Members of the family signed papers giving formal structure to the Duke Family Association of Durham, N.C. The incorpora- follows several years of effort by family members, with assistance from Duke University, to track down all known direct descendants of Washington Duke's brothers and sisters.

'There are still some family lines that we haven't followed, and we intend to keep searching," said Newton Duke Angier, who along with Angier Biddle Duke is co-chair of the association. "We intend to complete the family records and put them on computer file in the Duke University Archives so that no one has to do this again.

A further purpose of the association is to maintain ties bthe family and the university. Duke University is unusual in that the family members of its founding benefactor have remained close to the university.

The incorporation papers were signed by Angier, Angier Biddle Duke and Mary D.B.T. Semans, a Duke trustee emerita.

The association was chartered by the Duke University Board of Trustees in 1988, which named Duke Angier and Angier Duke co-chairs. The association, although then just an informal organization, helped bring together more than 50 family members for the opening of the Washington Duke Inn. Later, in 1989, more than 200 family members met in Durham for the first Duke family reunion. The reunion was held in conjunction with the reopening of the Tobacco Museum on the Duke family homestead and with the 100th anniversary of Duke family ties with the university.

It marked the first attempt to track down the lineage of the Duke family since 1925, when a New Jersey court addressed the issue to divide money provided in James Buchanan Duke's will to the descendants of Washington Duke's brothers and sisters.

For the past two years, Angier and other family members, with the assistance of William King and the Duke University Archives and of John Thomas in the chancellor's office, began going through family records.

"Nothing had been done between 1925 and 1988", he said. "But we did pretty well, and we have now tracked down all the lines of Washington Duke's brothers and sisters."

Angier said the association will have no dues and will be funded through contributions. He expects a family newsletter will be published a couple of times each year to help family members keep in touch.

In 1887 when the twenty-nine year old Crowell became president of Trinity the then fifty-year-old institution acquired a man of vision and self-confidence. The college itself consisted of a single impressive all-purpose building located seventy miles west of Durham in Randolph County An affiliation with the Methodist Church provided most of its students. While proud of their institution the Methodists were more adept at launching campaigns to raise money than providing steady hard cash.

Crowell appealed to the pride and loyalty of the church and alumni to accomplish the relocation of the college. His guiding philosophy was to put "modern learning at the service of the people under the auspices of Christian truth." This active interjection of learning, religion and service into the popular consciousness could best be accomplished, he believed, in an urban setting. After all, there was neither a railroad, telegraph nor telephone within five miles of the college. He firmly believed that if the college were to survive the rapidly changing conditions of the New South and acquire prestige and power, growth was imperative. Such growth had failed to materialize in its rural setting. Over the course of a yew Crowell's views gradually triumphed in a skillfully conducted debate in the official church bodies that were empowered to decide the issue.

With the church on record as willing to move the college, the question shifted to which urban locales might be interested. The Trustees determined that it would take $20,500 to replace the present building plus a suitable site. Having recently been selected for the Baptist Female Seminary (now Meredith College). , Raleigh Was prepared to compete again. A site now occupied by N.C. State University was offered and citizens of Raleigh pledged $35,000 for a building. The Methodist Conference overwhelmingly voted approval.

Quietly, and unknown to President Crowell, Methodist ministers in Durham had been approaching Washington Duke on behalf of a significant benefaction to the church, presumably to Trinity College. Mary Duke Lyon, Duke's only daughter, wished for her father to remember the church as well. "For certain," Trustee H.T. Bass reported later, "the Dukes never made any considerable contribution without satisfying themselves that the cause was fully worthy of their aid. "Indeed, unknown to college authorities Washington Duke had attended Trinity commencement the previous spring. In December, 1889, Benjamin N. Duke, Washington's son, was elected to the Trinity Board of Trustees. Ben's election repre- the honored tradition of recognizing dedicated, wealthy laymen and the historical record does not reveal whether it had any relation to the impending relocation of the school. Nevertheless it was a timely appointment.

