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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

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

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6 dated events match your filters.

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

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6 dated events
1854Antebellum and Civil War
  1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  2. Benjamin Hedrick's house with an eight-sided room goes up on East Rosemary Street

    Chapel Hill

    Professor Benjamin Hedrick's house at 610 East Rosemary Street, known for its octagonal room, was ready by 1855 and the Hedricks moved in; Preservation Chapel Hill credits the Hillsborough builder John Berry and Hedrick's own design, and Little says he bought an older farmhouse from the university and added the eight-sided room. Horace Williams later owned it, and Preservation Chapel Hill now has its offices there.

    People: John Berry

    Subject: Horace Williams House

  3. School for the Application of Science to the Arts opens

    Founding or opening · Smith Hall

    Under a trustee resolution of 1852 the university opened a scientific school with departments of civil engineering, under Charles Phillips, and of chemistry applied to agriculture and the arts, under Benjamin S. Hedrick, with a laboratory in the basement of Smith Hall. Its students could earn a Bachelor of Science in about two and a half years.

    People: Charles Phillips · Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

    Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)

  4. Benjamin Hedrick is appointed the university's professor of analytical and agricultural chemistry

    Chapel Hill

    The university appointed Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick to its new chair of analytical and agricultural chemistry. He held it until the trustees' executive committee dismissed him in October 1856.

  5. The university dismisses Benjamin S. Hedrick over his Free Soil views

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    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 the trustees' executive committee dismissed Hedrick; Swain objected only that the committee had taken authority belonging to the full board.

    People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

  6. John Kimberly is elected the university's professor of agricultural chemistry

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    The university elected John Kimberly, a Harvard-trained chemist then teaching in eastern North Carolina, to the chair of agricultural chemistry in place of the dismissed Benjamin Hedrick.

    People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

  7. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  8. Horace Williams buys the house at 610 East Rosemary Street

    Property or economic transaction · 610 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill

    Williams bought the 1854 house built by the university chemistry professor Benjamin Hedrick and owned it until he died. Preservation Chapel Hill now has its offices there and opens the house to the public.

    People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

    Subject: Horace Williams House

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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.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026