Bartlett S. Durham

Bartlett Leonidas Snipes Durham (November 3, 1824 – February 2, 1859) was an American medical doctor and entrepreneur whose land, donated for a railway station, became the location of Durham, North Carolina, named for him.

Biography Bartlett S. Durham was born and raised roughly west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in rural Orange County. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he returned to Orange County and, in 1847 or 1848, purchased of undeveloped land in the eastern portion of the county, between settlements known as Prattsburg and Pinhook, likely as a speculative investment, in advance of the planned North Carolina Railroad. The railroad, in turn, named the stop, Durham's Station in his honor.

The collection of stores and houses a mile to the west of Prattsburg became "Durhamville" and the site of the new station by the early 1850s. Shortly thereafter, Durham became the first railroad agent in the vicinity of Durhamville, with a liquor license and a stake in the general store. Shortly after Durham County was formed, Julian S. Carr began a public campaign advocating the exhumation and reburial of Bartlett Durham's remains within his namesake city. Nearly a decade after Carr himself had died, Durham officials exhumed the coffin on June 27, 1933, with Mayor W.F. Carr and County Commissioner John Harris officially accepting the remains for the city and county. It was transported to Hall-Wynne Funeral Home, where it lay in state for several days. Reburial took place Jan. 2, 1934, in Maplewood Cemetery, under a marker that lists incorrect middle name, and erroneous dates of birth and death.