Chronology

Student Jacob A. Freeze is shot dead during a clash between students and Black residents

After a student quarreled with a Black man, Pat Brewer, a group of students besieged Jack Barbee's house in Chapel Hill, where Brewer and others had gathered, and a shot from inside killed Jacob A. Freeze, a first-year student from Rowan County, about 1 a.m. on Sunday, October 10, 1886. After the state Supreme Court upheld the sentences in December 1887, Brewer went to the penitentiary for ten years and Frank Kirby and Jesse Harris for five each. Battle, writing later, gives Pat seven years and says he escaped.

Students hold the first of a series of gymnastic contests

On Thanksgiving Day students competed on the horizontal and parallel bars, ladders, Indian clubs and swings and in a half-mile race, a tug of war and a high jump, with Francis P. Venable calling the events. It was the first of a series of such contests.

People: Francis Preston Venable

Fire destroys the old president's house on Christmas morning

The house Helen Hooper built, later home to Presidents Caldwell and Swain, burned the day after Professor Thomas Hume's family moved in. Fire spread from boxes and straw in an outbuilding, and Chapel Hill had no fire engine or ladder company to stop it.

People: Joseph Caldwell · David L. Swain · Thomas Hume

Pleasant H. Dalton's pastorate at New Hope is dissolved amid a divided session

Dalton offered his resignation in February 1886, but most of the congregation would not accept it; the relation was dissolved that December after the session fell into disagreement. The church stood vacant about a year while a presbytery commission settled the trouble.

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

Berry's Grove Baptist Church is organized

Berry's Grove Baptist Church was organized in 1887 with A. T. Hord as first pastor and built a 400-seat church the next year.

Edmund Strudwick of Norfolk buys the Turner house on North Churton Street for his mother and sisters

Norfolk cotton merchant Edmund Strudwick bought the house built for tinner Josiah Turner Sr. and enlarged it for his mother and sisters, apparently adding the gables, bay windows and new sash that give it a Victorian look.

Subject: Turner-Strudwick House

Francis D. Winston becomes a trustee of the university

Francis D. Winston of Bertie County joined the university's board of trustees in 1887, eight years after he graduated. He served on the board for more than half a century and attended sixty-one consecutive commencements.

James Lee Love builds a house on East Franklin Street for his wife, June Spencer

Professor James Lee Love built the one-story house at 410 East Franklin Street in 1887, on the lot of the old president's house that burned the Christmas before, for his wife June, the only daughter of Cornelia Phillips Spencer. It is known as the Spencer House after his mother-in-law.

People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Professor Thomas Hume buys the house across from the Baptist church

Burned out of the president's house, Professor Thomas Hume bought the West Franklin Street house opposite the Baptist church. It had been home to the Baptist minister Needham Byron Cobb until the congregation turned its school building into a parsonage.

People: Thomas Hume

Stephen B. Weeks publishes a register of the Philanthropic Society

Stephen Beauregard Weeks, class of 1886, published a 72-page catalogue of Philanthropic Society members since 1795, with a short history of the society and notes on members' careers.

Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

Stephen B. Weeks teaches as the university's instructor in English

For the 1887-88 session the university made Stephen B. Weeks, who had just taken his master's degree, its instructor in English, while Claudius Dockery became instructor in Latin.

The county school board adds nine new school districts under Superintendent Currie

In the first years of the 1885 board, Superintendent James L. Currie laid out school districts and appointed committeemen, and by 1887 nine more districts had been created. In June 1886 he had told the board it needed $2,000 to keep the schools open four months.

People: James L. Currie

The legislature moves the land-grant income from the university to a new A. and M. College

After a campaign led by Leonidas L. Polk, the General Assembly of 1887 took the $7,500 yearly land-scrip interest from the university for a separate Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh, leaving the university $20,000 a year. A House bill to cut that to $12,500 was tabled, and the university dropped pedagogics, mining engineering, animal breeding and practical horticulture.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

The revived Hillsboro Recorder moves Dennis Heartt's old press into its office

The new Hillsboro Recorder reported that it had just moved the press and some wood type Dennis Heartt brought from Connecticut for the first Recorder of 1820 out of a Hillsborough cellar, where they had sat since 1867, and into its own office.

People: Dennis Heartt · Frederick N. Strudwick · Calvin E. Parish

Subject: Hillsborough Recorder

The school board forms the Mary Smith school district along the Chatham line

A new district in Chapel Hill Township next to Chatham County was created and its school named the Mary Smith School, District 39.

The Webb & Co. tobacco partnership in Hillsborough is dissolved

James Webb Jr., Joseph C. Webb and George C. Corbin gave notice that their tobacco manufacturing firm, Webb & Co., was dissolved, leaving the two Webbs to collect its debts and wind up its business. The firm had been making tobacco in Hillsborough since at least 1881.

People: James Webb Jr.

The school board pays H. O. Strain for an acre to build the Orange Church school

The board allowed H. O. Strain $20 for one acre on which to build a schoolhouse for white children of the Orange Church district.

James L. Currie is installed as pastor of New Hope

Currie, who had preached there briefly in 1874, was installed as pastor; the relation was dissolved in November 1889 after new troubles in the session.

People: James L. Currie

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

Battle Lane is cut along the edge of the president's house lot

After the president's house burned, the eastern edge of its lot on East Franklin Street was opened as Battle Lane, and the rest of the eastern part was leased to Professor James Lee Love for fifty years at $15 a year.

People: James Lee Love

David S. Payne marries Eliza Mayo

The marriage joined two Black Hillsborough families tied to the Burwell School: Eliza was a granddaughter of the school's laundress Eliza Chavious, and David was the son of Bettie Payne and a grandson of Rev. William Payne, a founder of Dickerson Chapel.

Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 102 events

Subject: Burwell School

Frederick Strudwick co-owns and edits the Hillsborough Recorder

On 11 August 1887 Strudwick and C. E. Parish became co-owners and editors of the Hillsborough Recorder. Their first issue promised a firm and conservative stand on matters of public welfare and a thoroughly Democratic line in politics. Strudwick left the paper after the issue of 8 March 1888.

People: Calvin E. Parish

Subject: Hillsborough Recorder

Julius I. Foust heads the Caldwell Institute at Caldwell

The Caldwell Institute, a school for boys and girls in northern Orange County, advertised with Julius I. Foust as principal, offering primary through higher studies and music.

