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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1720s
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Herman Husband, the Regulators’ pamphleteer, was born
Herman Husband was born in Cecil County, Maryland, to an Anglican family and later became a Quaker. He settled at Sandy Creek, then in Orange County and now in Randolph County, where he reprinted and circulated political pamphlets and became a leading voice of the protest against county officers.
- 1750s
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Quakers set up Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in the country that became Orange County
About thirty Quaker families from Pennsylvania had settled near Cane Creek by 1751. Abigail Pike and Rachel Wright traveled 200 miles to the Perquimans County quarterly meeting for authority to organize, and the first monthly meeting was held on October 7, 1751. It is the oldest Quaker meeting in the North Carolina Piedmont.
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Orange County court orders St. Matthew's vestry to divide the parish into processioning districts
The county court directed the vestry of St. Matthew's Parish to split the parish into districts so that each person's land lines could be walked and recorded between October and April. No report back appears in the minutes, but later records name parish districts in the county, among them St. Mary's in the east.
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Town treasurer John Patterson is told to hold back ten shillings a lot for public use
The county court directed Patterson to keep ten shillings sterling from the price of each Corbin Town lot for public purposes.
- 1760s
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Farmers met at Maddock’s Mill to press the county’s officers to account for fees and taxes
Delegates from Orange County neighborhoods met at Maddock's Mill to ask their assemblymen and vestrymen how public money was spent. The officers refused to attend, and the meeting resolved that such conferences between voters and their representatives should be held every year.
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James Watson brings Edmund Fanning's answer to the Regulators' meeting at Maddock's Mill
When none of the county's officers came to the meeting, Watson arrived alone late in the day with word from Fanning that he considered it an insurrection. The delegates drew up Regulator Advertisement Number Three in his presence; Watson called it just and reasonable and promised to give copies to the county officials.
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Tryon pardons the 1768 protesters except thirteen named leaders
His proclamation left out men including James Hunter, Herman Husband, Ninian Bell Hamilton and William Payne.
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Tyree Harris reports the Regulators ready to pay their taxes
Writing to Tryon, Tyree Harris said that on recent visits to the Regulators in their homes he had found them willing to pay their taxes.
- 1770s
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Tryon's Council orders a proclamation against the Hillsborough rioters and defers the Assembly
Meeting at New Bern on the Hillsborough dispatches, the Council heard the Attorney General's opinion that pulling down Fanning's house and the assaults amounted to a riot, and ordered a proclamation requiring every justice of the peace to pursue the persons who assembled at Hillsborough on September 24 and 25. It advised putting off the Assembly to November 30.
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Regulators name the Orange County sheriff one of two officials charging fair fees
John Butler of the Hawfields was sheriff of Orange County in 1770, at the height of the Regulator crisis, and testified to the General Assembly that the Regulators had obstructed him in carrying out his duties. A Regulator petition of October 1770 nonetheless named him as one of only two public officials charging fair fees for their services.
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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Crowds force the Orange County polls to close four times in the election for the fifth Provincial Congress
The whole county, then taking in later Caswell, Alamance, Person and Durham, voted only at the Hillsborough courthouse, and the crush of voters forced four halts; by sunset about a quarter had voted. The winners, James Saunders, William Moore, John McCabe, John Atkinson and John Paine, faced a petition to keep them from their seats.
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Brigadier General Francis Nash of Hillsborough is killed at Germantown
Nash, promoted to brigadier general, died leading North Carolina troops at the Battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania. Word reached Orange County that October.
- 1780s
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From Hillsborough, Gates thanks the victors of Kings Mountain
On receiving the news of Major Ferguson's defeat at Kings Mountain, Gates wrote from Hillsborough thanking the commanding officers and ordering the prisoners sent under guard to Fincastle Court House, Virginia. The same day he told Governor Thomas Jefferson he would move the whole army to the Yadkin once supplies arrived.
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Alexander Martin takes the oath as acting governor while Burke is in enemy hands
Three weeks after Fanning carried Governor Burke out of Hillsborough, Alexander Martin, Speaker of the Senate, qualified before the Council of State at Colonel Williams's in Granville County and took up the administration. He told the council that the government must be supported and the most vigorous and decisive measures taken against so daring an enemy.
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Continental officers organize the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati at James Hogg's cabin
Former officers of the North Carolina Continental line gathered near Hillsborough in a cabin owned by the merchant James Hogg and founded the state's Society of the Cincinnati. They elected Jethro Sumner president, Thomas Clark vice president and Adam Boyd secretary. Sixty-six of the roughly six hundred commissioned officers the state sent to the war joined by contributing a month's pay.
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Thomas Lloyd signs his lands and enslaved people over to his sons-in-law
To keep his property from confiscation as a Loyalist, Thomas Lloyd conveyed his lands and the people he enslaved to his sons-in-law Daniel and John Hogan for nominal sums and leased them straight back. His property was never confiscated.
- 1790s
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William Hooper dies in Hillsborough
Hooper, one of North Carolina's three signers of the Declaration of Independence, died at Hillsborough in his forty-ninth year and was buried there.
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James Patterson buys two lots at the first Chapel Hill lot sale
At the sale held the day Old East's cornerstone was laid, Patterson, the building's contractor, bought village lots 4 and 5 for 108 pounds 10 shillings. The cornerstone procession that day set out from his inn.
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Old East cornerstone is laid
William Richardson Davie and fellow trustees laid Old East’s cornerstone; October 12 is observed as University Day.
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The first town lots in Chapel Hill are sold at auction
After the Old East cornerstone was laid, the commissioners auctioned the village lots on the spot; 29 lots brought more than 1,500 pounds, and one was held back for the president's house.
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Richard Bennehan gives shells for mortar for Old East
Bennehan donated fifty bushels of shells for making mortar for the university's first building. In 1796 he gave an air pump and thirty-two books.
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Joseph Green becomes the first student dismissed from the university
Green and Frank Burton went to a cotton-picking frolic after being forbidden. Burton accepted public admonition, but Green refused and was dismissed by the faculty under David Ker.
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Joseph Caldwell arrives in Chapel Hill as professor of mathematics
Joseph Caldwell, a Princeton graduate and tutor, moved to Chapel Hill in October 1796 to teach mathematics at the new university. He became presiding professor the next year.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1800s
-
Hillsborough Academy reopens for boys and girls under Andrew Flinn
The academy's trustees announced that it had reopened on a larger plan for youth of both sexes under the Rev. Andrew Flinn, teaching Latin, Greek, English, mathematics and bookkeeping.
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Crowds camp for days at Hawfields for the fall communion
The revival that began at Cross Roads reached Hawfields at its fall communion. People came from long distances and, with too few houses nearby to take them in, camped on the church grounds in their wagons for several days. William Henry Foote's Sketches of North Carolina (1846) dates this to October 1802 in one chapter and to October 1801 in another, where he calls it the first camp meeting in North Carolina; a 1966 article in the North Carolina Historical Review puts the five-day Hawfields meeting a few weeks after the March 1801 Cross Roads communion.
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Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies
Hillsborough Academy opened on a larger plan under Andrew Flinn in October 1801 and grew under William J. Bingham, principal from 1827 until 1844, when he left to open his own school at the Oaks. The Burwell School for girls ran from 1837 to 1857. The Nash and Kollock School opened in 1858 and Hillsborough Military Academy in January 1859. The military academy closed for a time in 1865 at the end of the Civil War.
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The Hillsborough Races are run over three days
The Hillsborough Races opened on a Thursday in October 1804 with three-mile heats, followed by two-mile and one-mile heats on the next two days. A Raleigh paper printed the winners, among them General Benton's Junius and Major Strudwick's Tom Jefferson.
