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North Carolina's Governors
Benjamin Smith (1756-1826) owned what is now Bald Head Island and was once known as Smith's Island. Little is known of Smith's early youth or education, but in 1774 he studied law in London. After returning, Smith fought with distinction in the Revolution. By the war's end he had risen to the rank of colonel. He served in the Assembly beginning in 1789. When the University of North Carolina was chartered in 1789, Smith was named to the original board of trustees and donated 20,000 acres of land in present-day Tennessee to the school as an endowment. He remained a trustee until 1824. Smith contracted with the federal government to rebuild and expand Fort Johnston at Smithville (now Southport), the town established and named in his honor in 1792. In 1789 he purchased the tract at the mouth of the Cape Fear River that came to be known as Smith Island. Smith was elected governor in 1810 and served a single term. As chief executive, he advocated reforms in the penal system, encouragement of industry, revitalization of the militia, and the establishment of an educational system "within the reach of every child in the state." His complaint that the governor's accommodations in Raleigh were not "fit for the family of a decent tradesman" may well have hastened construction of the first executive mansion three years later. Following his governorship, Smith returned to the life of a planter. His once enormous wealth, however, was ravaged by financial misfortunes, extravagance, and debt. It was at his dilapidated Smithville residence that he died, a virtual pauper. Initially buried at Smithville, he was later reinterred in the churchyard of St. Philips at Brunswick Town.
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