Chronology

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1. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

2. January 10, 1794
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill The trustees elect David Ker presiding professor of the university

   Balloting on January 10, 1794, the trustees elected David Ker, who had come from Fayetteville, the university's first professor, with the title of presiding professor. He took charge at the opening in January 1795, lived in the house meant for a future president and held the post until July 1796.

3. January 15, 1795
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill UNC opens to students

   The University formally opened at Chapel Hill on a cold, rainy January 15, 1795, with Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight and trustees present, but no students had yet arrived. Hinton James came on February 12, and by March two professors taught 41 students; UNC was the only public university to graduate students in the eighteenth century.

4. June 1, 1795
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Harris sets up a small store of medicine for students and neighbours

   Writing from the university on June 1, 1795, Harris told his uncle, a physician, that with no doctor nearer than Hillsborough he would keep a small stock of medicine for students and the neighbourhood, at cost. He enclosed a plan of the university lands and village.

5. October 1795
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill 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.

6. December 1795
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Trustees adopt William R. Davie's plan dividing the university into a preparatory school and professorships

   Davie's plan put English at the center, let French stand beside the classics and set up chairs of moral and political philosophy, natural philosophy, mathematics, chemistry with agriculture and the mechanic arts, and languages. The board elected Samuel McCorkle a professor, but he declined when refused extra pay in place of the president's house.

7. Summer to December 1796
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Charles Wilson Harris acts as presiding professor

   After David Ker resigned under pressure from the trustees in the summer of 1796, Harris acted as presiding professor until his own resignation that December. He had persuaded Joseph Caldwell to join the faculty in October 1796.

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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 1, 2026.