- 1810s
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Justice Alfred Moore dies and leaves Moorefields to his son
Former U.S. Supreme Court justice Alfred Moore, builder of Moorefields, died and willed the house to his son Alfred, a lawyer who went on to serve in the House of Commons and as its speaker in 1823-1824.
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A gunpowder bomb explodes outside tutor John Patterson's door
Apparently in revenge for the Shepard suspensions, someone filled a brass door knob with powder, lit a match fuse and left it at Patterson's door. A student picked it up and dropped it moments before it went off, and no one was hurt.
- 1820s
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Alexander Gattis, Samuel Faucett and Gilbert Strayhorn are ordained elders at New Hope
The session added three ruling elders; Gilbert Strayhorn was a grandson of the founding elder and a son of William Strayhorn.
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Archibald D. Murphey's trustees advertise thirty to forty enslaved people for sale
In a notice dated October 30, 1821, James Webb and David Yarbrough, holding Archibald D. Murphey's property in trust, advertised between thirty and forty enslaved people for sale on December 11 at Murphey's Haw River mills, together with his lands. Lefler and Wager call the number unmatched in Orange sale notices, where most sales involved one or a few people.
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A committee seeks builders for a brick academy in Hillsborough
The Hillsborough Academy building committee advertised for contractors to put up a brick academy large enough for about 150 students, taking proposals until the first Monday in December; Joseph A. Woods was its secretary and held the plan.
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The Synod of North Carolina meets at Hillsborough
The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina opened its session at Hillsborough with a sermon by the moderator, the Rev. J. M. Wilson. Heavy rains the week before kept most of the western members away.
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The Union Hotel company calls its Hillsborough stockholders for their last installment
William Kirkland, president of the stock company that owned Hillsborough's Union Hotel, called on the stockholders to pay their last installment of $14.85 a share by November 28 and summoned them to a general meeting at the hotel in court week.
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The synod forms the Education Society of North Carolina at Hillsborough
During its session at Hillsborough the Synod of North Carolina formed the Education Society of North Carolina to help poor and pious young men study for the ministry, and adopted its constitution. Joseph Caldwell was chosen president, Frederick Nash a vice president, Dr. James Webb treasurer and Shepard K. Kollock secretary, with Elisha Mitchell among the managers.
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The wardens of the poor buy 470 acres for a county poorhouse
Enoch Thompson deeded about 470 acres to the Wardens of the Poor of Orange County for $800, for a poorhouse and the support of paupers there. The poorhouse on this land stayed in use until 1941.
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Bishop Ravenscroft consecrates Salem Chapel, built by Duncan Cameron near his home
Duncan Cameron paid for a chapel near his residence in Orange County for his household and neighbors, standing by 1825 and still unfinished when the bishop preached in it in May 1826. After Cameron executed the deeds, Bishop Ravenscroft consecrated it as Salem Chapel on Sunday, October 7, 1827, assisted by Mr. Wright of Salisbury and by William Mercer Green, who served it from Hillsborough.
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Citizens of western Orange meet at the Hawfields to back Andrew Jackson for president
Citizens of the western part of Orange met at James Johnston's house in the Hawfields, with Maj. John Thompson in the chair, and resolved to oppose John Quincy Adams and support Andrew Jackson. They named a committee of correspondence to work with the county's Jackson committee and asked for an amendment so that the people would choose the president directly.
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A Chapel Hill meeting sets out to make New Hope Creek navigable
A meeting at Chapel Hill, with James Mebane in the chair, adopted Joseph Caldwell's resolutions to clear New Hope Creek for boats from Patterson's mill to the Haw, named committees to rally the people along the creek and to have it surveyed mile by mile, and raised a subscription toward the survey.
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The Orange County Bible Society finds a thousand families without a Bible
Meeting at Salem meeting house, the Orange County Bible Society elected William Norwood president and reported that its agents had found about a thousand families in the county without a Bible; it resolved to supply every one through paid agents the next spring and then to join the state society's drive.
- 1830s
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New bishop Levi S. Ives confirms thirty at St. Matthew's on his first visit to Hillsborough
Two weeks after leaving New York for his new diocese, Bishop Levi S. Ives reached Hillsborough and preached four times in St. Matthew's over a weekend, giving communion to some fifty or sixty people and confirming thirty. Eleven of those confirmed were men, seven of them University of North Carolina students.
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Job, later Rev. Job Berry, is baptized at St. Matthew's
Job, enslaved by George W. B. Burgwyn, was baptized at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church by William Mercer Green and confirmed the next April. As Job Berry he later led Hillsborough's first Black congregation.
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Maj. Gen. Jehu Byrd dies in Orange County
Maj. Gen. Jehu Byrd, a militia general who had served as a lieutenant in the War of 1812, died in Orange County on October 16, 1833.
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William E. Anderson and Samuel J. Johnston take over the female boarding school near Hillsborough
The seminary for young ladies near Hillsborough, lately run by Walker Anderson, passed to William E. Anderson and Samuel J. Johnston, who said they would keep it on the same plan with the same music and drawing teachers. Their first session was set for early 1834.
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Hillsborough's primary school closes for want of pupils
Robert H. McCaulley, who had taken over the town's primary school from Mr. Paul after passing the examination the town commissioners required before the principal of the Hillsborough Male Academy, closed it after about three weeks with three scholars and gave a public reading at the court house to cover his costs.
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Orange County's members-elect back a state-aided railroad
All the members elected for Orange County declared themselves for beginning at once a railroad from Beaufort to Raleigh, with the state taking two-fifths of the stock, and the editor reported that the county no longer hesitated on the question.
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Hillsborough meeting sends Frederick Nash to the Salisbury railroad convention
Hillsborough citizens met to choose a delegate to the internal improvement convention at Salisbury, with Col. Charles M. Latimer in the chair and Dr. Allen Parks as secretary. Latimer urged a railroad from the Yadkin to Raleigh crossing Orange near Hillsborough, and on Giles Mebane's motion the meeting chose Frederick Nash to represent the citizens of Orange.
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Commissioners take bids for a stone wall around the St. Mary's graveyard
The Hillsborough Recorder reported that commissioners were letting the contract for a stone wall around the burying ground at St. Mary's. The dry-laid fieldstone wall still encloses the one-acre lot where the first log chapel stood.
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Alexander Gattis Sr. and Thomas King deed land to the Orange Methodist Church trustees
Each man deeded two acres to the trustees of Orange Church, giving the congregation its own ground. Gattis was himself a ruling elder of New Hope Presbyterian Church.
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The university enrolls more students than ever before
The university was reported to have more students than at any earlier time, among them 19 seniors, 27 juniors and 39 sophomores.
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Joshua Berry is killed at his grog shop near the Person County line
Marcus Armstrong, refused more liquor at Joshua Berry's grog shop near the Person line, threw Berry over the railing of the piazza and broke his neck and back, killing him at once; Armstrong fled and had not been taken.
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Commissioners seek bids to repair the Eno bridge at Hillsborough
John U. Kirkland was one of five commissioners, with Cadwallader Jones, Edmund Strudwick, Josiah Turner and Catlett Campbell, who advertised for proposals to repair the bridge over the Eno at Hillsborough, with bids due in November.
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Orange petitioners ask the legislature for a state lunatic asylum
A petition to the General Assembly for a state lunatic asylum circulated in Orange on the unanimous recommendation of the county justices at the August court, telling of three insane people kept at the poorhouse, two of whom the wardens of the poor had lately moved from the common jail into rooms prepared for them.
