This page covers two overlapping sets of books at OCPL: the Orange County works in the index that the library holds, and the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, the library’s wider local history room, from county deed and will abstracts to North Carolina histories. Some books belong to both. Start with the plan of the room, or go straight to either list.
About these counts
The index counts works, not copies or editions: the editions of one book are gathered under one entry, so the library’s own catalog lists more titles than the 357 here. The Wall Collection figure is the library’s inventory of that collection as of September 2026, counted by catalog title; the Orange County works shelved there are in both counts.
The Local History Room
Find your way around the local history room
Find the books, maps, research equipment, and displays of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough. The lettered locations below match the plan; tap or hover one to see what stands there.
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Locked cabinet
Fragile items that mending would damage. Above it, a platter Rebecca Wall painted of the law office of Thomas Ruffin, an ancestor of hers, at 201 South Cameron Street, and a pastel portrait of her in her fifties.
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Gray file cabinet
Microfilm of the local newspaper and federal census returns from the 1800s; Orange County court records, vital statistics, tax lists and Confederate soldier records reaching back to the 1700s. On top, a photograph of Rebecca Wall in her twenties and a wooden model of the Burwell School.
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Research computer with microfilm reader and scanner
Read and scan the microfilm here, and search Ancestry and other research sites.
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Genealogy bookshelf, D-1
Historical records of many kinds, color-coded and labeled by county and record type, with books on how to do genealogical research.
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Genealogy bookshelf, D-2
Published family histories, biographies and genealogical journals; the colonial and higher-court records of North Carolina; lives of local figures from William Tryon to John Blackfeather.
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Genealogy bookshelf, D-3
More about Rebecca Wall.
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North Carolina history bookshelf, E-1
North Carolina histories of every kind, from the university and the State Fair to natural history and Durham’s Hayti.
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Reference bookshelf, E-2
Traditional general reference books, still valuable as comprehensive, authoritative sources.
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Framed print: the courthouse
Hope Summerell Chamberlain’s 1926 pen-and-ink rendering of the county courthouse; she was an author, artist and civic worker.
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Framed print: the 1892 county map
George W. Tate’s 1892 map of Orange County.
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Framed print: Hillsborough, County Down
Views of the Irish town the county seat is named for.
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Framed print: the Nash and Kollock School
Chamberlain’s 1926 interpretation of a late-1800s photograph of the school, which stood at 137 West Margaret Lane, the Main Library’s address today.
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Framed print: Hillsborough Military Academy
Uniform buttons from the academy, which ran from 1859 to 1861 off Barracks Road in West Hillsborough; outbuildings still stand.
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Framed print: the 1768 town plan
C. J. Sauthier’s 1768 map of the town of Hillsborough.
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Black file cabinet
Family and local histories researched, compiled and donated by patrons, with local history odds and ends. On top, a model of the county courthouse by Allen Alexander Lloyd (1914 to 2006), lifelong Hillsborough resident and keeper of the town clock, who with his wife Pauline wrote the histories of the town and of its churches that stand in this room.
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Assorted maps
Maps of the county and the town.
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Elizabeth Keckly display
Keckly was enslaved in Hillsborough by her half-brother Robert Burwell, minister of the Presbyterian church and founder of the Burwell School. A seamstress of rare skill, after her emancipation in 1855 she became dressmaker and confidante to Mary Lincoln.
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Elizabeth Keckly display, continued
The second panel of the Keckly display.
On the shelves
Orange County works at OCPL
These works connect to Orange County and are held at OCPL. Search by title, author, or description, or pick a section to browse it in call-number order. Open the catalog record for location and availability.
The twelve most recently published of the 357 Orange County works at OCPL, each with its description and call number. All 357, with filters by place, theme, and material, in the search →
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Cross & Sampson
Patterson, James · 2026 · Fiction
An Alex Cross thriller by James Patterson with Chapel Hill among its settings alongside Washington, D.C. Bombings, a kidnapping, a missing-persons investigation, terrorism and fathers and sons are its subjects; the Sampson of the title is Cross's longtime partner John Sampson. Published by Little, Brown in 2026.
