Franklin's paper the statesman., 1912-07-13
RARE SKILL OF
BEN BANkEKER
How Inventor Of Clock Rose
From ObsCuIity to Fame.
lad MANY HARD STRUGGLES.
p Rsmsrkable Record of Man Who
Achieved Greatness Nearly TWO Cen
turtles Ago Almost Single Handed.
Won Success by Dogsed Persistence.
Was Possessor Of Strong Memory.


The biography of Benjamin Banne-
ker as given 10y John H 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. 3. which contains IL
full account of Banneker's achieve
ments-
Benjamin Banneker was born in Bal
timore county. Md near the village of
illieotfs Mills. In the year 1892 His
~eeeesc~ native African ana MS
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 a slave when he mar
ried. but his wife. who was a free wo-
man and possessed of great energy and
Industry. very soon afterward purchas-
ed his freedom. Banneker's mother
was named Morton before her mar
riare and belonged TO a family remark
able for its intelligence. When upward
and 1t is remembered of her that at
this advanced age she made nothing
OF running and skipping like child.
Property Qualification For Voters.
A nephew OF hers. Greenbury Nor
ton, was a person of some note not
withstanding his complexion Prior to
1909 free people Of color possessed of
a certain property qualification voted
in Maryland In this year a law was
passed restricting the right of voting
to free white males.
Morton was ignorant of the law till
he offered 10 vote at the polls in Balti-
more county, and it is said that when
his vote was refused he addressed the
crowd in n strain of pure impassioncd
eloquenSe which kept the audience that
the election had assembled in breath
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 a child of poor and ig-
norant free Negroes, occupying few
acres of land in Il remote and thinly
peopled neighborhood. n destiny which
certainly NJ this day Is not of very
brilliant promise and which at the time
in question must have been gloomy
enough.
Attends Country District School.
In the intervals of toll and when he
was approaching 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 rudimcnts 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
uuintcrruptedly. for his support
But, his memory being retcntive. he
lost nothing of the little education he
had acquired. On the contrary, al
though utterly destitute of books. he
amplified and improved his stock of
arithmetical 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
ue sought with ndvidity information
from all sources of what was going
forward In society. so that he became
gradually possessed OF fund of gen
erai knowledge which 1t was difficult
to find among those even who We're far
more favored hy opportunity and cir
cumstances than he was. Al first his
Information was II subject of wonder
among his. illiterate neighbors only. bu,