Subject: Caldwell School

The school board forms Occoneechee school district from land south of the Eno

The board created District 41, Occoneechee, from land south of the Eno River and part of the Hillsboro district.

The school board condemns a lot for a school for Black children at Walnut Grove

After two committees were named in March and September 1887 to condemn half an acre in the Walnut Grove district, the board had the deed for the site of a schoolhouse for Black children recorded on October 1.

The superintendent's report shows Black schools running half the term of white schools

Currie's annual report counted 33 white and 25 Black public schools. White schools averaged close to nine weeks of teaching and Black schools under four and a half, and Black women teachers earned $17 a month against $24 for white women.

People: James L. Currie

A carved eagle lectern at the Chapel of the Cross memorializes Mary Ruffin Smith

A lectern topped by a carved wooden eagle was placed in the Chapel of the Cross nave in memory of Mary Ruffin Smith, with an inscription on its base dated 1888.

People: Mary Ruffin Smith

Subject: Chapel of the Cross

Alphonso J. McDade returns as mayor of Chapel Hill

McDade served a second stretch as mayor from 1888 through 1890, following W. N. Pritchard. John H. Watson succeeded him in 1891.

People: John H. Watson

Edward Atkins Rosemond builds his house on East Tryon Street

Edward Atkins Rosemond built a two-story I-house on the East Tryon Street lot he had bought in 1885. It was enlarged at the rear by 1905 and given a front-gabled east wing by 1911.

Hillsborough's commissioners sell the Public Spring Lot

The town sold its Public Spring Lot, one of the public lots set aside when Hillsborough was laid out, for $100. The finance committee's report for the year ending May 1, 1889 lists the sale.

Piney Grove Baptist Church is organized

W. M. Ray organized Piney Grove Baptist Church, a Black congregation, and served as its first pastor.

Richison Nichols buys the old Orange Hotel and builds its piazza over the West King Street sidewalk

Richison Nichols bought Isaiah Spencer's inn, apparently in 1888, and built the two-story piazza that reaches the street. The 1888 Sanborn map shows it as the Occoneechee Hotel, the name it kept until 1908.

Subject: Colonial Inn

Samuel M. Gattis becomes chairman of the Orange County Democratic executive committee

In the year he began practicing law in Hillsborough, Gattis was elected chairman of the Orange County Democratic executive committee and a delegate to the party's national convention.

Thomas West Harris, first dean of UNC's medical school, is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Thomas West Harris (1839-1888), the first dean of the university's medical school, was buried in the cemetery.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

UNC plays its first intercollegiate football season

Organized football began at UNC in 1888.

University Lodge No. 408 is chartered at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill Masons revived their lodge under a new charter as University Lodge No. 408, with W. N. Pritchard as first Master. It met for years above a store on Franklin Street.

Subject: University Lodge

The school board authorizes a countywide summer institute for teachers

The board empowered Superintendent Currie to hold a teachers' institute for the whole county that summer.

People: James L. Currie

Judge Walter Clark gives the annual address at the 1888 commencement

Chosen by the Philanthropic Society, Walter Clark gave the annual address on the Wednesday of the 1888 commencement, speaking on the opportunities before young men and the duties that came with them.

Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

Stephen B. Weeks receives the university's first doctorate in English

At the 1888 commencement Weeks was the one candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy, with a thesis on 'The Maid of France and Schiller Versus Shakespeare.' It was the first doctorate given in English at the university.

Black parents in the Cool Spring district petition for Black school committeemen

Black residents of the Cool Spring district asked the board to replace their school committee with Black members of their own choosing. The board tabled the request.

The school board creates Cole's District at Walnut Grove on Anthony Cole's petition

After Anthony Cole petitioned for a school for about 65 children, the superintendent held a public meeting and the board set up Cole's District, No. 42, cut from parts of the Caldwell, Little River, Oak Grove and Walnut Grove districts.

The school board forms Bethel district for the Bethel Church community

On a petition from the Bethel Church community the board created a new district, Bethel, No. 43.

Fire destroys the Parish and Berry buildings and the Recorder printing office in Hillsborough

A fire before dawn burned Postmaster Harry L. Parish's brick building, which held the post office, his store and the Hillsboro Recorder's printing office, then spread to the three-story Berry building next door. The Recorder lost its press, type and subscription books.

People: Calvin E. Parish

Subject: Hillsborough Recorder

Hillsborough church men organize a Young Men's Christian Association at the Presbyterian manse

Men from the town's churches met at the Presbyterian manse on a Monday night, adopted a constitution and bylaws, and elected Charles M. Parks president and Joseph A. Harris secretary. The next meeting was called for the manse on December 10.

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

The school board runs Harmony School directly when no committee can be found

Unable to find anyone to serve as its committee, the board placed Harmony School under its own supervision so a school could be taught there.

Samuel M. Gattis becomes clerk of the Orange County superior court

Judge Gilmer appointed the young Hillsborough lawyer clerk of the superior court after Dr. Pride Jones resigned. Gattis was elected to the office in 1889 and held it until 1894.

People: Pride Jones

A small office from the Turner-Strudwick grounds is moved to East Orange Street

A one-story frame office on the Turner-Strudwick House lot, shown on John Bailey's 1839 map when the lot belonged to Josiah Turner Sr., was moved next door to 110 East Orange Street, two years after Edmund Strudwick of Norfolk bought the property. It was later enlarged into a house and rebuilt in 1987. It is not Dr. Edmund Strudwick's medical office on West King Street.

Subject: Turner-Strudwick House

Barbee Drive is cut beside Algernon Barbee's house lot

A road was opened along the eastern edge of Algernon S. Barbee's residential lot on Franklin Street and named Barbee Drive.

Chapel Hill physician William Peter Mallett dies

Mallett, the village's leading doctor, who had lived in Chapel Hill for more than thirty years, died in the fall of 1889.

People: William P. Mallett

Cornelia Phillips Spencer compiles a catalogue of every student since

For the 1889 centennial the university issued a general catalogue of students from 1795 to 1889, prepared by Cornelia Phillips Spencer after long correspondence and checked by Eben Alexander. It held 5,422 names, with Battle's sketches of the university's history.

People: Eben Alexander · Kemp Plummer Battle

First Baptist Church of Hillsborough repairs its church and ties the walls with rods

In 1889 the Romanesque Revival brick church at 201 West King Street, which John Berry finished by 1868, was fully repaired, including reinforcing its walls with rods.

