Washington Duke George Washington Duke ( December 18 , 1820 – May 8 , 1905 ) was an American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist . Biography . Duke was born in the eastern part of Orange County , North Carolina ( that part now being in Durham County , North Carolina ) , to Taylor Duke ( c1770 – 1849 ) and Dicey Jones ( c1780 – 1860 ) . On August 9 , 1842 , he married Mary Caroline Clinton ( 1825 – 1847 ) with whom he had two children : Sidney Taylor Duke ( 1844 – 1858 ) and Brodie Leonidas Duke ( 1846 – 1919 ) . After Mary Duke ' s death at age twenty - two , he married Artelia Roney ( 1829 – 1858 ) on December 9 , 1852 . Both Mary and Artelia died of typhoid fever . With Artelia Duke , he had three children : Mary Elizabeth Duke ( 1853 – 1893 ) who married Robert E . Lyon ; Benjamin Newton Duke ( 1855 – 1929 ) and James Buchanan Duke ( 1856 – 1925 ) . Washington Duke served in the Confederate Navy ( 1863 – 1865 ) during the American Civil War against his will . He was vigorously opposed to slavery though some have mistakenly concluded that he owned slaves because he once purchased a slave . In reality he was purchasing the slave ' s freedom and he set her free immediately after the purchase as is shown by the census records shortly thereafter when she was living on his land as a free woman . It is also alleged that he was once recorded selling slaves but this is not correct either . He mentioned that slaves might be sold at the same time as a sale of his property . He did not say they were his slaves and , in fact , the 1860 census , just prior to this " recorded " event shows that he did not own slaves . The third reason some claim that he owned slaves is that he once hired a slave from a slave owner to work for him on a temporary basis during which that slave escaped . It has been reported that he actually assisted the slave in the escape and he hired him so that the slave would have time to get to a northern state before Washington reported him missing . After the war , he grew tobacco , but in 1874 , he sold his rural home and moved to the city of Durham , where he began his tobacco business . His workers hand processed tobacco into a form that could be sold by the bag for pipe smokers or hand rolled into cigarettes . In 1881 , the W . Duke Sons and Company was established as a tobacco manufacturer and was soon a marketer of pre - rolled cigarettes . In 1884 he was nominated by the Republican Party for North Carolina State Treasurer , an elected position , and lost . After a " tobacco war " among the five large manufacturers , Washington ' s son James Duke became president of the dominant American Tobacco Company and son Benjamin its vice - president . They would build the company into a multi - national corporation and a monopoly . In 1880 the Dukes were residing in Durham , and Washington was living with his son James and two sisters - in - law : Bettie Roney ( born c . 1830 ) and Annie Roney ( born c . 1846 ) . Also in the household were Jennie Procter ( born c . 1862 ) as " house assistant " and two servants : Louisa Sparkman ( born c . 1867 ) ; and Laura Hopkins ( born c . 1869 ) . Duke used his influence to have Trinity College moved to Durham . The institution opened its new campus in 1892 with him and son Benjamin as its principal benefactors . In 1896 , Duke gifted the college with $ 100 , 000 ( about $ 2 , 200 , 000 in 2005 dollars ) on the condition that it open its doors to women . Trinity College was renamed in honor of Duke in 1924 , becoming Duke University . Washington Duke was originally interred in the Washington Duke Mausoleum at Maplewood Cemetery in Durham , North Carolina . After the completion of the Duke University Chapel he was re - interred in the Memorial Chapel on the west campus of Duke University . He is memorialized by a statue at the entrance to Duke ' s East Campus .