- 1840s
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Elisha Mitchell shows his chemistry class an electromagnet
On October 6, 1841, Ruffin W. Tomlinson wrote, Professor Elisha Mitchell showed the senior class experiments with an electromagnet he had just received from Philadelphia, the first shown to any class at the university. The village ladies attended.
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Anderson Mayo is executed at Hillsborough for the murder of his wife
Anderson Mayo, a free Black man convicted of murdering his wife at the fall term of the Orange County Superior Court, was executed at Hillsborough under his sentence.
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Pleasant Tudor is executed for the murder of James Roney
Pleasant Tudor, convicted at the September Superior Court of murdering James Roney, was hanged under his sentence.
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Jesse O'Daniel dies after Henderson Griffin strikes him with a rifle barrel
Jesse O'Daniel was struck on the head with the barrel of a rifle by Henderson Griffin on October 5 and died of the blow on the night of October 13. Griffin was jailed at once to await trial; the paper laid the affair to drink.
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Anderson G. Hughes, born near Eno, is installed pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads
Orange Presbytery allowed the two churches to take Hughes as stated supply in May 1843 and installed him that October. His thirty-year pastorate, the longest in Hawfields history, ended when he collapsed in the Cross Roads pulpit in June 1873.
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Hillsborough orders free people of color to prove their freedom and post bond to live in town
The town commissioners directed the town constable and the patrol captains to bring before the magistrate of police any person of color passing as free who was not known to be free; anyone who could not show free papers within thirty days was to be jailed. Free people of color settling in town had to give a hundred-dollar bond for good behavior or leave, and an enslaved person found at a grog shop without a written pass could be given up to thirty-nine lashes.
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Mrs. Harris of Orange makes silk handkerchiefs from silk she raised
The editor was shown two heavy, well-made silk handkerchiefs from a lot made in the county by Mrs. Harris, who had also raised enough silk for six yards of cloth. He urged other women to take up silk culture.
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Trustees tell Swain to ask Robert Donaldson about plans for society halls and a landscape gardener
In October 1843 the board directed President Swain to write to Robert Donaldson in New York about how best to get plans for new literary society halls and to find someone skilled in laying out the grounds, and at what price.
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Whigs hold a two-day mass meeting on the Alamance battleground
Whigs from Orange, Wake and neighboring counties camped for two days on the ground of the 1771 Battle of Alamance, hearing George E. Badger, Henry K. Nash, Henry W. Miller, Charles Manly, Ralph Gorrell and others tie the Regulators' cause to their own. Michael Shoffner, who owned the land, declared that the ground should henceforth belong to the nation in memory of the battle, and on October 11 Hillsborough's Whigs met the returning Wake delegation with a procession and a supper at the Masonic Hall.
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Julian Shakespeare Carr, later Carrboro's namesake, is born in Chapel Hill
Julian S. Carr was born in Chapel Hill on October 12, 1845, the son of the Franklin Street merchant John Wesley Carr, and later studied at the university. He built tobacco, banking and textile fortunes in Durham, and his Durham Hosiery Mills went on to own both Carrboro mills; the town took his name in 1913.
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David L. Swain and Charles Phillips transfer from New Hope to the Chapel Hill church
University president David L. Swain, who first joined a church at New Hope, and Charles Phillips were released by letter to the Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill.
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William Smith shoots his wife Elizabeth near Hillsborough
William Smith shot his wife Elizabeth with a musket at their home about two miles from Hillsborough, and she died of her wounds the next night. The paper withheld details because the case was to go before the courts.
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Helen Caldwell dies and is buried with her husband at his monument
Helen Hogg Caldwell, widow of President Caldwell and a leader of village society, died at Chapel Hill on October 30, 1846 while visiting John DeBerniere Hooper. Caldwell's remains were taken up on October 31 and laid beside hers at the base of his monument, with the president and faculty as pallbearers.
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The Chapel of the Cross is consecrated
Bishop Levi Silliman Ives consecrated the Episcopal church at Chapel Hill as the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Designed by Thomas U. Walter for the parish William Mercer Green organized in 1842, it was built of bricks fired by enslaved people at kilns on Green's farm and included a wooden gallery for enslaved worshippers.
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Hillsborough forbids Black people to loiter in the streets on Sundays
The Hillsborough commissioners unanimously ordained that no free Black or enslaved person could loiter about the town streets on Sunday, punishing enslaved offenders with ten lashes for a first offense and twenty for a second and fining free Black offenders fifty cents and then a dollar. The board also paid for cleaning the town well and putting in a new pump.
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William N. Whitted advertises Lochiel for sale
William N. Whitted offered Lochiel, his place a mile northwest of Hillsborough, for sale: an eleven-room house with barn, ice house and kitchen on 205 acres, with 140 more acres to the northeast. The notice ran in the Recorder into early 1851.
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The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina meets in Hillsborough
The Synod of North Carolina met in Hillsborough with seventy to eighty ministers and a number of elders, elected John A. Gretter of Greensborough moderator, adopted a plan for colporteurs to distribute Presbyterian books, and thanked the town's citizens and its Methodist and Baptist churches for opening their houses of worship.
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Alamance physicians meet at Graham to organize a county medical society
Physicians of the new county of Alamance met in Graham, with Dr. Samuel Holt in the chair and D. A. Montgomery as secretary, to form a county medical society, named a committee to draft its constitution and invited every physician in the county to join.
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The Hillsborough saddlers Fuller & Hedgpeth end their partnership
The saddle and harness partnership of Fuller & Hedgpeth in Hillsborough came to an end. Solomon Fuller carried on the saddling business alone from a shop one door from the stand the firm had occupied.
- 1850s
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Four professors and fifteen students join the Sons of Temperance at Chapel Hill
Philip S. White, past Most Worthy Patriarch of the national Sons of Temperance, lectured twice at Hillsborough on October 11 and then at Chapel Hill, where on the night of October 12 he initiated four members of the university faculty and fifteen or more students into the order.
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Nathan Hooker's executor advertises his land and town lots for sale
O. Hooker, executor of the late Nathan Hooker, gave notice of a sale on November 24, 1852 at Hooker's former residence: a large tract south of town, Lots 84 and part of 85 in Hillsborough, and a hundred-acre tract half a mile north of town, with furniture, a buggy and cows.
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Hillsborough sells town lots beside the railroad station
The town of Hillsborough sold at auction the lots its commissioners had laid off near the coming North Carolina Railroad station. Ten lots of less than an acre each by the station brought $3,819 in all, and five one-acre lots in the northwest part of town sold for much less; the buyers were townspeople.
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Orange County holds its first agricultural fair at Hillsborough
The Orange County agricultural society held its first annual fair over two days, with 81 entries and 190 articles in the stock and mechanical departments and 180 in Floral Hall. Prizes went to castings from Allen Brown's Eagle Foundry, cloth from the Alpha Woolen Mills, local ploughs, carriages by A. C. Murdock and Hurdle & Hurdle, saddles and leather, and Paul C. Cameron gave a two-hour address on the second day.
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Paul Cameron tells the county agricultural society the railroad will wake Orange up
Speaking for two hours at the county's first agricultural fair at Hillsborough to the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, and Manufactures, Cameron predicted the coming railroad would shake local farmers and businesses out of their old habits.
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Aggie and Martin, an enslaved couple, join the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church
Aggie, enslaved by James Watson, and her husband Martin, enslaved by a Freeland household at New Hope, were received as members on a certificate from New Hope Church. The centennial booklet gives them as proof that the church had enslaved members before the war.
