Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick (1827-1886) was born in Davidson County NC. He was very highly educated at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina. In 1854, he accepted a position as Professor and Chair of the Department of Analytical and Agricultual Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1856, he left UNC (it is largely believed he was driven out because of his political views as he was a Republican and was publicly anti-slavery) and went North to New York City where he obtained unsatisfactory work. He made his way to Washington DC in 1861 and obtained a position at the US Patent Office where he remained for the rest of his life achieving the position as Chief Examiner of the Chemical Department. In 1852, he married Mary Ellen Thompson also from a North Carolina family. Both the Hedrick and the Thompson families were large and were divided as most family members remained in North Carolina and supported the Confederacy. That is a short summary. A very detailed article titled "Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick: The Man behind the Covers" was written by the late Maurice Bursey who was a noted North Carolina Postal Historian and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina. His article was published in the Summer 2008 issue of the North Carolina Postal History Society Postal Historian journal. Professor Bursey had access to all the Hedrick papers archived at UNC and other manuscripts at Duke University. The article can be accessed, read, and printed out at Hedrick Correspondence (opens in a new window).
NC972	USA #65 on two covers both addressed in the same handwriting to Prof. B. S. Hedrick, Washington DC with the small double circle Beaufort NC CDS one dated what appears to be MAY 1863 and the other June 1864. From the handwriting, the two covers are from Professor Hedrick's youngest brother John A. Hedrick. These are not through-the-lines covers as Beaufort NC was captured by the Union 25-26 MAR 1862 and occupied through to the end of the war. Therefore, these two covers are Union occupation covers as they both originated in Union occupied Beaufort. John Hedrick lived in Beaufort during the war and was the customs collector there until 1869. The two brothers shared the same politics.	$45.00 Two Covers

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