Fred Smith begins about fifty years as conductor on the Chapel Hill branch train

Captain Fred Smith became conductor on the University Station branch in 1889 and kept the job for about half a century, until passenger service ended.

People: Fred Smith

Subject: University Station

James Lee Love leaves Chapel Hill for Harvard

Love left the university with his family in 1889 to teach mathematics at Harvard. His mother-in-law, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, stayed on in his East Franklin Street house.

People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

Law professor John Manning builds his house on East Franklin Street

Before 1892 Laura Phillips sold John Manning the lot west of the Presbyterian manse, and he built his home there. Manning had earlier set up the university's law school, and his daughter Mary stayed on in the house after he died in 1899.

Membership in the literary societies becomes voluntary

For many years every student had to join the Dialectic or Philanthropic Society. As the law, medical and pharmacy students grew in number and unwilling members disrupted meetings, joining was made voluntary in 1889.

Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

Mount Adar Baptist Church is organized

W. H. Whitted and A. J. Compton organized Mount Adar Baptist Church. A. T. Hord, first pastor at Berry's Grove two years earlier, was its first pastor too.

Orange County names its first superintendent of health

Ten years after the 1879 law allowing county boards of health, Orange organized one, and the state health board's report for 1889-90 lists Dr. D. C. Parris of Hillsborough as part-time superintendent. Dr. C. D. Jones succeeded him in 1898 and served until the full-time department began in 1935.

Students found the Order of Gimghoul after hearing the Dromgoole story

Five undergraduates founded a secret society after hearing university president Kemp Battle tell the Dromgoole story. They first called it the Order of Dromgoole and later shortened the name to Gimghoul.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

Subject: Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood

The Keystone Bridge Company replaces the wooden railroad bridge over the Eno at Hillsboro with an iron one

Crews of the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh began replacing the wooden railroad bridge over the Eno near the Hillsboro depot with an iron bridge, expecting to finish by August 10. Trains kept running across it at three miles an hour.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The Presbyterian church buys the Phillips house on East Franklin Street for a manse

After Charles Phillips left Chapel Hill and died in 1889, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian church bought his former home at 513 East Franklin Street and made it the minister's residence. Bryant dates the purchase to 1891.

Subject: University Presbyterian Church

The YMCA takes charge of regular gymnasium training

The trustees accepted a YMCA plan to put gymnasium exercises on a system, with each student paying a small fee, and Lacy L. Little, a recent honor graduate and former football captain trained at Springfield, was hired as trainer.

Subject: University YMCA

The university offers Mary Ruffin Smith's Jones Grove tract for sale in lots

A committee of Kemp P. Battle, John Manning and A. H. Merritt advertised for sale, in lots, the 1,500-acre Jones Grove tract just over the line in Chatham County that Mary Ruffin Smith had left the university. The sales took years and brought about $15,000, part of it later lent to start Chapel Hill's first electric plant.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle · John Manning

Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church

Orange Presbytery decides an estate dispute that had divided New Hope's session

A quarrel over a member's settlement of an estate, which Craig thought belonged in the civil courts, had been brought before the session. An adjourned meeting of the presbytery decided it, and the ruling deepened the split in the session.

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

Professor emeritus Charles Phillips dies

Phillips, who came to Chapel Hill at four, graduated in 1841, taught mathematics for decades and chaired the faculty at the 1875 reopening, died ten years after retiring. He was buried in the Chapel Hill cemetery, and a tablet in the Presbyterian church records his work in building it.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Hillsborough's town commissioners first meet in the new brick mayor's office and guard house

The town board met for the first time in its new brick building on the courthouse square, with the mayor's office in front and two cells for prisoners behind. The building committee accepted the work and the board ordered $560 paid in full.

Orange Presbytery removes all six active elders of New Hope

Member David A. Claytor had carried a petition, which most of the members signed, calling on the active elders to resign; three agreed and three refused. Meeting at the church, the presbytery heard the parties, dissolved all six elders' relation to the church and ordered a new election.

People: John T. Hogan

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

New Hope re-elects three of its removed elders

With the Rev. F. H. Johnston presiding, the congregation chose Charles W. Johnston, John T. Hogan and William C. Claytor again, and they were reinstalled before a large congregation.

People: John T. Hogan

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

Justices and commissioners elect a new board of education and school superintendent

In joint session on June 3 the justices and commissioners chose John Thompson, W. V. Andrews and D. S. Parker as the county board of education. The next day, at a joint meeting of the commissioners and the new board, B. C. Patton was elected county superintendent of public instruction in place of the Rev. J. L. Currie, who had resigned.

People: John W. Thompson

Sans Souci is sold at auction and passes to Episcopal Bishop Lyman

Sans Souci was sold at public auction to a bidder named Parrish, who at once assigned his bid to the Episcopal bishop of North Carolina, Bishop Lyman of Raleigh.

Subject: Sans Souci

The university celebrates the centennial of its charter

Alumni from Colorado to Florida filled Memorial Hall for a roll call of classes back to 1824, then sat down to a banquet for three hundred in Gerrard Hall with delegates from Harvard, Yale, Virginia and other schools. The reunion led to an annual alumni banquet, branch alumni associations and a drive to endow a chair of history.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

Subject: Memorial Hall · Gerrard Hall

Chapel Hill's new Methodist church is dedicated

During the centennial commencement Bishop W. W. Duncan preached at night in the new Methodist church, a collection cleared its $800 debt, and the church was dedicated.

Subject: University United Methodist Church

Mathematics professor Ralph Henry Graves dies

Graves, head of mathematics since the reopening, fell into deep depression, sought treatment in Baltimore and took his own life. His widow raised their four children in Chapel Hill and sent the sons through the university.

David C. Parks buys the Parks-Richmond lot and joins it to the Colonial Inn lot as one hotel

D. C. Parks bought Town Lot 18 on West King Street and combined it with Lot 15, the site of the present Colonial Inn, to run them as one hotel. The house on Lot 18 held the office, reception rooms and dining room, and the inn building held the sleeping rooms.

People: David C. Parks

Subject: Colonial Inn

A Hogan family log house goes up on Homestead Road

In the 1890s a one-room log house was built for one of the Hogans, a family with homes all along the road. About 1935 it was built over and enlarged.

A miller's house is built above Pritchard Mill

About 1890 a small frame I-house was set on a knoll over the Pritchard Mill site on Damascus Church Road. The survey found no other miller's dwelling in the township; an early log barn stands beside it.

