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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,368 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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7 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–7.Back to highlights

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7 dated events
1755Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno Presbyterian settlers

    Founding or opening · Cedar Grove

    On August 10, 1755 the missionary Hugh McAden preached at Eno to a Presbyterian community already settled near the river, southeast of present Cedar Grove; the congregation counts its beginning from these years. The settlers asked Hanover Presbytery for supply preachers in 1756, and by church tradition the congregation was formally organized during the Synod mission of 1764.

    People: Hugh McAden

    Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church

  3. Presbyterians found Hawfields Church

    Founding or opening · Hawfields (now Alamance County)

    Hawfields Presbyterian Church was founded in the part of Orange County that is now eastern Alamance. Henry Pattillo later served as its pastor.

    People: Henry Pattillo · Hugh McAden

    Subject: Hawfields Presbyterian Church

  4. Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno and Hawfields settlements

    Publication, speech or performance · Orange County

    The traveling Presbyterian licentiate Hugh McAden preached to the Eno settlement on the second Sabbath of August 1755, lodging at John Anderson's house, and rode on to preach at the Hawfields on the fourth Sabbath. His journal is the earliest surviving description of either settlement.

    People: Hugh McAden

    Subject: Hawfields Presbyterian Church · Eno Presbyterian Church

  5. Hugh McAden returns to preach at the Hawfields and on the Eno

    Eno settlement, Orange County

    Heading home at the end of his year-long mission, McAden stopped again at John Anderson's on the Eno, preached at the Hawfields on Tuesday, April 27, 1756, and at Eno the next day, then rode on to the Hico settlement.

  6. Little River Presbyterian Church is organized

    Founding or opening · Little River Presbyterian Church

    Hugh McAden led the organization of Little River Presbyterian Church, with Henry Pattillo as its first pastor.

    People: Henry Pattillo · Hugh McAden

    Subject: Little River Presbyterian Church

  7. Presbyterian ministers, among them Henry Pattillo of Orange, write against the Regulation

    Publication, speech or performance · Rowan and Mecklenburg counties

    While Tryon toured Rowan and Mecklenburg to raise troops, Presbyterian ministers Hugh McAden, James Creswell, Henry Pattillo and David Caldwell sent him a letter of loyalty condemning the Regulators, and the pastors also wrote to the colony's Presbyterians telling them to keep out of the movement. The letter was read to the Rowan militia and helped raise volunteers for the march on Hillsborough.

    People: Henry Pattillo · David Caldwell · William Tryon · Hugh McAden

  8. Orange Presbytery forms as North Carolina's first presbytery

    Founding or opening · Orange County

    The pastors of the early Orange County Presbyterian churches and other ministers formed Orange Presbytery, the first presbytery in North Carolina.

    People: Henry Pattillo · David Caldwell · Hugh McAden

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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