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No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick Papers #325, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Original deposit and early additions received from Jennie Hedrick and her sister (daughters of Benjamin Hedrick). Then received from Nancy Hedrick Beamer Dill of Ghent, N.Y., in December 1984; from Nancy West of Charlotte, N.C., in August 1986 (Acc. 96127); and Nancy Hedrick Beamer Dill in September 1994 (Acc. 94132).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Carolyn Wallace, William Auman, Roslyn Holdzkom, 1969, 1985, 1996

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, January 2004

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2020

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Abolitionists--North Carolina.
• Agricultural chemistry--History--19th century.
• Antislavery movements--North Carolina.
• Beaufort (N.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• College teachers--Dismissal of--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• College teachers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• College teachers--Political activities--History--19th century.
• Davidson County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Freedom of speech--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872.
• Harisse, Henry, 1829-1910.
• Hedrick family.
• Hedrick, Benjamin Sherwood, 1827-1886.
• Hedrick, John A.
• Hedrick, Mary Ellen Thompson, 1829-1905.
• Helper, Hinton Rowan, 1829-1909.
• Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--19th century.
• Phillips, Charles, 1822-1889.
• Sherwood family.
• Slavery--United States.
• Swain, David L. (David Lowry), 1801-1868.
• United States Naval Observatory. Nautical Almanac Office--Officials and employees--History--19th century.
• United States. Patent Office--Officials and employees--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Social life and customs.

• See also Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick Papers at the Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick was born on 13 February 1827 near Salisbury in western Davidson County, N.C., the son of Elizabeth Sherwood and John Leonard Hedrick, a farmer and bricklayer of comfortable means. The family was descended from German immigrants who had settled in the Piedmont section of North Carolina in the 1700s.

After attending local schools, Hedrick received college preparation at Rankin's (or Lexington) Classical School, an academy directed by the Reverend Jesse Rankin near Lexington. In 1848, he entered the University of North Carolina as a sophomore. At UNC, he distinguished himself particularly in mathematics, and, upon his graduation in 1851, he was awarded "first honor in the senior class." President David L. Swain recommended Hedrick to former governor William A. Graham, then Secretary of the Navy, for a clerkship in the office of the Nautical Almanac in Cambridge, Mass. While in Cambridge, Hedrick also took advanced instruction at Harvard College under such prominent scientists as Eben N. Horsford, Benjamin Pierce, and Louis Agassiz.

Hedrick was offered a professorship of mathematics at Davidson College in 1852, but he declined it deciding to wait for a position at UNC. In January 1854, the University appointed him to the chair of analytical and agricultural chemistry.

In Chapel Hill, Hedrick acquired a certain notoriety because of his antislavery views, although he initially made no attempt to disseminate his opinions on the issue. In August 1856, however, he was asked at the polls whether he would vote for the Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, in the national election. Hedrick replied that he would do so if a Republican ticket was formed in North Carolina. The next month, a short article entitled "Frémont in the South" appeared in the North Carolina Standard , a leading Democratic newspaper published in Raleigh. The article recommended that those with "black Republican opinions" at schools and seminaries in the state be driven out, apparently suggesting that Hedrick be dismissed.

Against much advice, Hedrick published a defense in the Standard, explaining his opposition to slavery and likening his beliefs to those of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Subsequently, the University faculty passed resolutions denouncing Hedrick's political views, and, on 11 October 1856, the executive committee of the board of trustees formally approved the faculty's action, which, in reality, constituted a dismissal.

Newspapers throughout the state were generally unsympathetic to Hedrick's case. On 21 October, while he was attending an educational convention in Salisbury, an unsuccessful attempt was made to tar and feather him. Hedrick soon headed north, where he remained except for visits south in January 1857 and in 1865.

For a time, Hedrick lived in New York, where he was employed as a chemist and then as a clerk in the mayor's office. He also lectured and taught at such institutions as Cooper Union. After his services in the mayor's office were terminated in 1860, he was successful in finding a job with the newly elected Republican government in Washington, D.C. Beginning in 1861, he was successively appointed assistant examiner, examiner, and chief examiner in the Chemical Department of the United States Patent Office, remaining with that agency until his death on 2 September 1886.

During his tenure at the Patent Office, Hedrick was also active in several other areas. Beginning in 1865, he worked to secure a speedy restoration of North Carolina to the Union. It appears that he was well acquainted with both President Andrew Johnson and North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth. In April 1865, Hedrick petitioned the President for permission to visit North Carolina. Afterwards, H. M. Pierce appointed him an agent of the American Union Commission to ascertain the condition of refugees and the poor in the South, with particular emphasis on the schools in the region. In 1867, Hedrick was nominated as a delegate to the North Carolina constitutional convention, but was defeated in the election. From 1872 to 1876, he was professor of chemistry and toxicology at the University of Georgetown.

Hedrick married Mary Ellen Thompson, daughter of William Thompson, on 3 June 1852 in Orange County, N.C. They had four daughters and four sons, one of whom, Charles J., became a patent lawyer in Washington, D.C.

[Based on the note by Sharon E. Knapp in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography , William S. Powell, ed., Volume 3, 1988.]

Materials chielfy relate to Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick. Early items are chiefly Hedrick and Sherwood family letters from Davidson County, N.C., while Hedrick was a student at the University of North Carolina and employee at the Nautical Almanac. Among letters, 1851-1858, are several from UNC President David L. Swain and professors Charles Phillips and Elisha Mitchell.

Beginning around 1854, there is correspondence with agricultural and other scientists. After the dismissal from UNC, there are many letters of support or condemnation; letters relating to potential jobs; and letters of recommendation, including one from Horace Greeley, 2 December 1856. There is also considerable correspondence, 1857-1869, with Hinton Rowan Helper, a North Carolina writer who published The Impending Crisis of the South in 1857, and correspondence, 1856-1862, with Henry Harrisse, historian of early American history and exploration, who wrote to Hedrick chiefly on political and literary issues. Most 1861-1863 letters are to Hedrick from his brother John A. Hedrick, a Unionist and abolitionist who was a United States Treasury Department customs collector in Beaufort, N.C., during the Civil War. John wrote about life in occupied Beaufort, North Carolina politics, war news, and actions of northern soldiers, black recruits, and southern Unionists. Materials 1861-1886 chiefly relate to Hedrick's United States Patent Office work. There are also many family letters during this period. Also included are a few writings, clippings, financial materials, and photographs.

Photographs (PF-325/1).