Call number F PATTERSOChapel HillBlack Life & Civil RightsLaw, Courts & Justice View in OCPL catalog → -
Forged in the Spirit
Haines, Nancy Learned · 2026 · Histories
Nancy Learned Haines tells the story of the Quaker families who left Pennsylvania around 1750 for the Eno River valley near Hillsborough, where they farmed, traded and built a school, and asks how a community committed to peace fared through the unrest of the colonial years. Published by Pleasant Green Books in 2026, 122 pages with bibliography and index. Subjects include Quakers in North Carolina and the history of Hillsborough, Orange County and the Eno River valley.
Call number NC 289.6 HAINESEno RiverChurches & FaithEno & Environment View in OCPL catalog → -
Dark Tales of the Eno River
Cook, David · 2025 · Histories
David Cook collects the grim side of the Eno River's past in Orange and Durham counties: ghost stories, crimes, train wrecks and accidents, including the hanging of rebels near the river in 1771, a sawmill accident said to have started a run of hauntings, and a dance one Valentine's Day that ended badly. Published by The History Press in 2025, 141 pages with illustrations.
Call number 133.109 COOKDurham County (neighboring)Eno & EnvironmentEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Freedom's Howl
Heyes, Eileen · 2025 · Fiction
A picture book set in the Eno River valley of Orange County in 1776. Four red wolf pups are born in a woodland den and spend their first summer and fall learning to hunt and howl with their family, while nearby a young widow, Sally Few, keeps her household going as the Revolution unsettles the countryside. Eileen Heyes wrote the story, published in 2025 by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History with color illustrations and maps, 42 pages.
Call number JF HEYESEno RiverColonial Orange CountyEno & Environment View in OCPL catalog → -
Oathbound
Deonn, Tracy · 2025 · Fiction
Third novel in Tracy Deonn's Legendborn series, young adult fantasy that began with a Black first-year student at UNC-Chapel Hill discovering a secret society descended from King Arthur's knights. In this 2025 installment Bree, cut off from the Order and from her ancestral magic, makes a pact with the Shadow King to sharpen her powers and shield her friends while the divided Round Table fights demons. Deonn is a North Carolina author. 650 pages; for readers 14 and up.
Call number YA F DEONNBlack Life & Civil RightsLiterature & Publishing View in OCPL catalog → -
Tar Heel Bred
Whisnant, Scott · 2025 · Humor
Scott Whisnant's memoir of a life measured out in North Carolina basketball seasons. A former sportswriter, Whisnant writes for readers raised in ACC country who learned the fight song early and treated the conference tournament in Greensboro as the high point of the year, recalling family, friends and the personal milestones that fell alongside Tar Heel games. Subjects include humor and anecdotes as well as the team's history. Published by Bearface Publishing in 2025, 318 pages with photographs.
Call number BIO WHISNANT WHIChapel HillCarolina SportsFamilies, Land & Genealogy View in OCPL catalog → -
Vignettes
Shetley, Frances Lloyd · 2025 · Biography
Frances Lloyd Shetley's self-published collection of short recollections, issued in 2025, drawn from the author's own life in Calvander and Carrboro. Calvander is the crossroads community northwest of Carrboro.
Call number BIO SHETLEY SHECalvander View in OCPL catalog → -
Bean Woman
Wynters, Criss · 2024 · Juvenile literature
Criss Wynters's children's book retelling an Occaneechi folk story, published in 2024. Its Orange County connection is the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, based in the northern part of the county.
Call number J 398.208 WYNTERSEveryday Life & TraditionsIndigenous Peoples & Archaeology View in OCPL catalog → -
Bright and tender dark: a novel
Pearson, Joanna · 2024 · Fiction
Joanna Pearson's novel of a cold case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karlie Richards was a nineteen-year-old student when she was murdered; decades later her onetime roommate, divorced and in middle age, finds herself drawn back to the crime as online conspiracy theories about it multiply. A psychological thriller with a Chapel Hill setting, published by Bloomsbury in 2024, 275 pages.