B. C. Patton's report finds most Orange County schoolhouses still built of logs

Patton's annual report to the state counted 43 white and 41 Black schools with 1,425 white and 1,048 Black pupils. Thirty of the 43 white schoolhouses and 17 of the 24 Black ones were log buildings, and terms ran about twelve weeks.

Breeze School is built near Caldwell

A plain two-room frame schoolhouse with shuttered windows was probably built at Breeze, near Caldwell, in the 1890s. It is one of the few nineteenth-century schools left in the county.

Subject: Breeze School

Caldwell Institute post office grows into a small trading place

Around 1890 the Caldwell Institute post office, with about 119 people, had Jordan's and Terry's stores, Allison's carriage shop, a blacksmith, a doctor, Turner's Mill, the Caldwell Institute school and Little River Presbyterian Church.

Cedar Grove is the busiest post office community in its township

In the early 1890s Cedar Grove, with about sixty-five people, had the most businesses in its township. It had Cedar Grove Academy, the Methodist church, a doctor named Terrell, a tanner, a carriage maker and a dry goods merchant, with Eno Presbyterian Church and Compton's and Warren's mills a short way off. The High Rock and Yanceyville roads joined and ran east-west through the village.

Chestnut Ridge Methodist Church is organized

Chestnut Ridge Methodist Church was organized about 1890 and counted 270 members in 1953.

D. C. Parks has designer Jules Körner remodel his hotel buildings and Twin Chimneys

While he owned the Occoneechee Hotel, David C. Parks hired Jules Körner of Kernersville to update the hotel, the Parks-Richmond House next door and Twin Chimneys across West King Street, giving them new window and door frames with pointed-arch surrounds.

People: David C. Parks

Subject: Colonial Inn

Four post offices serve Bingham Township

In 1890 Bingham Township had post offices at Rock Springs (about 25 people), Teer's, Oaks (about 75) and Gath (about 40), each with nearby stores, doctors, carriage makers, blacksmiths and mills.

Harris Grove Baptist Church is built near Rougemont

Harris Grove Baptist Church in northeastern Orange County builds a front-gable frame church with a bell tower around 1890. Its cemetery holds burials from before 1920; the church stood empty by 1993.

Horace Williams begins teaching philosophy at the University of North Carolina

Williams joined the faculty in 1890 as professor of philosophy and chaired the department from 1890 until 1935. He taught at Chapel Hill for fifty years, until his death in 1940.

John Borland builds a two-story log house on his 100-acre farm

About 1890 John Borland put up a full two-story log house with half-dovetail corners. It is one of only two two-story log houses the survey found in the township.

Jule Gilmer Korner remodels the former Burwell School

In the 1890s the old Burwell School house was remodeled by Jule Gilmer Korner of Kernersville, who gave it a bracketed cornice, a sawnwork porch, a new hall stair and new mantels, including a marble one in the parlor. Several of the older mantels were lost in the work, which was done for an owner thought to be Mrs. Charles M. Parks.

Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 102 events

Subject: Burwell School

Laws and Border post offices serve the far corners of Cedar Grove Township

In 1890 Cedar Grove Township had post offices at Cedar Grove, Laws and Border. Border, in the far southwest of the township, counted about twenty people, and Laws, in the far northeast, about twenty-five.

Merchant Henry "Hoot" Patterson turns a West Cameron Avenue I-house into a Queen Anne villa

In the 1890s Henry "Hoot" Patterson, whose general store was on East Franklin Street, bought the frame I-house at 403 West Cameron Avenue and turned it into a Queen Anne house with a rose window in a front gable, bracketed eaves, a bay window and an elaborate porch that wraps the corner.

People: Henry Houston Patterson

Meridith post office serves northern Little River Township

Around 1890 the Meridith post office in northern Little River Township had J. Law's store, the Riley and McKee sawmill and Berry's Grove Baptist Church close by.

Most Orange County farmers are renters, sharecroppers or hired hands

In 1890, 58 percent of the county's farmers did not own their farms. Among Black farmers over half were field hands, a third sharecroppers and a tenth owners; more than a third of white farmers owned no land.

Robert Worth Bingham wins the university's Representative Medal

As a University of North Carolina student, Robert Worth Bingham won the Representative Medal in 1890 for his oration "Manifest Destiny and Manifest Duty."

Students start the Chapel Hillian newspaper

A student paper called the Chapel Hillian appeared, edited by F. H. Argo and S. A. Ashe Jr. It gave way to two rival papers, the White and Blue of the non-fraternity men and the Tar Heel of the fraternity men, and the Tar Heel outlasted its rival.

The Chapel of the Cross adds a chancel and vestry

A chancel and a vestry room were built onto the rear of the 1848 Chapel of the Cross, replacing its original back wall. The vestry kept its corner fireplace, paneled wainscot and built-in cupboards into the 1970s.

Subject: Chapel of the Cross

The Jacobs farmhouse is built on St. Mary's Road

A two-story frame farmhouse of the Triple-A type was built in the 1890s on what the 1999 survey called the Jacobs property, where three barns and a silo also stand.

The Manly Snipes House is built in southwest Orange County

The Manly Snipes House, a two-story farmhouse with a second-story wing projecting over the front entrance, was probably built around 1890.

The Pritchard-Poythress Farm is built

The Pritchard-Poythress Farm dates from the 1890s and was placed on the state Study List in July 1992 after the Chapel Hill Township survey.

The average Orange County farm is down to 114 acres

As plantation land was sold off after the Civil War, farms in Orange County grew more numerous and smaller; the 1890 agricultural census put the average at 114 acres.

The state superintendent tells Orange County to make its sheriff pay over the school taxes

Teachers were holding $500 in unpaid orders with nothing in the school treasury because Sheriff John Knox Hughes had not turned over the taxes he collected. Asked for advice, the state superintendent advised Patton to collect from the sheriff or take him to court.

The trustees ban intercollegiate athletic contests

After disputes with other colleges, the faculty in 1889 limited games to college grounds, and in 1890 the trustees forbade intercollegiate contests altogether. A student petition won repeal, with athletics put under an advisory committee of a professor, a graduate student and an undergraduate.

The university confers an honorary doctorate of laws on Zebulon Vance

The University of North Carolina awarded Vance an honorary LL.D. in 1890, listing him as a student who had entered in 1851.

The university starts a student medical fee

Each student paid $5 a year for medical care without further charge. The university's infirmary building followed in 1894.

