Background
Benjamin Wofford was born on October 19, 1780 to Joseph and Martha Wofford and was named after his Loyalist uncle.
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Benjamin Wofford
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Wofford"s father, a supporter of the American Patriot cause, was supposedly captured on the night of Wofford"s birth during the American Revolution, but was freed by Martha Wofford"s pleading. Under his mother"s Christian mentorship, Wofford became a Christian. Wofford was ordained as a Methodist preacher, going on to preach in Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
By 1807, he ran a farm and continued preaching locally in South Carolina.
Wofford became involved in banking and other investments in the region. Wofford was involved in various church charitable causes, including donating to Randolph-Macon College in Virginia during the 1830s.
Wofford died in 1850 and left a will donating $100,000 for the creation of a college, which eventually became Wofford College, requesting the creation of a school "literary, classical, and scientific education in my native district of Spartanburg.".
