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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–30.Back to highlights

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30 dated events
1771Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Tryon's army halts at Colonel Mebane's for Sunday worship on the march to Alamance

    Violence or armed conflict · Colonel Mebane's, Haw River and Alamance Creek (then Orange County)

    Leaving Hillsborough on May 11, Tryon stopped on Sunday at Colonel Mebane's for divine service, then marched to the Haw River, where 23 mounted men under Captain Bullock joined as his only cavalry. He ordered his troops not to take property and reached Alamance Creek on May 14.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

    People: William Tryon

  3. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  4. The Paisley-Rice log house is built near Mebane

    Construction or physical change · near Mebane

    A log dwelling now called the Paisley-Rice Log House went up in western Orange County near Mebane, probably for the Rev. William D. Paisley after he bought the 200-acre tract from James Davis on February 7, 1801. It is one of the few county log houses already on the National Register by 1993.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  5. William D. Paisley buys the farm where the Paisley-Rice log house stands

    Property or economic transaction · Paisley-Rice Log House, west side of SR 1346 near the Alamance County line, north of Mebane

    The Presbyterian minister William D. Paisley bought a 200-acre tract from James Davis in February 1801. Local tradition and the nomination hold that he built the dovetailed log house on this land in the early 1800s.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  6. William D. Paisley sells his Orange County farm to Elijah Pickard

    Property or economic transaction · Paisley-Rice Log House, west side of SR 1346 near the Alamance County line, north of Mebane

    Paisley left the Hawfields in 1818 to head the Greensborough Academy and in September 1819 sold the log house farm to Elijah Pickard. The chain of title is unclear for some years after the sale.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  7. John A. Pettigrew sells the former Paisley farm to Lemuel Pettigrew

    Property or economic transaction · Paisley-Rice Log House, west side of SR 1346 near the Alamance County line, north of Mebane

    By 1835 the log house tract had passed to John A. Pettigrew, who sold it that year to Lemuel Pettigrew. Lemuel later sold it to (John) Elkins Pettigrew, a small farmer whose farm the 1860 census valued at $500.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  8. A railroad depot is built at the Orange-Alamance line and Mebanesville grows up around it

    Construction or physical change · Mebanesville (Mebane)

    The North Carolina Railroad put a depot on the county line in 1854, and the settlement of Mebanesville, later Mebane, soon formed there.

    Subject: North Carolina Railroad

  9. Bingham School moves from the Oaks to Mebaneville

    Construction or physical change · Mebane, Orange County

    William Bingham and Robert Bingham, sons of William James Bingham, moved the school that December to a site east of Mebane's Station on the North Carolina Railroad, after the legislature incorporated it in 1864 as a military and classical academy. The highway marker's 1865 may be when classes began at the new site.

    People: Robert Bingham · William Bingham (1835-1873) · William James Bingham

    Subject: Bingham School · North Carolina Railroad

  10. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  11. Robert K. Rice buys the Pettigrew log house farm

    Property or economic transaction · Paisley-Rice Log House, west side of SR 1346 near the Alamance County line, north of Mebane

    Elkins Pettigrew sold the farm to his son-in-law Robert K. Rice, husband of his daughter Martha, for $375 in 1869. Rice improved the place, which the 1880 census valued at $1,500, and it stayed in the Rice family for more than a century.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  12. Robert Bingham takes charge of the Bingham School near Mebane

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County, Bingham School near Mebane

    When his brother William died in 1873, Robert Bingham became headmaster of the Bingham School, which had moved from the Oaks to Mebane. In May 1879 he bought out his cousin William B. Lynch's interest and became sole proprietor.

    People: William Bingham (1835-1873) · W. B. (William Bingham) Lynch

    Subject: Bingham School

  13. Mebaneville, the railroad village on the Orange-Alamance line, is incorporated

    Law, policy or court · Mebane

    The settlement that grew along the North Carolina Railroad from 1854 was incorporated in 1881 and shortened its name to Mebane in 1883. Part of the town lies in Orange County.

    Subject: North Carolina Railroad

  14. Charles White, merchant and postmaster at Bingham School, dies

    Life event · Bingham School, near Mebane (Orange County side)

    Charles White, who kept the store and post office at Bingham School near Mebane, died on Thursday, May 24, 1883. The Observer called him successful in business; his widow, Mary E. White, qualified as executrix of his will.

  15. Foxes Knob School opens as a one-room log school near Mebane

    Founding or opening · near Mebane

    Foxes Knob School opened in the mid-1880s in a single log room. It gained a frame addition about 1900 and was later turned into a house.

  16. A building of Mrs. Charles White's used by Bingham School cadets as a mess burns

    Disaster or outbreak · Bingham School, near Mebane (Orange County side)

    Early on Tuesday morning, August 19, 1884, fire destroyed a building owned by Mrs. Charles White that some Bingham School cadets used as a messing club. Its insurance had lapsed and the loss was put at about $1,000.

    Subject: Bingham School

  17. Bingham School leaves Orange County for Asheville

    Construction or physical change · Mebane, Orange County

    After fire destroyed the academic buildings and dormitories at the Mebane campus in December 1890, Robert Bingham moved the school to Asheville in 1891. Owen W. Bingham ran a separate school, the William Bingham School, at the Mebane site.