Subject: University infirmary (Abernethy Hall)

The university's medical school reopens under Richard H. Whitehead

After Dean T. W. Harris left in 1886, the medical school closed for three years for lack of money. It reopened in 1890 as the Medical Department under Dr. Richard H. Whitehead.

Subject: UNC School of Medicine

Thomas Hume leads the university Shakespeare Club's study of All's Well That Ends Well

In the 1890-91 session Dr. Thomas Hume chaired a Shakespeare Club meeting on All's Well That Ends Well, gave a paper on the play's mixed styles and closed with notes on new books. Other members gave papers on the plot's source in Boccaccio and on its characters.

William Cain is elected to head mathematics and engineering

To succeed Ralph H. Graves the trustees elected William Cain of the South Carolina Military Academy, an author on bridge building, which let the faculty begin teaching civil engineering at little added cost.

William James Battle publishes a register of the Dialectic Society

The Dialectic Society catalogue, edited by William James Battle, was published in 1890. Its 168 pages hold a history of the society, members' recollections and sketches of members since 1795.

People: Richard H. Battle

Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

James Webb Jr. and Joseph C. Webb buy town lot 94 in Hillsborough

George C. Corbin, who had bought the property in 1878, sold the land and house on Hillsborough's lot 94 to James Webb Jr. and Joseph C. Webb. James Webb sold the lot to the Methodist church for a parsonage in 1903.

Professor Adolphus W. Mangum dies

Mangum, a Methodist minister who had taught mental and moral science, history and English since the reopening, died after a long illness. Josephus Daniels gave a memorial address in Gerrard Hall on May 31, 1891.

People: Josephus Daniels · Adolphus Williamson Mangum

Subject: Gerrard Hall

John W. Thompson of Cedar Grove becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

John W. Thompson, a Cedar Grove teacher, took over the county schools from B. C. Patton in June 1890. He held the post until the board was abolished in 1895 and stayed on as supervisor under the county commissioners.

People: John W. Thompson

Alumni pledge an endowment for a chair of history

At the 1890 commencement banquet, alumni answered a call to endow a chair of history: Julian S. Carr pledged $10,000 and Judge James Grant offered to make up the balance. Battle then visited alumni in the larger towns to complete the fund.

People: Julian S. Carr · Robert W. Winston

Frederick Strudwick dies and Hillsborough holds a meeting in his honor

Strudwick died on 29 July 1890 after an illness of several months and was buried in the Hillsborough Cemetery. A special town meeting led by C. E. Parish was convened in his honor. Between the legislature and his death he had served as solicitor for the Fifth District for eight years.

People: Calvin E. Parish

James E. Fogartie is installed as pastor of New Hope and Chapel Hill

Fogartie was called to New Hope jointly with the Chapel Hill church. About the same time the synod's evangelists W. D. Morton and a Mr. Maxwell held a meeting at New Hope that added a number of members.

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church · University Presbyterian Church

The school board rebukes teachers who skipped Charles McIver's institute

Told that some teachers had not attended the state institute taught by Charles D. McIver, the board passed a resolution regretting their want of zeal and noting that attendance was required by law.

A county farmer writes that merchants hold mortgages on most Orange farms

With tobacco and cotton prices falling, a yeoman farmer said Orange was "mortgaged to death," claiming merchants held liens on seven-tenths of the county's farms.

Benjamin Duke builds a country house at University Station

Durham tobacco industrialist Benjamin Duke built a large, richly trimmed country house at University Station in 1891. The site lay south of Hillsborough, where a railroad spur met the North Carolina Railroad. The retreat once took in a big pond, bridges, an office and many outbuildings; by 1993 most of these were gone, but the house with its wraparound porch was well kept.

Subject: University Station

Bennehan Cameron serves as a university trustee from Orange County

Bennehan Cameron, elected a trustee of the University of North Carolina in 1891 and listed from Orange County, served on the board until his death in 1925.

Bingham School leaves Orange County for Asheville

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

David G. Worth pays to refit Gerrard Hall with numbered chairs

David G. Worth of Wilmington gave $500 toward remodeling the university chapel, Gerrard Hall, where chairs replaced the old benches. Each student was given a numbered seat so monitors could report absences from morning prayers.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

Dickerson's Chapel remodels the old courthouse church

The AME congregation remodeled its building, the county's former courthouse, five years after buying it.

Subject: Dickerson Chapel AME Church

Dr. Abner B. Roberson buys the Central Hotel and moves his drugstore into it

After the hotel's owner, Jones Watson, died, Dr. Roberson bought the Central Hotel, moved his drugstore into it with Clyde Eubanks as druggist, and leased the hotel's management to 'Bunn' Patterson. Adam A. Kluttz opened a store called the Glass Front in the many-windowed west end of the building.

People: Jones Watson · Abner Benton Roberson · Clyde Eubanks · Adam Alexander Kluttz

Subject: Central Hotel (Chapel Hill)

Five Forks rivals Cedar Grove as a crossroads settlement

In 1891 the crossroads of Five Forks was probably as populous as Cedar Grove. Allen's flour and grist mill and Sharp's sawmill stood nearby, and a Dr. Murphy lived at the fork and likely kept a store. Riley School, Harmony Primitive Baptist Church and Mount Zion Church lay between Five Forks and Border.

George Tayloe Winston serves as president of the university

Elected president when Kemp Plummer Battle resigned in 1891, Winston led the university for five years, during which enrollment tripled to almost six hundred. In 1896 he left Chapel Hill to become the first president of the University of Texas.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

J. Laws keeps a country store at Laws post office

In 1891 J. Laws ran a small country store at the Laws post office in northeastern Cedar Grove Township. Walnut Grove Methodist Church, Sartain School, G. W. Parker's sawmill and Hawkins's flour and grist mill stood nearby.

J. McAdams runs a mill and a country store near Border

Around 1891 J. McAdams operated a mill and a small country store near the Border post office in southwestern Cedar Grove Township.

John H. Watson serves four years as mayor of Chapel Hill

Watson, who had been mayor in 1883 and again in 1885 and 1886, held the office from 1891 through 1894, his longest run. A. S. Barbee followed him.

Julian S. Carr buys Poplar Hill south of the Eno and renames the estate Occoneechee Farm

The Norwood family sold Poplar Hill, the house James Hogg had built about 1794 on the south bank of the Eno, to the Durham industrialist Julian S. Carr, who renamed the property Occoneechee Farm. Carr enlarged and altered the house over the next three decades.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm

Laura Phillips sells the old Fetter house to Sarah Wellington

After Charles Phillips died, his widow Laura sold off much of the family's property, including the old Fetter house on East Franklin Street. Professors John Manning, Edwin A. Alderman and Edward Vernon Howell lived there in turn over the next years.

