Durham

Durham, a city and the county-seat of Durham county, North Carolina, U.S.A., in a township of the same name, 25 m. N.W. of Raleigh. Pop. (1900) 6679, of whom 2241 were negroes; (1910) 18,241; of the township (1900) 19,055; (1910) 27,606. Adjacent to the city and also in the township are East Durham and West Durham (both unincorporated), which industrially are virtually part of the city. Durham is served by the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, the Norfolk & Western, and the Durham & Southern railways, the last a short line connecting at Apex and Dunn, N.C., respectively with the main line of the Seaboard and the Atlantic Coast Line railways. Durham is nearly surrounded by hills. Its streets are shaded by elms. The city is the seat of Trinity College (Methodist Episcopal, South), opened in 1851 as a normal college, growing out of an academy called Union Institute, which was established in the north-western part of Randolph county in 1838 and was incorporated in 1841. In 1852 the college was empowered to grant degrees; in 1856 it became the property of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; in 1859 it received its present name; and in 1892 it was removed to a park near Durham, included in 1901 in the corporate limits of the city. A new charter was adopted in 1903, and a law school was organized in 1904. The college has received many gifts from the Duke family of Durham. In 1908 its endowment and property were valued at about $1,198,400, and the number of its students was 288. Although not officially connected with the college, the South Atlantic Quarterly, founded by a patriotic society of the college and published at Durham since 1902, is controlled and edited by members of the college faculty. The North Carolina Journal of Education and the Papers of the Trinity College Historical Society also are edited by members of the college faculty. The Trinity Park school is preparatory for the college. Near the city are Watts hospital (for whites) and Lincoln hospital (for negroes). Durham’s chief economic interest is in the manufacture of granulated smoking tobacco, for which it became noted after the Civil War. In the city are two large factories and store houses of the American Tobacco Company. The tobacco industry was founded by W.T. Blackwell (1839-1904) and Washington Duke (1820-1905). The city also manufactures cigars, cigarettes, snuff, a fertilizer having tobacco dust as the base, cotton goods, lumber, window sashes, blinds, drugs and hosiery. Durham has a large trade with the surrounding region. The town of Durham was incorporated in 1869, and became the county-seat of the newly-erected county in 1881, and in 1899 was chartered as a city. Its growth is due to the tobacco and cotton industries. In the Bennett house, at Durham Station, near the city, General J.E. Johnston surrendered on the 26th of April 1865 the Confederate army under his command to General W.T. Sherman.