    People: Robert Bingham

    Subject: Bingham School

  18. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  19. The Foxes Knob schoolhouse is enlarged and becomes a house

    Construction or physical change · near Mebane

    Soon after 1900 the one-room log Foxes Knob School near Mebane is enlarged; after its school years it served as a residence.

  20. Mebane School District becomes the first to tax itself for a longer school term

    Law, policy or court · Mebane School District

    After a district election, the commissioners gave the sheriff a tax list for the Mebane district at 30 cents per $100 and 90 cents a poll. By 1910 special school taxes were collected in six districts.

  21. Abe and Annie B. Mebane sell a lot in west Hillsborough to the trustees of Mebane Chapel

    Property or economic transaction · Mebane Chapel, Union Street, Hillsborough

    For $25 the Mebanes sold a 30-by-40-foot lot at the corner of Union Street, opposite the later Central High School, to trustees Elisha Williams and Arthur Hood. The chapel was named in their memory.

  22. Mebane Chapel builds its church in Hillsborough under its first pastor, B. F. Alston

    Construction or physical change · Mebane Chapel, Union Street, Hillsborough

    A year after the United Holy Church congregation organized, it put up its chapel, seating about 200, with thirty-five members and Rev. B. F. Alston as first pastor.

  23. A Christian Church congregation is organized near Mebane

    Founding or opening · Mebane Congregational Christian Church

    The congregation later called Mebane Congregational Christian Church was organized on May 16, 1915, with W. C. Clements, pastor of the Christian church in Chapel Hill, as first pastor. Its building was finished in 1931.

  24. The Rice farm is divided in the settlement of Robert Rice's estate

    Property or economic transaction · Paisley-Rice Log House, west side of SR 1346 near the Alamance County line, north of Mebane

    In 1927 the 130-acre farm long tied to the log house was split in settling Robert Rice's estate. The house kept a 65-acre share, later owned by his grandson Joseph A. Rice.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  25. The Christian church congregation near Mebane builds a brick church

    Construction or physical change · near Mebane

    The congregation now known as Mebane United Church of Christ builds a cross-gable brick church near Mebane in 1931.

  26. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  27. County commissioners refuse to relicense beer sales at the Log Cabin filling station

    Law, policy or court · US 70 (Mebane road) west of Efland, now 5410 US Highway 70

    The Orange County commissioners voted unanimously to keep refusing J. A. Thompson a license to sell beer at his filling station, the Log Cabin, on the Mebane road. Thompson and his wife called it a "Dirty Deal" and their lawyer pleaded for another chance without success.

  28. Charlie McAdams and George Crawford Amick open the A & M Grill in Mebane

    Founding or opening · 401 East Center Street, Mebane

    Charlie McAdams Sr., who had sold barbecue from a service station kitchen since 1947, opened the A & M Grill with building owner George Crawford Amick. The name joined their two initials.

  29. Orange and Alamance agree on Orange children attending Alamance schools

    Law, policy or court · western Orange County

    Worried that growing numbers of western Orange children rode Alamance buses to Mebane schools, the board released to Alamance all children living within a mile of the county line and let those farther out stay if they chose. It also allowed out-of-county attendance if families paid tuition and provided transportation.

  30. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  31. The Paisley-Rice log house joins the Study List

    Naming or commemoration · Paisley-Rice Log House, near Mebane

    The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Paisley-Rice log house near Mebane on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  32. The Paisley-Rice Log House is listed in the National Register

    Award or honor · rural Orange County

    The Paisley-Rice Log House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, one of six rural Orange County properties on the Register by July 1993.

    Subject: Paisley-Rice Log House

  33. The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association holds its first annual August powwow

    Founding or opening · Mebane

    A year after it formed, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association held its first annual powwow in August 1985, bringing Indian people from many tribes to visit the community. The fifth, at Mebane on August 11 and 12, 1989, had a printed program.

    Part of Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path · 48 events

  34. The A & M Grill in Mebane closes after 63 years

    Closing or ending · 401 East Center Street, Mebane

    The A & M Grill, run by three generations of the McAdams family, served its last meals at 401 East Center Street. Co-founder George Crawford Amick died three weeks later.

  35. The News of Orange merges with the Mebane Enterprise

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough and Mebane

    Womack Publishing announced on January 3, 2024, that its weeklies The News of Orange County and the Mebane Enterprise would merge at the end of January. The combined paper, with a section for Mebane, covers Mebane, Hillsborough and Efland from the News of Orange office in Hillsborough, and the Mebane office closed.

    Subject: The News of Orange County

  36. Buckhorn Flea Market closes on Buckhorn Road

    Closing or ending · Buckhorn Road, Orange County (near Mebane and Efland)

    The Buckhorn Flea Market on Buckhorn Road in western Orange County, known to many Spanish speakers as La Pulga de Mebane, closed after about four decades when a trucking company bought the land. Its 300 to 500 weekend vendors were largely Latino immigrants, and the Mebane City Council voted on July 1 to annex and rezone the property for a truck terminal.

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026