Mary Ann Smith's bequest endows the university's chemistry chair

Smith of Raleigh had willed half her estate to the university in 1861 for a chair of chemistry applied to the useful arts, with free tuition for needy students. When she died in 1891 after many years in an asylum, the university settled its claim for $37,000, and her name went to the Smith professorship of chemistry and later the Mary Ann Smith dormitory.

Nash and Kollock School closes as a boarding school

The Nash and Kollock boarding school closed at the end of its 1890 to 1891 session after thirty-one years. The Misses Nash and Kollock went on with a day school from August 6, 1891.

People: Sarah Kollock · Maria Nash

Subject: Nash and Kollock School

Orange County adopts a countywide road tax

Using an 1889 state act, the county laid a road tax of 7 cents per $100 valuation and turned the money over to the township supervisors. It ran for 1891 and 1892 before the justices forced its repeal.

Robert Allen Eubanks opens a general store on Franklin Street

Robert Allen Eubanks opened a general store in the Franklin Street building that Dr. Abner B. Roberson had left when he moved his drugstore into the Central Hotel. He kept the store until 1933.

The Farmers' State Alliance buys the old Hillsborough Military Academy grounds

The former academy property west of Hillsborough passed in 1891 to the Farmers' State Alliance, the statewide farmers' organization, which bought the land. A 1913 plat of the neighborhood labels the old barracks as the Farm Life School building.

Subject: Hillsborough Military Academy

Trustees elect Richard H. Battle secretary and treasurer of the university

At the 1891 commencement meeting the trustees elected Richard H. Battle of Raleigh, a trustee since 1879, secretary and treasurer of the university in place of the late William L. Saunders. He held the office until his death in 1912.

People: William L. Saunders

Trustee Paul C. Cameron dies

Cameron, who had held nearly two thousand people in slavery before emancipation, chaired the building committees for the 1875 repairs and for Memorial Hall and lent $8,000 to finish the hall. After his death his heirs accepted ten Cameron Scholarships, each giving one student free tuition, in settlement of the loan.

The school board hires D. H. Thompson to audit the sheriff's school accounts

Rather than sue, the board engaged Major D. H. Thompson to go through Sheriff Hughes's accounts of school money, hoping to settle the matter without a lawsuit.

Kemp Battle resigns the presidency to take the new chair of history

Battle told the trustees in February 1891 that he would leave the presidency at the end of the session after fifteen years, and he became professor of history in the newly endowed chair. The trustees adopted resolutions of thanks.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

Hillsborough Methodist Church buys its first parsonage from C. M. Parks

The church bought about nine-tenths of an acre at Union and Churton streets, with a house that became its first parsonage. The trustees were H. N. Brown Sr., S. M. Gattis, J. A. Harris, O. J. Forrest and James Hedgepeth.

People: Samuel Mallett Gattis

Subject: Hillsborough Methodist Church

Julian S. Carr rebuilds the Occoneechee mineral spring with a marble basin and a rustic spring house

On his new Occoneechee Farm, Carr had the old mineral spring cleaned out and extended, set a marble basin in it, laid a cement floor and covered it with a rustic spring house with seats for visitors. The Orange County Observer described the finished work in September 1891.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm

Julian S. Carr nearly finishes a large stock barn at Occoneechee Farm

Carr's new stock barn at his Occoneechee plantation near Hillsboro was a brick and frame building 42 by 155 feet, with stalls for horses, mares and foals, storage for 500 tons of hay and an elevator.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm

Julian S. Carr builds a fieldstone gate wall at the entrance to Occoneechee Farm

Carr put up a stone gate wall at the farm entrance, two curving walls of fieldstone gathered on the farm, one on each side of the driveway, set with round pillars capped by stacked round stones. The Durham Daily Globe reprinted the Orange County Observer's description in December 1891.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm

Charles Baskerville plays fullback for Carolina

Baskerville was fullback and manager of the Carolina football squads of 1892, 1893 and 1894.

Collier Cobb joins the UNC faculty to teach geology

Cobb returned to Chapel Hill as assistant professor of geology and later headed the geology department. He taught at the university for forty years.

Harvey's Chapel AME Church is organized

Families who had met as a brush-arbor congregation bought land and founded Harvey's Chapel AME Church in 1892 on a ridge about three miles southwest of Hillsborough. Lefler and Wager dated it about 1903, named Avery Harvey and Harpy Elkins as organizers and the Rev. Sandy Aiken as first pastor, and listed it as a CME church, though it is AME.

Mildred C. Cameron gives St. Matthew's a new altar and reredos

Miss Mildred C. Cameron gave the altar and reredos in memory of Paul C. Cameron, Rebecca Graham and Pauline Sheppard.

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Professor Walter Dallam Toy buys the Graves house and makes it a bachelors' hall

The widow of mathematics professor Ralph Henry Graves sold their West Franklin Street house to Walter Dallam Toy, who shared it with several other unmarried professors.

St. Paul AME congregation builds its present church on Merritt Mill Road

St. Paul AME, the first all-Black congregation in Chapel Hill, put up the church that still stands in 1892, across Merritt Mill Road from the site of its first building near the old Quaker school.

Subject: St. Paul AME Church

The Hillsborough Presbyterian Church is stuccoed and given Gothic windows and a shingled tower

In 1892 the 1816 brick church was covered with scored stucco and given pointed-arch windows, a gabled roof and a shingled entrance tower with a spire. A two-story rear wing was probably added at the same time.

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

The Vance Daniel Farm is built

The Vance Daniel Farm was built about 1892 and was placed on the state Study List in July 1992 after the Chapel Hill Township survey.

The W. S. Guthrie family plot is enclosed with a cast-iron fence

The Guthrie plot in Section I has one of the most ornate iron fences in the cemetery, its gate cast with the family name, the date 1892 and a willow shading two lambs.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

The faculty delays fraternity membership to end a campus feud

After non-fraternity students threatened to take their grievances to the trustees and the legislature, President Winston and a faculty committee ruled that no student could join a fraternity until a year after matriculation. In 1896 the trustees set October of the sophomore year and forbade pledging in advance.

