and advice by those who contemplated entering upon some untried venture, when he always gave the results of his investigations and meditations. While he had visions, he was never visionary. He had the greatest faith in the possibilities and probabilities of the uplift and improvement of his native county, and Greensboro -- DeWitt Clinton Benbow.

"In the rush and hurry of later years and the great growth and improvement of both city and county, we are prone to ignore, or not revert to simple beginnings. I have often said that the genesis of the City of Greensboro was the building of the original Benbow Hotel - the present Guilford - and I have not changed my idea. This will doubtless strike as extravagant those who did not know Greensboro just before, and for half a decade after, the War Between the States - a straggling village of less than two thousand people, white and black; a wayside station on the North Carolina Railroad and the Piedmont Railroad; visited by few outsiders, who tarried only long enough to transact their business which called them there; known only for its educational advantages - Edgeworth and Greensboro Female College - and as being the residence town of a few state notables.

"At the time Dr. Benbow began the erection of his hotel, Greensboro had three hostelries, such as they were, not very inviting, whose patronage did not exceed upon the average three strangers a day, one for each day during twelve months. When the walls of the Benbow Hotel were about three stories high, some one said to Dr. Benbow: "Doctor, why are you spending so much time and money in erecting such a large building for a hotel? Do you not know that very few strangers stop here over night?" Dr. Benbow's reply was: "Where would they stop? I will give them a place to stop."

"Dr. Benbow had a dairy and vegetable garden in connection with the hotel, but he did not have the hotel "bar" which was so great an inducement to patronize other hotels in the "good old days." The Benbow Hotel had a good send-off in the very beginning. The day it was opened to the public, David B. Hill, afterwards Governor of New York, made a political speech from the veranda, and among the names appearing on its register, the name of Zebulon B. Vance stands first.

"This hotel, I had almost said, to use an expression very common, "placed Greensboro on the map." The change in the number of visitors was marvelous. The fame of the house was spread over the state, especially by commercial traveling men, "drummers," as we used to call them, many of whom, attracted by the appointment of the hotel and its service, made it their headquarters. The hotel had not been open many months when a great number of commercial travelers who, on Saturday night were within one hundred miles of Greensboro, would come to the Benbow Hotel to spend Sunday. One evidence of the great influx of visitors as a result of Dr. Benbow's foresight and faith is that the average number of daily patrons for five years was ninety-three, as shown by the hotel register. Contrast that with the average combined daily patronage of all the Greensboro hostelries of only three.

"When Dr. Benbow returned to Greensboro from Fayetteville in 1862, where he had resided for several years practicing dentistry and operating a cotton mill, he acquired property on South Elm Street, south of Sycamore, and soon built a brick storehouse on the corner now occupied by Meyer's store, and conducted a retail business for some while. Soon thereafter he built quite a block of buildings on South Elm, adjoining the storehouse. In this block was the Benbow Hall, which for many years supplied the place of a town hall, used by theatrical and concert companies, and as a dance hall; in fact, it was a theatre, opera house, and dance hall. Not long thereafter he built the Crown Mills, on East Washington Street.

"While in failing health and after he began to feel advancing age, and under some great difficulties, he superintended the building of the New Benbow (Meyer's site), having sold the original to Capt. Fisher, the present Guilford -- "his ruling passion strong in death."

"Dr. Benbow's efforts were not confined to the upbuilding of the city. He was among the foremost advocates of the "stock law," or "no fence law," which encountered strong opposition and created unfriendly feelings toward him personally, but he lived to know that some of the bitterest opposers came to be its staunchest friends. He was also among the earliest advocates of good roads, and showed his faith by his work. As an object lesson, at his own expense he built two sections of paved or macadam roads, on roads leading to the city.

"Having seen a vineyard near Fayetteville, he determined to give the Guilford people an object lesson in the cultivation of grapes, and established a vineyard in Oak Ridge Township, and through the Agricultural Departments, Federal and State, and the Federal Immigration Bureau, he obtained the services of a native of Holland, an expert in grape culture.