After conference approval of the Raleigh site things moved swiftly in Durham. When Washington Duke's former pastor and then District Superintendent E. A. Yates told him of Raleigh's offer Duke casually remarked that Durham could match that and add $50,000 for endowment. Yates inquired if he could wire Crowell such an offer and immediately the college president was in Durham personally meeting Washington Duke for the first time. With a pledge from Duke of $85,000 in hand, Yates and Crowell hurried across town to ask their friend Julian S. Carr, long-time trustee and the largest benefactor of the college to date, if he would donate as a site the fair ground he owned on the western edge of the city. Carr agreed without hesitation.

The origin of the names, James Buchanan Duke and Benjamin Newton Duke, naturally interested Duke historians. Information gleaned from his grandmother, Lida Duke Angier, enabled Newton Angier to Provide the answer James Buchanan was named for the president of the United States and Benjamin Newton was named for the family doctor that delivered him.

When called to meet in Durham on March 20, the trustees accepted the offers from Duke and Carr with gratitude. The formal offer from Duke was signed by Washington but written by Benja- As further inducement citizens from Durham presented a check for $9,361 for endowment and the trustees enthusiastically proclaimed that with Duke's gift for endowment and a budding, funds were ample for a solid beginning. Upon request a committee from Raleigh relinquished its claim and the Christian Advocate, the official organ of the church, proclaimed, "All Methodists could write the address Trinity College Durham North Carolina with pride."

Keeping this sense of family going is a major concern of the Association, and to ensure this, we need information from our members far and near.

In the newsletters we hope to publish, we want and need your news, Births, deaths, weddings, honors, address and career changes, community involvement, political offices will be of interest to your relatives scattered throughout the country.

By sending this information, you also guarantee a permanent record of the same in the Duke Family Archives. Future genealogists will thank you.

These items will be included in Duke's Mixture column, beginning with this newsletter.

* Cordelia Duke Cluett was born on March 2,1990 at Big Sur, California. She is the daughter of Maria Louisa Biddle Duke and John S. Cluett, who were both at the Reunion of '89.

* Barclay Robertson Duke, son of Anthony Drexel Duke and Diane Douglas Goodrich, died December 17,1989 in East Hampton, N.Y. He is survived by his wife Nancy Avendschoen Duke and his brother, Douglas Duke. Barclay was a graduate of Warren Wilson College '85 in Asheville, NC, where he met his wife and had followed a contracting career in East Hampton. Barclay and Nancy attended the Reunion of '89.

* Duke Thrash Angier, 67, of St. Petersburg, Florida died at his residence August 18, 1990. He was born in Durham, NC, the son of the late Malbourne Addison Angier and Blanche Herndon. Upon his retirement from Submarine Service in 1962, an article in the Navy News called him one of the Navy's finest chief petty officers. He embarked on a financial career and retired in 1989 from Florida Federal. He is survived by a son, Barton Duke Angier, Albuquerque, N.M., a daughter, Barbara Diane Angier, and a brother, Malbourne A. "Jack" Angier, Jr., both of St Petersburg. Barbara and Jack were in attendance at the '89 Reunion.

9 W. Burke Mewborne, III of Charlotte, NC was married August 25,1990 in Atlanta to Alison Horton of Marietta, GA. Burke, a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina is also a graduate of the Darden School of business at the University of Virginia. Alison and Burke will make their home in Charlotte where he has joined his father, Bill, D'85, in the Zurich Corporation. Burke's sister, Virginia Mewborne, also a Morehead Scholar at U.N.C. has entered the Goldman Sachs Training Program in New York. Burke and Virginia's mother is Elizabeth Jordan D'85 and they are grandchildren of W. Burke Mewborne D'29, and Carlotta Satterfield D'31, and the late Dr. Charles E. Jordan, Vice President of Duke.

9 Ben Jones will be a senior and his brother, Jonathan, is a freshman. They are sons of Jim and Mary Trent Jones of Abington, Virginia.

* Ken Harris, Jr., son of Ken and Sally Trent Harris of Charlotte, is a freshman. His half-brother, Charles Lucas, graduated from Duke Law School in the spring.

* Kristina King, daughter of Olga Cabrera Duke, and step daughter of Tony Duke, Jr., is a freshman.

Duke Family Association
3411 Perkins Library
Durham, NC 27706