Benjamin Smith, Governor and Pauper

Six miles northeast of here stood Belvedere, the plantation of Benjamin Smith, a man whose life traced one of the more dramatic arcs in North Carolina history. Born in seventeen fifty-six, Smith left law studies in London to join the Continental Army and served as a personal aide to General George Washington. He rose to colonel, survived the war, and became one of the largest landowners in the state.

In eighteen ten he won the governorship. He donated twenty thousand acres of Tennessee land to the University of North Carolina, helping secure the young institution's future. He entertained President Washington at Belvedere in seventeen ninety-one.

Then the money ran out. After he stood security for a bond that a customs collector defaulted on, debt stripped him of nearly everything. Benjamin Smith, aide to Washington, governor, and university benefactor, died a pauper in eighteen twenty-six.

The plantation is gone, but the university he helped endow still stands.