People: George Tayloe Winston

Watson and Pickard rebuild the Chapel Hill Hotel and add the University Inn Annex

With money from W. G. Peckham, a New York lawyer, John H. Watson and his partner W. W. Pickard tore down the old hotel except for the Polk apartment, rebuilt it, and added a large new section called the University Inn Annex.

People: John H. Watson

Subject: Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)

The new Glee Club gives its first concert

The Glee Club, formed in 1891 under Professor Karl P. Harrington, gave its first concert in Gerrard Hall and then toured Raleigh, Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Wilmington and other towns, giving its profits to the athletic association.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

Carolina's football team beats Virginia 26 to 0 at Atlanta

Under captain Michael Hoke the 1892 team lost only to Virginia in October and then beat Richmond College, Trinity, Alabama A. and M., Vanderbilt and, in a rematch at Atlanta, Virginia. Students met the team at University Station and pulled their carriages to the campus.

People: Charles Baskerville · George Tayloe Winston

A brass altar rail is given to St. Matthew's in memory of Mildred Cameron

At Christmas Miss Margaret Mordecai gave a brass altar rail in memory of Miss Mildred Cameron, who had given the altar earlier that year.

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Adam A. Kluttz builds a brick store on East Franklin Street

Kluttz bought half an acre from the heirs of John Wesley Carr and began a brick building just west of David McCauley's store. In 1894 he moved his general merchandise business across the street into it; the building later carried the number 149 East Franklin.

People: Adam Alexander Kluttz

Baths and a sewer line are installed with the repair appropriation

With the $10,000 repair appropriation of 1893 the university planned baths and water closets in the basement of Smith Hall, under the library. By about 1895 bathtubs, shower baths and closets were in use there, with a sewer run into Chapel branch south of the campus, and the university had contracted for an infirmary cottage.

Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)

Bishop Lyman and his wife sell Sans Souci to Miss Ruffin

Bishop Lyman and his wife sold Sans Souci to a Miss Ruffin, who kept it until her death in the 1930s.

Subject: Sans Souci

Black families' homes on Lot 16 are razed and an Alpha Tau Omega cottage goes up

The houses of Jordan Weaver, a Black preacher, and of two other Black families who had built on the old Lot 16 were torn down, and a cottage for the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity was built on the lot facing the Episcopal church.

Dr. Richard H. Whitehead buys Robert Strange MacRae's drugstore

Dr. R. H. Whitehead, head of the revived medical school, bought MacRae's drugstore at Franklin and Henderson streets. By 1904 Pickard and Strowd's confection and grocery store was in the building.

Edwin Alderman leaves Greensboro to teach at the university

Alderman, an 1882 graduate of the university and a founder of the State Normal in Greensboro, accepted a teaching position at UNC in 1893.

Geology professor Collier Cobb builds a Queen Anne cottage on East Franklin Street

Collier Cobb built his house at 517 East Franklin Street in 1893 and enlarged it later that decade. With its pedimented front wing, Palladian window and curving porch, it is one of the first Queen Anne houses in Chapel Hill.

Lee's Chapel Baptist Church is organized

William H. Standfield organized Lee's Chapel Baptist Church, a Black congregation, and was its first pastor.

Robert L. Strowd runs a general store on Franklin Street

Robert L. Strowd had a general store in the building where Charles L. Lindsay had sold furniture, dry goods and groceries. In 1901 he bought the building and its lot from Adele Tankersley.

The legislature rejects a bill to strip the university of undergraduates

A bill drafted by Davidson College president Shearer would have abolished the university's four undergraduate classes over ten years. After a joint committee hearing at which President Winston defended the university, the General Assembly of 1893 instead voted it $10,000 for repairs.

People: George Tayloe Winston

The name Texas appears on William Spoon's map of Alamance County

William Spoon's 1893 map of Alamance County labels a road in northern Pleasant Grove Township the Texas Road and the section below it Texas, the earliest dated use of the community's name that Hazel found. The 1928 county map uses the name as well; its origin is unknown.

The university pipes well water to its buildings

Until 1892 only the chemical laboratory had running water, from a small tank and a hand pump. In the summer of 1893 water from a large well was pumped by steam into iron tanks in the attic of the South Building for use across the campus, though the supply proved too small.

Subject: South Building

University tennis players beat Virginia and join the Intercollegiate Tennis Association

The university's tennis champions beat the University of Virginia and Richmond College on their own courts, and the university joined the ten-member Intercollegiate Tennis Association as its only Southern member. D. R. Bryson and H. C. Bridgers placed fifth in doubles at New Haven.

Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrate calcium carbide in Person Hall

Chemistry professor Francis P. Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrated the industrial uses of calcium carbide, the source of acetylene gas, in Person Hall.

People: Francis Preston Venable

Subject: Person Hall

Forest fire destroys Eno Presbyterian Church

Wind-driven woods fires on Saturday, April 1, 1893 burned the Eno Presbyterian church and its session house at the old site near the river. The loss preceded the congregation's move to Cedar Grove, where it built again in 1897 to 1899.

Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church

The justices of the peace vote to repeal the county road tax

In joint session, a majority of the county's justices voted to end the alternative road system while every commissioner voted to keep it. After a second standoff in July, the commissioners gave way on August 8, 1893.

Fire destroys Major John W. Graham's house at Montrose

Major John W. Graham's house east of Hillsborough burned to the ground on the night of October 19, with almost nothing saved and no insurance on a loss of about $15,000. It was the second Graham house lost to fire on the Montrose site, after the governor's house in 1862; the family moved into the old law office until the present house was built.

People: John W. Graham

Subject: Montrose

Walnut Grove Methodist Church dedicates its frame church

The congregation began a frame church in 1891 on land given by Anthony W. Cole, replacing the log building it had used since the 1840s, and dedicated it on October 29, 1893. The frame church served until the stone church of 1937 to 1942.

Subject: Walnut Grove Methodist Church

A one-story brick store, a drug store by 1900, is built at 109 West King Street

The 1894 Sanborn map shows a smaller building on the lot at 109 West King Street; by 1900 the map shows a brick store much like the present one, labeled a drug store. It was a jeweler's in 1911.

Adam A. Kluttz buys the old Sam Phillips house and law office

After the owner, Margaret Miller, died, her only heir, Mary Jane Cooper, sold the old Sam Phillips house on East Franklin Street, with the old law office, to the merchant Adam A. Kluttz.