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The Orange County agricultural society holds its second annual fair at Hillsborough
The Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts and Manufactures held its second annual fair in the court house and on the fair grounds at Hillsborough, and John W. Norwood gave the annual address on the second day. Premiums went to C. C. Tinnin for the best corn, 13 barrels and 3 bushels from about an acre, to J. N. Craig for wheat, and to William H. Brown and Alexander Dickson for flour, among others.
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Hillsborough forms the Orange Guards volunteer company
Stirred by a visit from the Independent Guards of Raleigh on October 27, Hillsborough men formed a volunteer company of sixty-two members called the Orange Guards. They chose Dr. Pride Jones captain, Josiah H. Webb first lieutenant, Henry K. Nash ensign, William Johnston Freeland orderly sergeant, Dr. William Strudwick surgeon and Frederick N. Strudwick judge advocate.
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Rev. John A. Bingham, former Latin professor at the Caldwell Institute, dies at his brother's home
Rev. John A. Bingham died at his brother William J. Bingham's home in Orange County in his forty-first year. Raised and taught by his brother at the Hillsborough Academy, he had taught there with him, was licensed by Orange Presbytery in 1841, and was professor of Latin at the Caldwell Institute from 1845 until illness forced him to give up the post.
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Rev. James B. Donnelly, rector of St. Matthew's Church, dies
Rev. James B. Donnelly, rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, died on the eve of All Saints' Day. A native of Catskill, New York, and a Yale graduate trained partly at the General Theological Seminary, he had been ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Ives.
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Benjamin Hedrick answers his accusers with a public defence of his Free Soil views
Attacked in the Raleigh Standard by an anonymous alumnus, later identified as law student John A. Engelhard, Hedrick wrote a reply from Chapel Hill saying he favored Fremont and opposed carrying slavery into the territories, citing Washington, Jefferson and Clay. The Standard printed it on October 4 and called for his removal.
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Students burn Professor Hedrick in effigy on the campus
On the Saturday night the Standard with Hedrick's letter reached Chapel Hill, students hung and burned him in effigy in the college grounds while the bell was tolled, and did it again on the Monday night. President Swain spoke to the whole student body on the Sunday morning, and talk of tarring and feathering him reached Raleigh.
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The faculty vote 12 to 1 to disown Hedrick's published views
Called together by President Swain, the faculty resolved that Hedrick's letter broke the university's custom of keeping out of party politics and that no other member shared his opinions, while expressing personal regard for him. Instructor H. Herrisse cast the only vote against, saying no one suspected the faculty of Republicanism.
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President Swain argues that the trustees' executive committee has no power to dismiss a professor
Writing to trustee secretary Charles Manly, Swain read the charter to mean that only the full board could remove a professor, and only for misbehavior, inability or neglect of duty. He urged the committee to wait for the annual meeting and to charge Hedrick, if at all, with breaking university usage rather than with his opinions.
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The trustees' executive committee rules that Hedrick has destroyed his usefulness to the university
Meeting under Governor Thomas Bragg, the committee resolved that Hedrick's letter broke the rule against professors agitating party politics, approved the faculty's stand, and found he could no longer serve the university. The resolutions were sent to Chapel Hill but not published.
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Hedrick reports 14 scientific students and 44 seniors in his chemistry courses
Asking the trustees for a full hearing, Hedrick described his scientific course: 14 students had enrolled in it that session and 44 seniors had chosen his subjects in place of the regular course. He asked the board to move carefully over a school in which he had staked a great deal.
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The university dismisses Benjamin S. Hedrick over his Free Soil views
In 1856 faculty member Benjamin S. Hedrick admitted and defended in the newspapers his preference for the Free Soil party. President David L. Swain disapproved of his speaking out, and on October 18, 1856 the trustees' executive committee, meeting in Raleigh, dismissed Hedrick and paid his salary to the end of the session; Swain objected only that the committee had taken authority belonging to the full board.
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Henry Harrisse protests to the trustees' executive committee
In a letter from Chapel Hill dated October 23, 1856, French instructor Henry Harrisse told the executive committee of the board of trustees that his recent memorials to the board had aimed only at needed reforms, and complained that the contest was turning into a personal quarrel that could only harm the university.
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Orange County Agricultural Society holds its third fair near Hillsborough
At the society's third annual fair, on its grounds near Hillsborough, members elected Paul C. Cameron president and Thomas Webb secretary. Cameron, away in Alabama, had given the society a flag that flew from a pole more than eighty feet high.
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Alves, an enslaved man sentenced to death, is baptized at St. Matthew's
St. Matthew's register records the baptism of Alves, "a slave under sentence of death," with James Waddell as witness.
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The Orange County Agricultural Society holds its fourth fair near Hillsborough
The society held its fourth annual fair on its grounds near Hillsborough on October 29 and 30, re-elected Paul C. Cameron president, and heard him speak when no orator could be had. Premiums went to Jones & Hooker of Hillsborough for implements, furniture and iron castings, to A. C. Murdock for buggies and to John Laws for tinware, and the paper reported yields of 55 bushels of corn on an acre, 20 bushels of wheat on half an acre and 1,100 pounds of tobacco on an acre.
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The Orange Guards host the Oak City Guards of Raleigh for their second anniversary
The Orange Guards celebrated the second anniversary of the company at Hillsborough with the Oak City Guards of Raleigh as their guests. The Raleigh company later sent formal thanks, which the Orange Guards received at a meeting in the Masonic Hall on November 13 with Col. Pride Jones in the chair.
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Alexander Dickson of Orange patents a combined turning and subsoil plough
Alexander Dickson of Orange County had by early October 1858 obtained a patent for a plough that turned and subsoiled the ground in one pass, with a detachable subsoil attachment; the editor examined one at James Webb's store in Hillsborough.
- 1860s
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The Orange Guards celebrate their fifth anniversary with visiting companies
On Monday, October 1, the Orange Guards under Captain Pride Jones marked their fifth anniversary by receiving the Flat River Guards and the Guilford Greys at Hillsborough. With the Salisbury Brass Band the companies paraded, watched the Hillsborough Military Academy cadets drill, where Paul C. Cameron thanked Colonel C. C. Tew for the school, and held a ball at the Masonic Hall before parting on October 2.
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Presiding elder William Barringer dedicates the new Methodist church in Hillsborough
The brick church that Capt. John Berry built on the Tryon Street lot bought in 1859 was dedicated by William Barringer, presiding elder of the Raleigh District. The first sermon in it was preached by Jesse A. Cunninggim.
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The Eno Soldiers' Relief Society gathers supplies for the army
The women of the Eno Soldiers' Relief Society had sent or readied a large store of supplies for Confederate soldiers by late October, among them blankets, comforts, sheets, pillows, towels, shirts, drawers and more than a hundred pairs of socks, with hospital stores such as old linen, lint, bandages, sugar and tea.
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The Orange Cavalry leaves its Hillsborough camp for the coast
The Orange Cavalry, Capt. Josiah Turner Jr.'s company, left its camp at Hillsborough for a camp near Kittrell's Springs and then Hertford, and by mid-October was at Camp Pembroke near Edenton. First Lt. William A. Graham Jr., commanding, thanked the women of Hillsborough for their kindness during the encampment, and in November the company received uniforms they had made.
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Hillsborough women ride to Durham's almost daily to feed sick and wounded soldiers on the trains
Six or eight members of the Hillsborough Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society took the train to Durham's nearly every day, handing out food and tending sick and wounded soldiers passing through before returning in the evening. The society appealed to exempted men and men over thirty-five in Orange to give provisions and money for the work.
