The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1913-12-12
RARE SKILL OF
BEN BANNEKER
How Inventor Of Clock Rose
From Obscurlty to Fame.
nAO MANY HARD STRUGGLES.


Achieved Greatness Nearly Two Cen.
turies Ago Almost Single Handed.
Won Success by Dossed Persistence.
Was Possessor Of Strong Memory.
The biography of Benjamin Banne.
ker as given by John Fl. B. Latrobe
and published by the American Negro
Monographs company, In Washington,
lSsworthy of the most careful! reading
Professor John W. Cromwell Is the edi
tor Of series No. 8, which contains q
full account of Banneker's achieve
ments.
Benjamin Banneker was born in BAL
dmore 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
softhat to no admixture Of the blood
Of the white man was he indebted for
hL peculiar and extraordinary abili
ties.
His father was slave when he mar.
man and possessed of great energy and
Industry, very soon afterward purchas-
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.
! nephew of hers. Greenbury Nor
ten. was person of some note not
withstanding his complexion. Prior to
1909 free people Of color possessed of
certain property qualification voted
In Maryland. In this year law was
passed restricting the right Of voting
to free white males.
Morton vas 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 a strain Of pure impassioned
eloquence 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 q few
acres of land In q remote and thinly
peopled neighborhood, destiny which
certainly at this day Is not Of very
brilliant promise snd 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 knowl-
edge of reading and writing and had
advanced in arithmetic as far as dou-
bic 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
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. ...
He sought with advidity information
from all sources Of what was going
forward In society, 80 that he became
gradually possessed Of fund Of gen.
eral knowledge which 1t was difficult
to 6nd among those even who were far
more favored by opportunity and cir
cumstances than he was. At 6rst 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
lions of mental arithmetic with ex-
traordinary facility, but exercise .
sound and discriminating Judgment
upon men and things.
Invsnts Clock at Thirty Years Of Age.
It was at this time. when he was
about thirty years Of age, that he con-
trived and made clock which proved
IN excellent timepiece. He had seen
Q 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 bis
model.