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Searched the full chronology of 6,531 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–6.Back to highlights
Entries
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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Christopher Barbee buys his brother Francis's share of their father's land grant east of Chapel Hill
Christopher Barbee buys from his brother Francis the western half of the 585-acre grant their father William Barbee took up in 1753, which included the hilltop later called The Mountain. Barbee made his plantation there, and a stone foundation at Meadowmont is thought to be his house.
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Trustees fix the university at Chapel Hill and list its Orange County land donors
Meeting on December 5, 1792, the trustees voted unanimously to place the university at New Hope Chapel Hill and recorded nine donors of Orange County land, among them Matthew McCauley (150 acres) and William McCauley (100 acres). Each donor could have one student educated free of tuition.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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Christopher Barbee opens a blacksmith shop on Franklin Street
Christopher Barbee, the university's largest land donor, rented the southwest corner of Matthew McCauley's Lot #8 for a smithy with a 33-foot front on the street. He bought the corner in 1824, and William D. Kirksey was advertising as the village blacksmith by 1833.
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Christopher Barbee turns over his home tract and blacksmith shop to his son William
In 1831 Christopher Barbee sold his son William the village blacksmith property and the tract where he lived, with all adjacent land. He died the next year, and his will left William more land on Morgan Creek and Bolin Creek.
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William D. Kirksey advertises as the village blacksmith
After Christopher Barbee's death, his corner blacksmith shop passed through his son William, and by 1833 William D. Kirksey was advertising as Chapel Hill's blacksmith. Maps show Kirksey's shop on the corner through 1843.
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A notice offers Christopher Barbee's livestock and household goods for sale at his late home
Two years after Christopher Barbee died, a public notice offered his horses, cattle, corn, farm tools and household and kitchen furniture for sale at his late residence on The Mountain. His son William, the executor, had his own plantation and a house in the village, and no Barbee seems to have lived there afterward.
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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →
Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.