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Pastor Henry B. Pratt tells the Presbyterian session he will serve the army as a chaplain
Pratt informed the Hillsborough church that he expected to go into Confederate service for the rest of the war once he obtained a chaplain's commission. He returned as pastor in 1867-68.
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The Orange Guards lose seven killed at Bristoe Station
In the charge of Cooke's and Kirkland's North Carolina brigades at Bristoe Station, Virginia, Company G of the 27th North Carolina, the Orange Guards, lost seven men killed, among them Corporal H. P. Woods, and many wounded, including Capt. S. Dickson; Lieut. James A. Graham of the company sent the full list home for publication.
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Swain asks Jefferson Davis to exempt university students from the draft
Acting on a trustee resolution of October 8, President David L. Swain wrote from Chapel Hill to Jefferson Davis asking that the remaining students be spared from conscription. He reported 63 students left of the 430 enrolled in 1860 and fifteen young men of the village already killed. The Conscript Office then told the district enrolling officer to grant the exemptions.
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Merchant Henry N. Brown gives $5,000 to the Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society
The Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society acknowledged $5,000 from merchant Henry N. Brown, smaller sums from other townspeople, and gifts of wool, yarn, socks, sheeting, flour, sugar and food, including wool from Mrs. P. C. Cameron and sugar from the Misses Nash and Kollock.
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Job Berry buys an acre on South Wake Street
Months after emancipation, Job Berry paid Henry N. Brown $300 for parts of lots 20 and 17 off South Wake Street, next to the Nash and Kollock School, where his wife Rebecca Nash had been enslaved.
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A special county court at Hillsborough sets the state docket for trial
Sitting in special session at the Hillsborough court house, the county court ordered notice that every case on the state docket would stand for trial at the regular Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions on the fourth Monday of November, as the county's courts took up business again under the provisional government.
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Dennis Heartt is Hillsborough's postmaster
Dennis Heartt signed the Hillsborough post office's list of uncalled-for letters of October 1, 1865, as postmaster, in place of Calvin E. Parish, who had signed the list of April 1.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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The Bureau's school superintendent seeks Quaker teachers for Chapel Hill and Bane's School House
After Lieutenant Isaac Porter answered a schools survey on September 24, 1866, superintendent F. A. Fiske wrote on October 6 that he expected the Friends of Philadelphia, through their superintendent George Dixon, to send two teachers to Hillsborough and would try to get them to send others to Chapel Hill and to Bane's School House, though the society's funds were low. On October 15 Porter reported that Black residents throughout the sub-district were providing schools for themselves with much success, while in his view the schooling of poor whites was entirely neglected.
-
The Bureau office warns that Orange County provides only for its white poor
Asked what suffering to expect in the coming winter, Lieutenant Isaac Porter replied on October 15, 1866, that helpless Black people in Orange would lack food and clothing because the county provided only for white paupers. The chairman of the wardens of the poor told him the November county court would take up provision for the Black poor, and Porter added that no one would suffer for want of protection while the government kept a Bureau officer there.
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Orange elects John Berry to the state Senate and S. D. Umstead and W. W. Guess to the Commons
In the state election of Thursday, October 18, 1866, Orange County chose Capt. John Berry for the state Senate over Richard M. Jones and Thomas Vickers, and S. D. Umstead and William W. Guess for the House of Commons over John F. Lyon, B. C. Hopkins and John H. Watson. The county also voted for Governor Jonathan Worth over Alfred Dockery.
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The Bureau relieves Lt. Isaac Porter and puts Orange County under its Raleigh agent
Special Orders No. 120 relieved Porter from Bureau duty in North Carolina and added Orange and Person counties to the sub-division of Wake and Chatham under Dr. H. C. Vogell at Raleigh, to whom Porter was to turn over the Bureau's property. The Hillsboro letter book then has no entries until late February 1868.
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William A. Graham writes from Hillsborough against the convention call
In a public letter dated at Hillsborough on October 23, 1867, to J. A. Engelhard, former governor William A. Graham argued that the one specific object of the convention Congress required was to extend the vote to Black men without distinction. He urged North Carolinians to keep control of their own suffrage and to oppose the call.
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A freedmen's school opens at Cotton Run and closes when its teacher resigns
Trustees led by Samuel Ellison wrote on October 3, 1868 that they had rented a building and engaged a teacher and would open with 35 scholars, soon 45, and asked the Bureau for $8 a month. Lt. Thomas H. Hay, who called the neighborhood very poor, recommended the aid and named Empson Moore the teacher, but on November 12 reported the school suspended because Moore had resigned.
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Lt. Thomas H. Hay cancels apprenticeships made by an earlier Bureau officer and returns children to their parents
Between October and December 1868 Hay voided three sets of indentures that had bound nine Black children to Orange County masters, made by Capt. Crockett, the Bureau officer at Hillsborough in 1865-66, as improperly executed. Five children were taken from a minister near Chapel Hill and delivered to their father on October 8 after the father complained to Governor Holden, two boys were returned to their mother on November 27, and two girls were released in December.
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Trustees open a freedmen's school at a chapel near Chapel Hill
Trustees led by Nelson O'Kelly wrote on October 12, 1868 that they had a school building and a teacher at a chapel in Orange County and could send 40 children, and asked $8 a month for rent. Lt. Thomas H. Hay called the trustees among the most reliable Black men in the county and the teacher competent, and had offered $6 a month toward the salary of teacher John Weaver if they would board him and send 35 scholars.
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Freedpeople at New Hope rent a building and hire a teacher for a school
Trustees led by Nelson Kirklin wrote from New Hope that they had rented a school building and secured a teacher and could send about 40 scholars, and asked the Bureau for $10 a month during the school season. Lt. Thomas H. Hay recommended the aid, citing the many Black children of the neighborhood and the freedmen's poverty, and visited the school in November.
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Commissioners hire Silas M. Link to divide the county into townships
Link was paid $75 to lay the school districts out into townships, and the board approved his plan of eight: Hillsboro, Little River, Mangum, Durham, Patterson, Chapel Hill, Bingham and Cedar Grove. In 1877 the board split Mangum at Little River to form Lebanon Township.
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Three justices, one of them Black, investigate a fight and a shooting at Durham's
Governor W. W. Holden sent Lt. Thomas H. Hay and J.P. W. F. Strayhorn the complaint of freedman Henry Goss that Samuel Rodgers, a white man, had struck him and that he struck back in self-defense. On October 30, 1868 Strayhorn, Hay and Richard Mayo, a Black justice of the peace, found an affray in which both men were to blame and Rodgers was worst hurt, and sent it to superior court; when Rodgers had been reported killed, a party set out to arrest Goss and Theophilus Chavis, and someone fired a pistol as Chavis ran, but who fired, or at whom, could not be learned, and Hay saw no need for troops at Durham's.
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The Baptist State Convention meets with the Hillsborough church
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina held its session with the Hillsborough Baptist church, and townspeople of every denomination boarded the delegates. Thomas Ruffin asked in particular to host the evangelist Elias Dodson.
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An injunction charges four elected Orange commissioners with usurping office
An injunction was served on J. U. Kirkland, Robert F. Morris, Jones Watson and W. H. Patterson, four of the county commissioners chosen at the spring election, charging that they held office although the Fourteenth Amendment disqualified them, and summoning them to show cause at Greensborough on October 13. The Recorder called them the people's choice but expected them to be put out.
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Georgianna Rumbley opens the freedmen's school at Cedar Grove
The Friends' Freedmen's Association of Philadelphia sent Rumbley to teach at Cedar Grove, where the freedpeople guaranteed her board, fuel and light. She went reluctantly after being told the place was dull, but by October 24 Lt. Thomas H. Hay reported the school open since the first week of October and better supplied with books and maps than any in the district except Hillsborough's.
