The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1912-07-13
RARE SKILL OF
BEN BANNEKER
How inventor Of Clock Rose
From Obscurity to Fame.
HAD MANY HARD STRUGGLES.

Remarkable Record Of Man Who
Achieved Greatness Nearly Two Cen
turtles Ago Almost Single Handed.
Won Success by Dogged Persistence.
Was Posssssor Of Strong Memory.
The biography Of Benjamin Banne
ker as given by John II. b. Latrobe
and published by the American Negro
Monographs company. in Washington,
is worthy of the most careful! reading.
Professor John w. Cromwell Is the edi
tor of series No. 8, which contains a
full account Of Bannekers achieve.
ments.
Benjamin Banneker was born in Bal
tmore county, Nd, near the village OF
Illicott's Mills, In the year 1882. His
father was a native African and his
mother the child Of natives Of Africa.
so that to no admixture Of the blood
Of the white man was he indebted for
| his peculiar and extraordinary abili
ties.
His father was slave when he mar
ried, but his wife, who was u free w0-
man and possessed Of great energy and
industry. very soon afterward purchus-
ed his freedom. Banneker's mother
was named Morton before her mar
riage and belonged to family remark
able for its intelligence. When upward
of seventy she was still very active,
and 1t Is remembered of her that ut
this advanced age she made nothing
of running and skipping like child.
Property Qualification For Voters.
A nephew of hers, Greenbury Nor
ton, was q person of some note not
withstanding his complexion. Prior to
1909 free people Of color possessed Of
a certain property qualification voted
, passed restricting the right Of voting
to free white males.
Nor on wuH ignorant Of the law till
, he offered to vote at the polls In Balti-
more county. and 1t Is said that when
his vote was refused he addressed the
crowd In II strain Of pure impassioned
eloauenre which kept the audience that
the pleCIlbU uHu uSSeIDleu III Dieuth-
less attention while he spoke
When Benjamin was old enough he
was employed to assist his parents In
their labor This was at an early age
, when his destiny seemed nothing bet
ter than that of child Of poor and ig-
norant free Negroes. occupying few
acres of land In remote and thinly
peopled neighborhood, a destiny which
certainly at this day Is not of very
brilliant promise and which ut the time
In question must have been gloomy
enough
Attends Country District School.
In the intervals of toll and when he
was approuC hing or had attained man
hood he was sent to an obscure and
distant country school, which he at
tended until he had acquired a knOwl-
edge Of reading and writing and had
advanced in arithmetic as far as dou
BILE position In all matters beyond
these rudiments of learning he was his
own instructor. On leaving school Ben
as his friends were wont to call him.
was obliged to labor for years, almost
uninterruptedly, for his support.
But, his memory being retentive. he
lost nothing of the little education he
had acquired. On the contrary. al
though utterly destitute Of books. he
amplificd and improved his stock Of
arithmeticaI knowledge by the opera
ton of his mind alone. He was an
observer Of everything that he saw
or which took place around him In the
natural world.
He sought with advidity information
from all sources Of what was going
forward In society. so that he became
gradually possessed Of a fund Of gen
eral knowledge which 1t was difficult
to find among those even who were far
more favored by opportunity and cir
cumstances than he was. At first his
information was a subject OF wonder
among his illiterate neighbors only. but
by degrees his reputation spread
through a wider circle.
Benjamin Banneker, still a young
man. came to be thought Of as one who
could not only perform all the opera
tons Of mental arithmetic with ex-
traordinary facility. but exercise
sound and discriminating Judgment
upon men and things.
invents Clock at Thirty Years Of Age.
Ii was at this time. when he was
about thirty years Of age. that he con-
trived and made a clock which proved
an excellent timepiece. He had seen
watch, but not clock. such an ar
ticle not yet having found its way into
the quiet and secluded valley In which
he lived. The watch was therefore his
model.
1t took him a good while to accom-
plish this feat, his great difficulty, as
he often used to say, being to make
the hour. minute and second hands
correspond in their motions. But the
clock was finished at last and raised
still higher the credit Of Banneker In
his neighborhood as an ingenious man.
as well as a good arithmetician.
As already stated. the basis Of Ban
neker's arithmetical knowledge was OBJ
tanned from the schoolbook into which
he had advanced as far as double po-