Wofford, Benjamin
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Wofford, Benjamin
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Rev. Benjamin Wofford, a South Carolina Methodist minister, established Wofford College in his will with a bequest of $100,000.
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Born in 1780, Benjamin Wofford joined the Methodist Church during the revivals of the early 19th century. He was originally denied ordination because he owned enslaved persons, but eventually became an ordained minister in 1816. He left the active ministry after three years when his wife, Anna Todd, inherited her father's estate. After her death in 1835, he married Maria S. Barron in 1836. They moved into the village of Spartanburg, where he became a businessman and investor. On his death in 1850, he owned eight enslaved persons. He bequeathed $100,000 to establish and endow a college to be under the management of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and which was to be located in Spartanburg. His will named a provisional board of trustees who selected the site for the college and arranged for the construction of the original campus. He and Anna Todd Wofford are buried on the campus.
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October 19, 1780
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December 2, 1850
Position: 10845 (8 views)
