Early Life
Benjamin Cleveland was born in Orange County, Virginia, the fourth child of John and Elizabeth Coffee Cleveland. He moved to what became Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1769. He built his famous estate, "Roundabout," near what is today Ronda, North Carolina in eastern Wilkes County. Cleveland was very active in the early history of Wilkes County; he worked as a hunter, trapper, farmer, carpenter, and surveyor. By the time of the American Revolution, Cleveland was the wealthiest and most prominent citizen in Wilkes. A large, heavy set man - around six feet tall and weighing over 300 lbs in his prime, he was called "Old Roundabout."
Cleveland married Mary Graves, a sister of Susannah Graves, the wife of Revolutionary War patriot and frontiersman, General Joseph Martin, for whom Martinsville, Virginia, is named.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)