Chapel HillLaw, Courts & JusticeSchools & Education View in OCPL catalog → -
Clover Garden
Simpson, Bland · 2024 · Biography
Bland Simpson's memoir of country life in the Clover Garden community of Orange County, in the North Carolina Piedmont, published by UNC Press in 2024. Short chapters take in cabin life, neighbors like the Binghams and Mr. Stacy, hounds, owls and turkeys, an auction, Merritt's and Lewis Allen's store, the sculptor of White Cross School, Maple View, Saxapahaw, the Devil's Tramping Ground, storms and snows, and a carol for Cane Creek. 182 pages with illustrations.
Call number BIO SIMPSON SIMNorth Carolina (statewide)Eno & EnvironmentEveryday Life & Traditions View in OCPL catalog → -
Observations of an accidental farmer--and a mindful reader
Kavros, Harry · 2024 · Biography
Harry Kavros's 2024 collection of essays and anecdotes about taking up farm life near Hillsborough, from the landscape to keeping chickens and other animals, alongside reflections on the South and on the writers who shaped his reading: Thoreau, Emerson, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard and Frederick Law Olmsted. Sections run from an introduction through 'The landscape', 'Chickens and other beasts' and 'The South' to an epilogue and appendix. First Paul Dry Books edition, Philadelphia.
Call number 814.54 KAVROSHillsboroughEno & EnvironmentFarms & Rural Life View in OCPL catalog → -
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time
Maxwell, Tom · 2024
Tom Maxwell's 2024 account of Chapel Hill's alternative rock scene in the 1990s, set against North Carolina's longer musical history. Maxwell writes as a musician who played in that scene, and the book follows the bands, clubs and labels that drew national attention to the town. Subjects include alternative rock music, Chapel Hill, 1991-2000, history and criticism. Published by Hachette, 310 pages with plates.
Call number 780.903 MAXWELLChapel HillArts, Music & PerformanceThe Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s View in OCPL catalog →
The Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection
Browse the full Wall Collection
The wider local history collection, named for Rebecca Wall, the retired librarian whose 1986 bequest built it: genealogy, North Carolina history, and regional reference works, alongside the Orange County titles. Browse it shelf by shelf or search by title, author, subject, or description.
Genealogy bookshelf, D-1: 238 titles as they stand on the shelf at OCPL, in call-number order. Historical records of many kinds, color-coded and labeled by county and by record type, with books on how to do genealogical research. Many neighbouring counties were formed from land that was once Orange County, so a family’s records may be housed in more than one county; items that need special care are more likely to be at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh.
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North Carolina Land Grants in Tennessee, 1778-1791
Cartwright, Betty Goff Cook · 1958
Land grants North Carolina made between 1778 and 1791 in the country that became Tennessee, many of them military warrants paying Revolutionary soldiers in land. Betty Goff Cook Cartwright and Lillian Johnson Gardiner reproduced the manuscript list copied in 1803 for the State of Tennessee, which genealogists use as a stand-in for a 1790 census of the region. Published in Memphis in 1958; 199 pages, illustrated, with a foreword by Robert T. Quarles Jr.
Call number NC 929 BUR View in OCPL catalog → -
DAR Patriot Index
1966
An index of Revolutionary War patriots whose service had been established through applications for membership in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. First issued in Washington in 1966 as a single volume of 771 pages and kept current by supplements; this set runs to three volumes, including the 1982 supplement.
Call number NC 929 DAR View in OCPL catalog → -
DAR Patriot Index
1990
The centennial edition of the Daughters of the American Revolution's index to Revolutionary War patriots, the soldiers and civilians whose service qualifies their descendants for membership. Issued in 1990, the society's hundredth year, under President General Mrs. Eldred Martin Yochim, it fills three parts (A to F, G to O, P to Z) and 3,336 pages; this printing carries a 1994 copyright.
Call number NC 929 DAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Genealogical Register: Members and Revolutionary Ancestors 1981-1991
1991
Members of the North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution and their Revolutionary War ancestors, 1981 to 1991, gathered as Supplement no. 1 to the society's genealogical register. Printed in Charlotte by the Delmar Company in 1991; 189 pages.
