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Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–12.Back to highlights
Entries
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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George H. Lawrence becomes the county's first full-time welfare superintendent
The commissioners and school board, in joint session, elected Lawrence full time. For years he worked with only a part-time clerk, from an old university-owned house in Chapel Hill.
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George Lawrence describes the county home near Efland in the Chapel Hill Weekly
George Lawrence described the county home two and a half miles north of Efland: two narrow brick buildings, probably of 1824, heated by fireplaces and lit by kerosene, with no plumbing. It held 19 residents and two prisoners, and white and Black residents ate in separate rooms.
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County welfare superintendent notes Orange has no health officer or public health nurse
In a letter to the Chapel Hill Weekly, county welfare superintendent George H. Lawrence wrote that Orange County had no county health officer, no county health department and no public health nurse, and that little preventive health work was being done. He contrasted Orange with Vance County, which had a health officer, a hospital and a tuberculosis sanatorium.
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A three-mile rural power line from Chapel Hill to Calvander is built with federal money
Built in 1933 as a Civil Works Administration project, the line ran three miles from Chapel Hill to Calvander, and the Hogan brothers supplied cedar poles when funds ran short. The book says it was the first rural electric line in the United States built with federal funds.
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George H. Lawrence becomes Orange County's Civil Works administrator
Already county welfare officer and relief director, Lawrence was put in charge of the new Civil Works Administration in Orange, with a quota of 453 jobs and a payroll he guessed at about $7,000 a week. He hired builder J. A. Page to run the construction work.
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Civil Works crews tear down the old stone jail on Hillsborough's courthouse square
As part of a Civil Works Administration project around the courthouse, relief workers demolished the old jail, and flagstones from its walls were used for sidewalks around the square. The work was nearly done in late December and complete by late January.
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Federal money keeps relief director George H. Lawrence out of jail in the Guy Snipes fee dispute
Guy Snipes, a Black man paid from relief funds, was killed in a gravel pit at the edge of Chapel Hill in December 1932, and the state relief office awarded his heirs $2,200 with Lawrence as their guardian. Judge Sinclair ordered Lawrence jailed for contempt unless a $200 fee claimed by Durham lawyers was paid, and the federal government sent the money in time.
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Federal drought cattle arrive at University Station under George H. Lawrence's care
Sixty-nine cows shipped by the government from the drought-stricken Middle West were unloaded at University Station and pastured on part of the old Duke farm, with more bound for pastures near Hillsboro. As county relief administrator, Lawrence had to house and feed Orange County's quota of 669.
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The commissioners turn relief money over to welfare officer George Lawrence
As Depression requests multiplied, the board stopped voting on each small grant and paid Lawrence $150 a month for January and February 1935 to put into the ERA fund for totally disabled people on the relief list. In March it gave him charge of all relief for March and April.
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County welfare officer George H. Lawrence calls for more sterilizations in Orange County
The Chapel Hill Weekly reported that ten people judged mentally deficient had been sterilized in Orange County under the 1933 state law. Lawrence said there ought to be many more and that the cost, paid from the county's small relief fund, held them back.
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George H. Lawrence gives up the county welfare post to stay on the University faculty
When the new state social security law required a full-time welfare superintendent in every county, Lawrence would not leave the University faculty and resigned the county post effective July 1. As director of field work in UNC's division of social work and public welfare, he and his students went on working for the county.
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UNC field work director George H. Lawrence reports the Efland Home's conditions as appalling
After a visit in April 1938, George H. Lawrence, field work director at the University of North Carolina, wrote to the state welfare director that the home was doing more harm than good and that the girls would be better fed in a county jail. Gifts from churches and neighbors had not kept up with the girls' needs.
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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.
