Benjamin Franklin Washington (April 7, 1820 – January 22, 1872) was a relative of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. He was involved in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

with C. A. Washburn over articles printed in the ''

San Francisco Herald The ''San Francisco Herald'', or ''San Francisco Daily Herald'', was a newspaper that was published from 1850 to 1862 in San Francisco, California. The paper stood out aggressively against crime and corruption associated with the California Gold R ...

''.

Personal life

Washington was born on April 7, 1820, at "Berry Hill" afterward"

Cedar Lawn Cedar Lawn, also known as Berry Hill and Poplar Hill, is one of several houses built near Charles Town, West Virginia for members of the Washington family. Cedar Lawn was built in 1825 for John Thornton Augustine Washington, George Washington' ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

near Charles Town,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

(now

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

) and was the fifth child and third son of John Thornton Augustine Washington and his wife Elizabeth Conrad Bedinger. Washington's great-grandfather,

Samuel Washington Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

, was a younger brother of

. Washington married Georgianna Hite Ransom on October 22, 1845, in Jefferson County,

(now West Virginia). He studied law but went west to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the 1849

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

as the president of the Charlestown Company. He was coeditor of the ''Sacramento Democratic State Journal'', along with Vincent Geiger. On October 7, 1863, the ''Democratic Press'' was established in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and by June 12, 1865, it became the ''Evening Examiner'', with William S. Moss as publisher and B. F. Washington as editor. For several years William S. Moss, Phil Roach and George Pen Johnston were its owners. Until it was bought by Senator Hearst in the 1880s, the paper had been a "highly chaste and non-sensation journal". After Senator Hearst's death the paper went to his son,

William R. Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

. B.F. Washington died January 22, 1872, in

. His granddaughter Frances W. Delehanty was an artist, illustrator, and founder of an abbey in Connecticut.

The duel

Washington, who at the time worked for the Times and Transcript, took offense at articles written in the ''

''. As a result, he challenged C. A. Washburn, then the editor of the ''San Francisco Herald'', to a duel. Though Washington aimed to kill, his second shot went through the rim of Washburn's hat, and his third bullet struck Washburn in the shoulder. The duel then ended.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Benjamin Franklin 1820 births 1872 deaths 19th-century American Episcopalians American newspaper editors Bedinger family American duellists People from Charles Town, West Virginia

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

Writers from West Virginia 19th-century American journalists American male journalists