Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1815–1826
   Mount Repose, Orange County William Bingham runs his school at Mount Repose northwest of Hillsborough

   After leaving Hillsborough Academy, the Rev. William Bingham kept his own academy at Mount Repose, in a house on Back Creek about ten miles northwest of Hillsborough. His son William James Bingham closed it in 1826 when he took over Hillsborough Academy.

3. 1822 to 1826
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough John Rogers runs Hillsborough Academy

   John Rogers ran Hillsborough Academy from 1822 to 1826, when W. J. Bingham succeeded him.

4. 1827–1844
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough William James Bingham becomes principal of Hillsborough Academy

   After John Rogers resigned, the trustees engaged William James Bingham as principal of Hillsborough Academy, where he taught until he moved his school to the country in 1844.

5. about 1831
   Construction or physical change · Southeast corner of North Churton and East Union streets (house now at 123 East Union Street), Hillsborough Schoolmaster William J. Bingham builds a house at Churton and Union streets

   William James Bingham, then head of the Hillsborough Academy, builds a one-and-a-half-story house at the southeast corner of North Churton and East Union streets and lives there until 1845. Later owners included the Methodist church, which used it for a time as a parsonage.

6. May 10, 1834
   Slavery and freedom · Hillsborough Six enslaved women are baptized into Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

   The Rev. S. J. Price baptized six women held by the Nash, Watters, Scott and Waddell households, and Frederick Nash and William J. Bingham received them as members. In the twenty years that followed under Robert Burwell, the church took in only one communicant of color.

7. About 1836
   Slavery and freedom · Hillsborough Schoolmaster William J. Bingham repeatedly beats Elizabeth Hobbs at Anna Burwell's urging

   Anna Burwell had William J. Bingham, the Hillsborough schoolmaster, flog Elizabeth Hobbs over a period of weeks in an attempt to break her spirit. Her memoir says Robert Burwell also beat her, and that she was eighteen at the time.

8. November 1844
   Founding or opening · The Oaks, Orange County William James Bingham opens his school at the Oaks

   William James Bingham gave up Hillsborough Academy after its spring 1844 session and in May announced a select classical and mathematical school twelve miles southwest of Hillsborough, to open that November on the Oaks tract he bought the same year. It became known as the Bingham School and stayed at the Oaks until December 1864.

9. July 1857
   Appointment, election or service · Orange County, the Oaks Robert Bingham becomes a partner in his father's school at the Oaks

   After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1857, Robert Bingham was admitted in July as junior partner in his father's school at the Oaks, which took the firm name W. J. Bingham and Sons. His brother William was also a partner.

10. 1864
    Founding or opening · The Oaks, Orange County William Bingham takes over the family school at the Oaks and incorporates it

    With his brother Robert in the army and his father in declining health, William Bingham was running the school at the Oaks by 1864. That year he incorporated it as the Bingham School, a military and classical academy, and in December moved it to Mebaneville.

11. December 1864
    Construction or physical change · Mebane, Orange County Bingham School moves from the Oaks to Mebaneville

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

12. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

13. 1903
    Construction or physical change · 123 East Union Street (moved from the southeast corner of North Churton and East Union streets), Hillsborough The Bingham house is moved down East Union Street to clear the corner for Shepperd Strudwick's house

    The 1831 William J. Bingham House is moved half a block east on East Union Street so that Shepperd Strudwick can build on its lot at the corner of Churton and Union. Much of the old house's outside dates from the move.

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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 2, 2026.