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New freedmen's schools open at Banocks Chapel, Cotton Run and New Hope, all with Black teachers
Hay's October 1868 report counted 13 day schools in Orange and Person, adding schools at Banocks Chapel near Chapel Hill (John Weaver), Cotton Run and New Hope (London Moore) to those at Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Durham's, Bains and Cedar Grove. All 11 teachers were Black, among them R. G. Fitzgerald and E. E. Anderson at Hillsborough, James Whitted at Bains and Georgianna Rumbley at Cedar Grove, and the freedpeople owned the schoolhouses at Banocks Chapel, Bains and Cedar Grove.
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Governor Holden warns Orange County it may be declared in insurrection
Holden's proclamation of October 20, 1869, named Lenoir, Jones, Orange and Chatham counties and said that in Orange the jail had been forced, two Black prisoners taken out and shot, and three other Black men hanged. He warned that he would declare those counties in a state of insurrection and use the whole power of the state if the violence continued.
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Orange County in the Kirk–Holden War
Governor Holden named Orange County in his October 1869 warning about Klan violence, Hillsborough men were named in a Klan plot against Senator T. M. Shoffner, and Kirk's militia arrested Josiah Turner Jr. at Hillsborough in August 1870. Orange men Frederick N. Strudwick, William A. Graham and John W. Graham then helped bring, prosecute and decide Holden's impeachment.
- 1870s
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Durham citizens meet to mourn Robert E. Lee
A large meeting at Durham (now Durham County), with Col. D. C. Parrish in the chair and C. B. Gunn as secretary, adopted resolutions on the death of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
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Incendiaries burn Maj. Bedford Vaughn's tobacco factory near Stagville
Maj. Bedford Vaughn's tobacco factory near Stagville, in the lower edge of the county (now Durham County), was set afire with shingles piled under a shed holding boxes of worked tobacco; the incendiaries fled into the woods and fired at those who came to the fire.
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Orange County Sheriff John Turner dies
John Turner, sheriff of Orange County, died in 1870; his executrix qualified to settle his estate in October.
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Orange Superior Court dismisses the assault case against W. W. Holden under the amnesty act
Judge Tourgee dismissed the indictment of former Governor W. W. Holden for the 1870 arrest of Josiah Turner Jr. by Lt. John Hunnicutt of the state troops, ruling it covered by the amnesty and pardon act of March 3, 1873; Turner, the prosecutor, was first denied an appeal and then granted one.
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The Blackwell v. Wright trademark case is moved from Orange to Alamance
On the defendant Wright's motion, the Orange Superior Court moved to Alamance County the original Blackwell v. Wright suit over the Durham Smoking Tobacco trademark, after his counsel said the real plaintiffs W. T. Blackwell, Julian S. Carr and Day had too much local influence.
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Orange County Granges form a county council of the Patrons of Husbandry
Delegates of Orange County Granges met at Hillsborough and organized a county council of the Patrons of Husbandry, electing John K. Hughes master, W. W. Guess overseer, S. H. Webb lecturer, Rev. J. B. Martin chaplain, A. W. Graham secretary and W. C. Claytor treasurer. Red Mountain, Little River, Pleasant Green, New Bethel, Durham, Chapel Hill and Eno Granges were represented.
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Durham tobacco warehouses hold charity sales for the Oxford Orphan Asylum
Durham's tobacco warehouses held sales for the benefit of the Oxford Orphan Asylum. The Reams & Walker sale netted about $70, and E. J. Parrish set apart a day at his warehouse whose proceeds went to the asylum's agent.
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The Recorder moves its office to the southeast corner of the courthouse square
The Hillsborough Recorder moved its office to the southeast corner of the courthouse square in Hillsborough, skipping its issue of October 20 during the move.
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County commissioners let the contract for a fence around the courthouse square
After months of complaint about the open courthouse grounds, roamed by hogs and cattle, the county commissioners let the contract for a fence around the square to the lowest bidder for $214.75; the new railing was up by mid-December, a neat job the Recorder said only wanted paint.
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Professor William H. Smith publishes a guide to collecting specimens
William H. Smith, professor of natural history, issued a pamphlet with directions for skinning and preserving birds and mammals and for keeping reptiles, insects, plants, rocks and soils, to build up the university museum. Battle calls it probably the first such guide in the state.
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A street meeting at the Hillsborough court house calls for primary elections
On October 16, 1877, during Superior Court week, Josiah Turner Jr. held a public meeting in the street before the court house in Hillsborough that adopted his resolutions for choosing Democratic candidates by ballot: congressional nominees in primary meetings and a popular vote on the party's choice for United States senator. The Recorder denied that the meeting spoke for Orange's people, and Turner answered that hundreds took part, with R. Harris as chairman and W. Mangum as secretary.
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University Day is established
At Kemp P. Battle's request, seconded by Zebulon B. Vance, the executive committee made October 12, the anniversary of the laying of Old East's cornerstone in 1793, a permanent holiday. At the first observance in Gerrard Hall, decorated by Cornelia Phillips Spencer and village women, Battle spoke on the charter and the cornerstone.
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The Orange Guards celebrate their anniversary at Hillsborough
The Orange Guards, Hillsborough's volunteer company, marked their anniversary with a parade and speeches at Hillsborough.
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Sunday schools organize an Orange County Sunday School Convention at Orange Church
Delegates from Sunday schools around the county met in the grove at Orange Church and organized an Orange County Sunday School Convention, electing J. W. Gattis of Durham president, L. Turner of Chapel Hill vice president and I. D. Hutchins secretary. Schools reporting included New Hope, Bethel, Damascus, Mount Moriah, Orange, Iron Mine, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian and Methodist schools and the Durham Methodist school, and the convention named New Hope Church as its next meeting place.
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A dime party at Mrs. Allan Grist's raises money for yellow fever sufferers
Chapel Hill women gave a dime party at the home of Mrs. Allan Grist, with supper tables in her dining halls, and university students came in large numbers and spent freely. The net proceeds were to be sent at once to yellow fever sufferers in the South.
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President Battle tells the history of the university buildings on University Day
On a dark, rainy University Day that kept the audience small, President Kemp P. Battle spoke on the history of the university buildings, from Old East and the Old Chapel to Gerrard Hall, Smith Hall and the 1850s buildings, and the choir sang the University Song by Cornelia Phillips Spencer. John W. Norwood, one of the last survivors of his college class, then praised the university for joining science and agriculture.
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Robert Boswell is convicted of the Blackwell murders and sentenced to hang
At the fall term of Superior Court a jury convicted Robert Boswell of murdering Nancy Blackwell, a widow living near the railroad a mile west of Durham whose house burned with her and two children inside in August 1877; he was sentenced to hang on November 22, but the governor reprieved him until February 1879 so he could testify in other cases. The case of Rebecca Lyon, charged as an accomplice, was continued.
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Orange Superior Court convicts three men of the Hendon burglary and sentences them to hang
The trial of Alfonso Davis, Henry Andrews and Lewis Carlton for the burglary at Mrs. Hendon's opened before Judge Kerr, with Albert Atwater testifying for the state. The jury returned a guilty verdict in under fifteen minutes and the judge set the hanging for November 22, 1878, but the defense appealed to the Supreme Court.
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Physics Hall is refitted with a lecture room and a new chemistry laboratory
During the fall session the university remade Physics Hall into a lecture room and a laboratory for applied chemistry, fitted with gas and water works and close attention to ventilation. By early November the work was nearly finished, and the Ledger judged the new laboratory as convenient as any in the country.
