Dr. John D. Bellamy Family Papers

John Dillard Bellamy, prominent physician, wealthy planter and enslaver, was born September 18, 1817 in All Saints Parish, SC. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Bellamy, prosperous planters and inherited his family's wealth as the only surviving child of his parents.

Bellamy attended Marion Academy and Rice Creek Academy in South Carolina before entering medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He came to Wilmington as a student of medicine under Dr. William J. Harriss in 1835 and settled in the area after graduating in 1839. That same year, he married Dr. Harriss' daughter, Eliza McIlhenny Harriss.

Bellamy practiced medicine for fifteen years in Wilmington. Health issues and a wide array of business interests forced him to retire from medical practice. By 1860, he was involved in banking and heavily invested in the railroad. He owned a large produce plantation in Brunswick County and a profitable tar and turpentine operation in Columbus County. At this time, Bellamy was one of the largest slaveholders in the state. Following the Civil War, Bellamy served as the director of the Wilmington and Weldon railroad for nearly thirty years.

Bellamy and his wife had 11 children: Marry Elizabeth, Marsden, William, Elizabeth, Ellen Douglas, John Dillard, George Harriss, Kate, Chesley Calhoun, Robert Rankin, Eliza Harriss

He died on August 30, 1896 and is buried in Oakdale Cemetery.