"He was among the first to devote attention to the improvement of the cattle and stock of the country, and to that end purchased a number of registered cattle of improved breeds. He was also among the first to invest in new farming machinery and dairy improvements.

"But Dr. Benbow's activities were not confined to the material, commercial, and manufacturing developments of the city and county. While a member of the Board of Aldermen he advocated the establishment of graded schools, and by having the charter of the city amended, he succeeded in giving Greensboro the credit of having the first graded school in the state, and, as a trustee of Guilford College, he participated in establishing the first rural graded school in the state at that college village.

"When the work of rebuilding Greensboro Female College, after it was burned in 1863, was in danger of being stopped, at least temporarily, owing to the death of Rev. Mr. Barringer, who had been superintending the work, Dr. Benbow took upon himself the financing and completion of the buildings, and at once notified all contractors and laborers to proceed with the work and to look to him for their pay, which they did.

"At one time, as is well known, the state conducted its normal institutes at stated periods and limited terms in the several sections of the state under the supervision of Dr. Chas. D. McIver and Edward A. Alderman. Dr. Benbow and a few others, especially a lady connected with Guilford College, conceived the idea of having a permanent school for women, and with the aid of Professors McIver and Alderman, succeeded in getting the North Carolina Teachers' Association interested, and finally at the annual meeting at Black Mountain that assembly recommended the necessary legislation. It is said that some of the most ardent friends of the measure were so fearful of the result at that meeting that there was a prospect of deferring the matter for another year. When Dr. Benbow was advised of the status he at once wired to the friends of the measure to force a vote at that session, which was done and the recommendation was adopted by a small majority. The idea of Dr. Benbow and his coadjutors was to have a state institution for women on the order of the University. As a matter of policy, to disarm opposition, the name proposed was "Normal and Industrial School for Girls." After the success of the institution became established and had met with pronounced popular favor, the titled was amended as we have it now [Greensboro Women's College].

"After the act of the Assembly incorporating the school, its location became the subject of active competition between different localities, and donations of lands and funds were offered by several cities. The trustees of the school met in Greensboro to open the bids and to settle the question of location. In order to locate the college or school at Greensboro, in addition to other inducements, a subscription by the city of $30,000 in money was necessary to give Greensboro a living chance. Before the city could subscribe the proposition had to be submitted to the voters, for which election some time would be required. Dr. Benbow and other citizens got together and signed an obligation to personally pay the amount in case the city did not subscribe it. This action gave Greensboro the location. Of course the voters approved the subscription. Dr. Benbow and some other citizens also guaranteed an amount sufficient to have the colored A. and M. College located here.

"Another evidence of the foresight and accuracy of his calculation is the Mt. Airy Granite Company, the stone from which is being used in the erection of our new court house. While the C. F. and Y. V. Railway was being built, Dr. Benbow and another citizen had occasion to visit Mt. Airy, and while there inspected the large area of granite and the local structures built with it. They at once contracted to purchase, and for awhile developed the property, and organized a company, and now the output is shipped annually to sections of this state, to several other states, and the District of Columbia.

"Of course, Dr. Benbow was not the only citizen who has largely contributed to the growth of the city and county, as is well known. My object in writing this is "lest we forget" that he was a prime mover in many of the causes of our prosperity and reputation, and an advisor and co-worker in nearly all of them.

"I had almost neglected to call attention to the fact that he was one of the original five who foresaw the great advantage of a public park at the old battle field for the city and county, and who purchased the property and organized the Guilford Battle Ground Company….

"At the time of Dr. Benbow's death many newspapers of the state took note of the loss to Greensboro and the state, but these were of but passing notice, so I have prepared hastily this sketch that our Historical Society might preserve among its records the name of a citizen whose memory every citizen of Guilford should delight to honor, thus carrying out one of the purposes for which it was organized. I was acquainted with him since the summer of 1865, and, knowing him well during the last twenty years of his life, I have personal knowledge of many of his activities I have mentioned." (James T. Morehead, written for Guilford Historical Association, November 19th, 1911; published in "Founders and Builders of Greensboro, 1808-1908," compiled by Bettie D. Caldwell; Jos. J. Stone & Company, Greensboro, 1925.)