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W. F. Stroud's new mill pond and sawmill start work near Chapel Hill
With money raised largely in the village, Stroud's mill pond near Chapel Hill was cleared out so students and townspeople could use it for boating and skating. By early November W. F. Stroud's dam was nearly finished and a boat was on the pond, and by the end of the month his sawmill was running, with a cotton gin and grist mill to be built.
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W. T. Blackwell and Julian S. Carr buy out a partner in W. T. Blackwell & Co.
William T. Blackwell and Julian S. Carr bought the interest of their third partner in the Durham smoking tobacco firm of W. T. Blackwell & Co., which went on under the same name.
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Becky Lyon is acquitted of the Blackwell murders
Becky Lyon, a Black woman, was tried at Hillsborough for the murder of Nannie Blackwell and her two children. After Robert Boswell, the main witness against her, said his earlier testimony was false and another witness changed his account, Solicitor Strudwick asked Judge McKoy to direct a verdict of not guilty, and she was discharged.
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Baptist minister James P. Mason speaks at University Day
At the 1879 University Day exercises, after President Kemp Battle's historical address, short talks were given by the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, the Rev. James Pleasant Mason, the Methodist minister Mr. Heitman and several professors.
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Robert Boswell is hanged at Hillsborough for the Blackwell murders
Robert Boswell was hanged at Gallows Hill near Hillsborough before a crowd of about 2,000 for the murders of Nannie Blackwell and her children. He made no speech but left a written confession that again blamed Becky Lyon. The Ledger, noting four hangings in Orange within a year, called for executions to be held in private.
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Bingham School opens its fall session with more boys than ever
Bingham School near Mebaneville opened its fall session with more boys in attendance than ever before, under Major Robert Bingham and Captains Sharpe, Willis and Noble. Boys pledged at the start of each session not to drink.
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Chapel Hill commissioners set the 1879 town tax
The Chapel Hill town commissioners set the year's tax at 30 cents on each $100 of property and 90 cents on each poll. On a valuation of $204,500 and 103 polls, the town tax came to $706.20, with $2,835 already on hand at the start of the year.
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Chapel Hill's public school for Black children opens its term under James A. Whitted
The public school for Black children in Chapel Hill opened with about twenty pupils under James A. Whitted. By mid-November it had more than fifty and its schoolhouse was full, and the Ledger urged the school committee to act.
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Chemist George Warnecke resigns from the state Experiment Station
George Warnecke resigned his place at the state Experiment Station at Chapel Hill to take a position in Europe. James Taylor took over the analysis of the state's well and other waters, and A. D. Mickle succeeded Taylor. Warnecke left for Germany in mid-November.
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Col. H. B. Guthrie opens a grocery store in Chapel Hill
Col. H. B. Guthrie opened a grocery store one door below the Long & Norwood store in Chapel Hill. By late October he was selling fresh fish, oysters, bread from the Durham bakeries and sausage.
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Diphtheria appears in the White Cross settlement
Diphtheria broke out in the White Cross settlement. The paper's state column the same week listed Orange among the counties reporting deaths from the disease.
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M. A. Angier sells a fifth of an acre in Durham to A. M. Rigsbee for $10,000
M. A. Angier sold one-fifth of an acre on Main, Clay and Mangum streets in Durham to A. M. Rigsbee for $10,000 in cash, a rate of $50,000 an acre. The Tobacco Plant took the sale as a measure of the town's growth.
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P. B. Ruffin is promoted from the Hillsborough depot and Sterling Ruffin becomes station agent
P. B. Ruffin, railroad agent at Hillsborough, was made secretary and treasurer of the North Carolina Division of the Richmond & Danville Railroad, succeeding the late Captain Thornburg. Sterling Ruffin was appointed agent at Hillsborough in his place.
- 1880s
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Chapel Hill women serve a dinner to the convicts building the University Railroad
Spencer collected food around the village and, with other women, served a dinner at a long plank table to ninety-six convicts grading the railroad to Chapel Hill, with Joseph Blount Cheshire saying grace. Some residents refused to give, and Colonel Thomas M. Holt promised the ladies a ride on the first train.
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The Orange County Observer begins publication at Hillsborough
Joseph A. Harris started the Orange County Observer at Hillsborough in October 1880 as its publisher and one of its editors, numbering it a new series of a paper established in 1878. The paper ran until about 1917.
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Orange Republicans endorse Henry N. Brown for the state House at court-house meetings
A crowded Republican meeting at the Hillsborough court house endorsed Henry N. Brown for the state House after the party's county nominating committee had declined to name candidates and advised Republicans to vote for independent Democrats. A second meeting on Monday night, October 18, argued the endorsement over again, with Green Webb and Haywood Beverly speaking for Brown and Anderson Hill against.
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Zebulon Vance opens the Orange County Democratic canvass at Durham
Senator Zebulon B. Vance gave the main speech when the Orange County Democratic canvass opened at Durham, then still part of Orange County. A procession led by the Durham band formed at the Grand Central Hotel and carried Vance, seated beside Paul C. Cameron, through the principal streets before Julian S. Carr took charge of him.
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Hillsborough bars burials in the old Presbyterian cemetery without a permit
The Hillsborough town commissioners passed an ordinance that no burials be made in the old Presbyterian cemetery without a special permit from the board, with a five-dollar fine for digging a grave there.
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Independents put up W. W. Allison, Josiah Turner and John Berry against the Democratic ticket
An independent ticket was put up in Orange County for the November election, with W. W. Allison of Cedar Grove for the state Senate and Josiah Turner of Hillsborough and John Berry of Little River for the House, plus a candidate for treasurer. Republicans had been advised to back independent Democrats rather than name their own men.
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W. L. Wright comes to Hillsborough as pastor of the Baptist church
The Hillsborough Baptist church called a new pastor, who arrived in late October 1880 to take charge of the pulpit. The Observer names him as the Rev. W. L. Wright, formerly of Montgomery County.
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Lisbon Berry becomes Orange County's first Black lawyer
Lisbon Payne Berry, born enslaved in Hillsborough in 1850, studied law in Hillsborough and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1882. On October 2, 1882 he sat at the bar of the Orange court as a practicing lawyer, the first Black attorney in Orange County.
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Caldwell Democrats organize a Bennett and Cox Club
Citizens around Caldwell organized a Bennett and Cox Club, electing L. W. Hall president and H. Y. Harris secretary, heard James A. Graham and C. E. Parrish speak, and agreed to meet every Wednesday night through the campaign.
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Orange Democrats nominate H. H. McKee for sheriff
A Democratic mass meeting at the court house, with Col. W. H. Jordan presiding, nominated H. H. McKee of Little River Township for sheriff by acclamation, filling the one blank on the party's county ticket two weeks before the election.
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Zebulon Vance speaks for three hours in the Hillsborough court house
Senator Zebulon B. Vance spoke for nearly three hours to a crowd that filled the court house despite bad weather, attacking the Liberal coalition and the Republicans.
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Joseph G. Cooley succeeds Sterling Ruffin as railroad agent at Hillsborough
Sterling Ruffin resigned as the North Carolina Railroad's agent at Hillsborough effective October 1, 1883, and Joseph G. Cooley, a former Hillsborough man, took his place. Cooley signed the depot's train schedule for the rest of the year.
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An Orange jury convicts Tony Borland of manslaughter after a confused verdict
Tony Borland, a Black man tried at Hillsborough on removal from Durham County for killing Ellen Couch in Durham, was at first declared not guilty by the jury foreman on Sunday morning, October 7, 1883, until a poll showed the jury had agreed on manslaughter. Judge James C. MacRae, who rebuked the jury from the bench, sentenced him on October 10 to twenty years in the penitentiary.