People: Adam Alexander Kluttz

Alphonso and Anne McDade buy the house later called the McDade House

The heirs of Isaac Hudson sold the western half of the original Lot 5 on West Franklin Street to Alphonso J. McDade and his wife Anne. The McDades never lived there and rented the house to their daughter Minnie and her husband, J. E. Merritt.

People: Alphonso J. McDade

Annie L. Hughes keeps Cedar Grove Academy

Annie L. Hughes carried on a Cedar Grove Academy from 1894 until 1915, a decade after the death of Samuel W. Hughes ended his Hughes Academy.

Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)

Colonel George Tate is allowed to sell his county map to school committees

The board gave Colonel George Tate, maker of a map of Orange County, leave to offer it for sale to the school committee of every district.

Dilsey Craig, enslaved in the household of professor James Phillips, dies

Dilsey Craig (1802-1894) and Ben Craig were enslaved by the family of mathematics professor James Phillips and lived in the brick kitchen behind 501 East Franklin Street. Dilsey remained with the family long after freedom, and a memorial marks her in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Dixie Lee Bryant teaches at the summer school in Chapel Hill

Bryant, head of science at the State Normal and Industrial School in Greensboro, was on the faculty of the 1894 Summer School for Teachers and Students in Chapel Hill, teaching physical geography and botany.

Subject: University Summer School

Dr. Roberson adds a ten-room annex to the Central Hotel

Roberson enlarged the Central Hotel with a ten-room wing facing the campus. After his death in 1897 Kluttz ran the hotel for a short time before 'Bunn' Patterson took back its management.

People: Abner Benton Roberson

Subject: Central Hotel (Chapel Hill)

Frank Nash returns to Hillsborough to live and write

After breakdowns in health ended most of his Tarboro law practice, Frank Nash moved back to Hillsborough, where he had grown up at the Nash-Kollock school. He stayed about twenty years and began writing historical romances and local history.

James Long is elected to the county Board of Education after James Cole resigns

When James Cole left the Orange County Board of Education in 1894, James Long was chosen for the vacancy, a year before the legislature abolished the county boards.

The Masons leave their farm and a scholarship fund to the university

Mary Elizabeth Morgan Mason, who died in July 1894 a year after her husband James Pleasant Mason, left the university about 800 acres of Morgan family land near Chapel Hill. His $1,000 gift funded the education of poor students in the names of their daughters Martha and Varina, and their portraits were hung in the university library.

The University Magazine issues its Golden Jubilee number

In 1894 the University Magazine marked fifty years since its first issue with a Golden Jubilee number, prepared largely by faculty editor Collier Cobb and filled with articles on the university's history.

People: Collier Cobb · Kemp Plummer Battle · George Tayloe Winston · Stephen B. Weeks

The university builds an infirmary

A small wooden infirmary of five rooms went up on the campus in 1894, where the college physician treated sick students. The 1893-94 catalogue had promised it before the next session, and it was replaced by the larger infirmary of 1907.

Subject: University infirmary (Abernethy Hall)

The university opens a Summer School for Teachers and Students to women and men

The four-week school under Edwin A. Alderman admitted both sexes for a $5 fee and enrolled seventy-five, with academic and teaching departments staffed by university professors and teachers from the State Normal and city schools. It was one of four summer schools the university ran that year.

People: Dixie Lee Bryant · Edwin Anderson Alderman

Subject: University Summer School

William Hooper's remains are taken from Hillsborough to Guilford Courthouse battleground

The remains of William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence, were removed from his grave in Hillsborough's town cemetery and reburied at the Guilford Courthouse battleground near Greensboro. His original gravestone was left in the Hillsborough cemetery, on ground that had been his garden east of the house.

Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough

Justices and commissioners hold their last joint meeting

At the final joint session the justices elected John Thompson county superintendent of common schools, chose D. H. Hamilton, W. A. Maddry and M. W. Moore as commissioners, and set the 1894 tax. It closed out the justices' part in running the county.

People: John W. Thompson

George Trice advertises his oyster restaurant and shoe shop opposite the Chapel Hill Hotel

George Trice's advertisement in The Tar Heel offered fresh oysters three times a week, fries, stews, steaks and eggs, board at $10 a month, and neat shoe repairing at low cost, all at his place opposite the Chapel Hill Hotel.

Subject: Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)

Brodie Lloyd builds a rental house on Oak Avenue before the Alberta mill opens

The house at 307 Oak Avenue is one of very few in Carrboro older than the Alberta Cotton Mill and among the first investment houses of Brodie Lloyd, Thomas F. Lloyd's cousin; once the mill opened it was rented to its workers. Carpenter Thomas Clark and later his daughter and her husband, knitter Ben Williams, lived there from the 1920s.

People: Thomas Clark (Carrboro carpenter) · Brodie Lloyd

County commissioners take charge of the Orange County schools

From 1895 to 1897 Orange had no Board of Education or superintendent; the county commissioners ran the schools. John W. Thompson, superintendent before and after, returned in June 1897.

People: John W. Thompson

Dr. John S. Spurgeon buys the former Burwell School

The dentist paid Charles Parks $2,500 for lots 152 and 153. The Spurgeons, whose household included Carrie Waitt Spurgeon, daughter of a Burwell student, lived there for about seventy years and added electricity and plumbing.

Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 102 events

Subject: Burwell School

President Winston ends support and the University Magazine stops

In 1895 President George T. Winston decided the university was not getting enough for its subscription, and the University Magazine stopped publishing until it was revived a few years later.

People: George Tayloe Winston

Princeton's Thomas Trenchard coaches Carolina to its best football season yet

The Athletic Association hired Thomas G. "Doggie" Trenchard, an 1893 Princeton all-American, and his team won seven games and tied one before losing again to Virginia. In February 1896 President Winston called off a planned tribute to the coach, saying he had been drinking and betting on games while in Chapel Hill.

People: George Tayloe Winston

The Alpha Theta Phi honor society enrolls the best scholars

Dr. Tolman, who taught at the University in 1893-94, introduced Alpha Theta Phi, a society open only to the best scholars; by spring 1895 nine members of the class of 1896 belonged. In 1898 Archibald Henderson was its president and E. K. Graham its secretary, and a few years later it merged into Phi Beta Kappa.

People: Archibald Henderson · Edward Kidder Graham

The county is divided into five school townships, each with a five-man committee

When the county commissioners took over the schools, the county was regrouped into five school townships (Cedar Grove, Little River, Hillsboro, Bingham and Chapel Hill), each run by a committee of five in place of the many district committees.