Family and Business

Birth of James B. Duke

James Buchanan “Buck” Duke is born on December 23 to Washington and Artelia Roney Duke on a North Carolina farm. He has a sister, Mary, a brother, Ben, and two half-brothers, Sidney and Brody. The Duke Homestead near Durham, North Carolina, is now preserved as a historic site. The home consists of four rooms with a kitchen addition.

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library.

Instilling Good Values

James B. Duke’s father, Washington, instills in his children a sense of responsibility and perseverance. The son of a farmer, Washington was influenced as a boy by Methodist circuit riders who preached near his home and visited his family.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Death of Artelia and Sydney Duke

When James B. Duke is just 2 years old in 1858, his half-brother Sydney and his mother, Artelia, die from typhoid fever. “Telia” Duke is remembered as a beautiful woman, full of kindness and integrity. With no mother to raise him, James is taken in by relatives after his father is conscripted into military service during the Civil War.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

New Home in the Civil War

While his father is fighting in the Civil War (a Unionist conscripted in the Confederate Navy), young James and his siblings go to live with their maternal grandparents in Alamance County, North Carolina.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Modest Beginnings of a Family Business

James B. Duke’s father, Washington, returns from the Civil War, walking 130 miles back to his beloved homestead. He possesses only his farm, two blind mules, a storehouse of dried tobacco and 50 cents. Washington and his sons, young James and his older brother, Benjamin Newton Duke, launch a small family business selling tobacco.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Growth of a Family Business

The business grows slowly at first, with the Dukes selling small pouches of tobacco from the back of a wagon. Gradually it prospers and the Duke family moves to the growing city of Durham to open an expanded tobacco processing factory.

Durham, North Carolina

In the Durham plant, cigarettes were “made by the millions.”

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library

Expansion to New York

After running the Durham factory, James B. Duke expands the business to New York and opens a small tobacco factory near the Bowery.

Expanding Business and Philanthropy

James B. Duke and his brother, Ben, work together in business and in philanthropy. Their sister, Mary Duke Lyon, is an early partner in the family endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Trinity College Expands

With the family’s influence and support, Trinity College relocates its campus to Durham, North Carolina. Trinity College is later to become Duke University.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Mary Duke Lyon (1853-1893)

James B. Duke’s sister, Mary Duke Lyon, possessed strong business capabilities and contributed to the family business. She died in 1893 at the age of 39.

Trinity College is Open to Women

The Dukes establish an endowment for Trinity College with the requirement that women be admitted “on equal footing with men.” At the time, the idea of co-education had not yet taken hold in much of the country.

Family of Philanthropy

James B. Duke learns a great deal about philanthropy from his older brother, who guided much of the family’s charitable giving based on patterns established by their father, Washington.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

New Business Interest

James B. Duke and Ben Duke become intrigued by the potential of the fledgling hydroelectric power industry. The brothers acquire land and water rights along the Catawba River and build the Great Falls generating plant. In 1904 and 1905, Catawba Power Company and Southern Power Company (known today as Duke Energy) are founded.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

A New Beginning

The inauguration of the Duke Power Company plant at Great Falls, South Carolina, in 1905. Today, Duke Energy delivers electric power to about four million customers in the United States.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Washington Duke 1820-1905

On May 9, 1905, Washington Duke, the patriarch of the Duke Family, dies. Both James and Ben are in Durham with him at the time of his death. Factories and businesses in the city close in his honor. “His death has cast a gloom over the entire city,” writes one reporter.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Mr. Duke Marries His Second Wife

In 1907, in a summer ceremony, James B. Duke marries Nanaline Holt Inman, a widow from Georgia.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Building Hydroelectric Power

A view of the Mountain Island Power Plant near Charlotte. Duke Power Company builds the dam at Mountain Island to power electricity through the station, which is still operating today. The Dukes also invest in banking, textiles and railways.

Changing Interests

In 1911, the American Tobacco Company is broken into several companies through anti-trust action and the Duke brothers shift their interests to the electric power industry.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Doris Duke is Born

In 1912, Doris Duke is born, the only child of James B. Duke and Nanaline Duke. A new father at 55, Mr. Duke dotes on his blond-haired daughter. “You certainly are the dearest little girl that any daddy ever had,” he writes to her in the summer of 1923.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Benjamin Newton Duke 1855-1929

After his death on January 8, 1929, Benjamin Newton Duke leaves behind a lasting legacy of philanthropic giving. The Durham Sun writes that he died “at the conclusion of a life of noble accomplishment.” After the completion of Duke University’s Chapel in 1932, he is interred in its Memorial Chapel along with his father and brother, Washington Duke and James B. Duke.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Duke Resting Place

James B. Duke dies in 1925 and is buried beside his father in the family mausoleum in Maplewood Cemetery in Durham. After Duke University Chapel was completed in the early 1930s, his remains, along with his father and brother, are moved to three sarcophagi in the church’s Memorial Chapel.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Supporting Higher Education - Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship

In 1985, the Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship at Duke University is created. Based on academic achievement, leadership and community service, it is awarded to outstanding seniors from North Carolina and South Carolina.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Doris Duke 1912–1993

On October 28, 1993, Doris Duke dies at age 80. Many of her philanthropic interests reflect the influence of her father. She left the majority of her estate to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which has worked to improve the quality of people’s lives by supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment.

Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Mary D. B. T. Semans 1920–2012

Granddaughter of Ben Duke, Mary D.B.T. Semans continued the family’s charitable legacy by serving as an Endowment Trustee for 55 years and the first female Chair. She served as a Trustee for numerous institutions, including Duke University and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. Mrs. Semans received the Duke University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service; the National Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews; and the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities. She was a 2009 inductee in the North Carolina Women’s Hall of Fame. Mrs. Semans was Chair of The Duke Endowment’s Board from 1982 to 2001 and Chair Emerita 2002 until her death in 2012.