Call number NC 929 DAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Kinfolks: A Genealogical and Biographical Record of Thomas and Elizabeth (Stuart) Harllee, Andrew and Agnes (Cade) Fulmore, Benjamin and Mary Curry, Samuel and Amelia (Russell) Kemp, John and Hannah (Walker) Bethea, Sterling Clark and Frances (King) Robertson, Samuel and Sophia Ann (Parker) Dickey, Their Antecedents, Descendants, and Collateral Relatives, With Chapter Concerning State and County Records and
Harllee, William Curry · 1934
William Curry Harllee's genealogy of seven families, Harllee, Fulmore, Curry, Kemp, Bethea, Robertson and Dickey, tracing each founding couple's forebears, descendants and related lines, with a chapter on state and county sources. Prepared and published by Harllee with many collaborators and printed in New Orleans by Searcy and Pfaff from 1934 to 1937: four continuously paged volumes, the last a general index, illustrated, with a folded map and a bibliography. A reprint appeared in 1998.
Call number NC 929 HAR View in OCPL catalog → -
Kinfolks: General Index
The general index to William Curry Harllee's 'Kinfolks', a genealogical and biographical record of the Harllee, Curry, Kemp, Bethea, Robertson, Dickey and related families, first printed at New Orleans in 1934 to 1937. The index fills pages 2965 to 3270, the last pages of the whole work. This printing carries no date, place or publisher.
Call number NC 929 HAR View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Century Farms: 100 Years of Continuous Agricultural Heritage
1989
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture's 1989 tribute to the farms recognized under its Century Farm program, worked by the same families for at least a hundred years. James F. Devine opens with a history of farming in the state, followed by a list of Century Farm owners and family histories of the farms. Compiled by Libby Gorman and Mary Hunter Martin, edited by Deborah Ellison and Jearlean Woody; 247 large pages, illustrated.
Call number NC 929 NOR View in OCPL catalog → -
A Colonial Officer and His Times, 1754-1773: A Biographical Sketch of Gen. Hugh Waddell, of North Carolina. With Notices of the French and Indian War in the Southern Colonies; the Resistance to the Stamp Act in North Carolina ... the Regulators' War; and An Historical Sketch of the Former Town of Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River
Waddell, Alfred M. · 1885
Alfred Moore Waddell's sketch of General Hugh Waddell (about 1734 to 1773), who commanded North Carolina's provincial troops against the Cherokee, set among accounts of the French and Indian War in the South, the Stamp Act resistance in North Carolina, the Regulators' War and the former Cape Fear River town of Brunswick. It prints Stamp Act documents not published before. Copyrighted in 1885 and published in Raleigh in 1890; 242 pages with a portrait.
Call number NC 929 WAD View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina Headrights: A List of Names, 1663-1744
Whitley, Caroline B. · 2001
Names drawn from North Carolina headright claims between 1663 and 1744, compiled by Caroline B. Whitley. Under the headright system a colonist could claim land for each person whose passage to the colony he paid. Susan M. Trimble prepared the list for publication in the special series of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, issued by the Division of Archives and History in 2001; 312 pages with an index.
Call number NC 929 WHI View in OCPL catalog → -
Index to Printed Virginia Genealogies: Including Key and Bibliography
Stewart, Robert Armistead · 1970
A surname index to genealogies of Virginia families printed before 1930 in books, magazines, lineage papers and newspapers, compiled by Robert Armistead Stewart from work begun by William G. Stanard. About 6,000 family names carry more than 18,000 references, each keyed to a bibliography of sources at the front. First published in Richmond in 1930; reprinted in 1970 with a foreword by John Frederick Dorman, 265 pages.
Call number NC 929.016 STE View in OCPL catalog → -
North Carolina State Archives: State Agency Finding Aids of Interest to Genealogists
Bennett, William D. · 1997
William Doub Bennett's guides to state agency records in the North Carolina State Archives that serve family historians. Volume 1 treats the colonial higher courts, the district superior courts, the state Supreme Court, and the papers of the treasurers, comptrollers and auditors; volume 2 covers the military collection and the adjutant general's papers. Issued by Bennett in Raleigh from 1997, with indexes; Southern Historical Press reissued the work in 2023.
Call number NC 929.1 BEN View in OCPL catalog → -
They Went Thataway
Hamlin, Charles Hughes · 1974
Virginia genealogical material compiled by Charles Hughes Hamlin, first issued in parts beginning in 1964 and reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company in 1974 with the volumes bound together.
Call number NC 929.1 HAM View in OCPL catalog →
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