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Kemp P. Battle gives a University Day address on the history of the campus buildings
In Gerrard Hall on University Day, President Kemp P. Battle traced each university building from the laying of the Old East cornerstone in 1793 to Memorial Hall, then under construction. The address was printed as a pamphlet.
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Thomas Ruffin Jr. leaves the Supreme Court and rejoins John W. Graham in law practice
After resigning from the North Carolina Supreme Court in September 1883, citing ill health and overwork, Judge Thomas Ruffin Jr. of Hillsborough went back into practice with Major John W. Graham, reviving their old firm of Graham & Ruffin. By early October the firm was defending Tony Borland in Orange Superior Court, and by December it advertised practice in Alamance, Caswell, Durham, Guilford, Rockingham, Person and Orange.
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Work on Memorial Hall stops for the winter after a cost miscalculation
Battle told the students that construction of Memorial Hall would pause over the winter because the architect had underestimated the cost and the treasury needed refilling. Builders also advised letting the green roof timbers dry under cover before work resumed in the spring.
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Judge Phillips refuses to stop Orange County's payment to the State Exposition
James Riley had sued to restrain the Orange County magistrates and commissioners from paying county money to the State Exposition at Raleigh; Judge Phillips heard his motion for a restraining order at the fall term and denied it.
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Robert Bingham addresses the Orange County Teachers' Association
Major Robert Bingham of Bingham School gave an educational address to the Orange County Teachers' Association at the Hillsborough court house before a good audience of men and women.
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Orange County sends an exhibit and a large party to the State Exposition
On Orange County's day at the State Exposition in Raleigh a large party from Hillsborough visited the county's exhibit, which a committee named by the magistrates had gathered from local woods, crops, minerals, tobacco, needlework and portraits of Orange judges, with Allan Cameron in charge of it at Raleigh.
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A. J. Brockwell completes a grist mill near Chapel Hill
A. J. Brockwell finished a mill he had rebuilt near Chapel Hill on the site of the old Hudson mill and began grinding his neighbors' corn.
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Chapel Hill builds a guard house in the middle of the street
A guard house for holding offenders was being put up in the middle of the street opposite the Hargrove lot in Chapel Hill, while a local correspondent pressed for an end to illegal liquor sales in the village.
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Black Methodists and Baptists baptize dozens of converts in the Eno at Hillsborough
After two or three weeks of revival services at the Black Methodist church, where 30 or 40 people professed conversion, twelve converts were immersed in the Eno on the afternoon of October 25 and four more were baptized at the church that night. On November 1 twenty-four Black converts, many of them joining the Baptist church, were baptized in the Eno at Hillsborough.
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J. W. Hooker's new omnibus makes its first trip in Hillsborough
J. W. Hooker put a new omnibus into service at Hillsborough, and it made its first trip on October 29. The paper expected it to add greatly to the pleasure of a visit to the town.
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Professor Nelson B. Henry opens a teachers' institute for Orange County's white teachers
Professor Nelson B. Henry of the University opened a two-day institute for the county's white teachers at the Masonic Hall with a public lecture on education by the State on the evening of October 29. He had offered to teach methods in grammar, arithmetic, geography, reading and school management free of charge.
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James H. Pratt's will leaves the Cabe farm to the family of Lucinda Harris
Pratt left the 140-acre Cabe tract and the 160-acre Jehu Brown tract to Lucinda Harris for life and then to her daughters Emma and Jane, keeping a promise to provide for the family after her husband Benton Harris died in the Civil War. The Harrises held the farm until 1942.
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W. L. Wright resigns the Hillsborough Baptist pulpit for Reidsville
The Hillsborough Baptist church accepted the resignation of its pastor, Rev. W. L. Wright, who had taken a call from the Baptist church at Reidsville. He preached at Hillsborough for the last time on October 11.
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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.
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Frank Porter Graham was born
Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville; he later led UNC.
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A union meeting of four denominations opens at Cedar Grove before about 2,000 people
A union religious meeting proposed by H. L. McDade and arranged by a committee from eight churches under Thomas H. Hughes opened at Cedar Grove with about 2,000 people and nine Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian ministers; W. S. Long preached the opening sermon.
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A. F. Hall opens a grocery in the Cheek building north of the court house
A. F. Hall, back in Hillsborough from Winston with his family, opened a grocery and notions store in the Cheek building just north of the court house.
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Postmaster H. L. Parish moves the Hillsborough post office into the Berry building
Postmaster H. L. Parish moved the Hillsborough post office into the Berry building, where he also kept his store.
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Prohibitionists organize a club at New Hope
A prohibition club was organized at New Hope on Saturday, October 1, with a minister as its president, as prohibitionists in the county began to organize.
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The Hillsboro Colored Normal School opens under Hampton graduate L. C. Jenkins
The Hillsboro Colored Normal School opened with Miss L. C. Jenkins, a graduate of Hampton Institute, as its teacher. By January 1888 it had enrolled forty-five pupils, and its backers were asking for help to build an academy by October 1888.
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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.
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County commissioners order a new bridge at Purefoy's mill near Chapel Hill
The county commissioners named William F. Stroud, James Y. Merritt and Thomas Lloyd a committee to let the building of a bridge at Purefoy's mill near Chapel Hill to the lowest bidder, reusing the good timber in the old bridge.
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County commissioners put the stock law in force in Chapel Hill Township
On a petition signed by 383 freeholders, three-fourths of those in Chapel Hill Township, the county commissioners declared the stock law adopted there, to take effect January 1, 1888, without an election or a tax to build fences.
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President Battle calls the faculty and students to form a society for North Carolina history
University president Kemp P. Battle called a night meeting of the faculty and students to organize a society for the study of North Carolina history, which the Recorder said the state had long neglected.
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T. J. Norcom opens a boys' school in the Hillsborough academy building
Professor T. J. Norcom opened a school for boys in the Hillsborough academy building on Tuesday, October 11, but left town suddenly after teaching six pupils for about as many days.
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The Black Baptist State Convention meets at Hillsborough
North Carolina's Black Baptist State Convention opened at the Black Baptist church in Hillsborough on Wednesday, October 19, and adjourned on Saturday, October 22. Black residents of the town lodged and fed more than a hundred delegates, who chose New Bern for the next year's meeting.
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The Orange County farmers' club puts off forming a farmers' institute
At its Hillsborough meeting the Orange County Club heard that several state scientists would lecture at a farmers' institute, but given the small attendance and the farmers' apparent indifference it decided not to form one for now. It enrolled five new members and set its next meeting for November 26.
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The Eno rises over the bridge at Hillsborough after eight days of rain
After about eight days of nearly constant rain and sleet, the Eno at Hillsborough rose higher than it had in many years and by sundown on Monday was running over the bridge. It was back in its channel by the next morning, though the paper feared for crops still in the field.
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A. A. Springs closes out his Hillsborough store to manufacture tobacco
Merchant A. A. Springs began selling his whole stock of dry goods, groceries and hardware at cost so he could give his full attention to manufacturing tobacco.
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Charley Lindsay opens a new store at Chapel Hill
Charley Lindsay opened a large new store at Chapel Hill and promised to undersell the town's other merchants, as Chapel Hill merchants laid in unusually large fall stocks.
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J. H. Clark leases a mill on Little River and sets out to repair it
Millwright J. H. Clark leased a grist mill on Little River and planned to put it in thorough repair so it could again grind flour and meal for the neighborhood.
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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 8, 2026. Download the full chronology as a spreadsheet (CSV).
