Durham has a unique story within the context of the Civil War. Not only was Durham where the Civil War ended, it was where peace began. For over four years, the Confederate and Union soldiers ruthlessly murdered and tortured each other as they struggled to overcome their enemy. But in April of 1865, on the outskirts of the small town of Durham, men laid down their weapons for reconciliation.
Let’s take one step back in time to the late 1840’s and early 1850’s to paint the picture of the man who this city is named for.
Bartlett Leonidas Durham was born in November of 1824 close to the Chatham County Line. At the age of 19 he completed a course at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he received his medical training. Once he returned to Orange County, he worked with Dr. James Webb of Hillsborough.
Though no deed is on record, local tradition holds that Dr. Durham purchased land in 1848 from George Rhodes, who had moved to Tennessee. And as luck has it, a year later, the North Carolina Railroad approached Durham about donating four acres of his property for the construction of a station.
Durham, however, was not the first person the railroad had approached. Earlier that same year, railroad officials had asked William Pratt, but he declined out of concern about the noise of the trains. Because Pratt operated a store that sold spirits and served as a local gathering place, he feared the trains would spook his customers’ horses and hurt his business.
Bartlett was a complex man with many sides to his personality. On the one hand, he cared deeply for his patients, some would say almost too much. It was told by locals that when one of his patients passed, he would become depressed and isolate himself with a bottle of moonshine.
He was also known as a politician and in 1850 was elected to represent Orange County in the North Carolina legislature where he served two terms.
Bartlett was a jovial man who was larger than most, standing over six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds. He loved drinking moonshine with his friends and spending time with a variety of women.
In 1852, after the donation of the land to the railroad, Durham realizes that a store located on the north side of the railroad could be very successful. So, he along with James Matthews and John W. Carr open a store with Malbourne A. Angier as the clerk. (I’m sure most of you who live in Durham will recognize the street named for him.) Given they had a license to sell spirits, I can only imagine the scene that took place on a nightly basis.
In 1859, at the age of 35, Dr. Bartlett Leonidas Durham died of pneumonia. He never married, and the identity of any possible children remains a matter of speculation. One woman whom he had been involved with, Susan Ann Clements, took the estate to court in an effort to have her son, Romulus, recognized as Durham’s heir. The legal battle went back and forth. After losing the initial case, Susan appealed to the superior court and won. Her victory, however, was brief. Durham’s three sisters quickly challenged the ruling, and the court ultimately decided in their favor, leaving no money for Susan nor her son Romulus.
Dr. Bartlett Leonidas Durham was buried in a graveyard, located in Orange County, belonging to his mother’s family, the Snipes. In 1934, the citizens of Durham believed his body should be exhumed and placed in Maplewood Cemetery. The men went to the graveyard and begun to dig. When they hit something hard, they began shoveling dirt off the casket to find a glass panel where they could peer in and see a skeleton with glasses on.
They moved the casket and built this large grave marker in the new section of the cemetery. But what most people will overlook is the three obvious errors engraved on his headstone. Durham was born in 1824, not 1822 and died in 1859, not 1858. And lastly, his middle name was Leonidas, not Snipes.
Little did Dr. Durham know that his name would live on, all because of his simple generosity and progressive thinking.