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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,531 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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5 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,531 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1828Antebellum and Civil War
  1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  2. Dr. Walter A. Norwood opens a medicine shop opposite Alsobrook's hotel

    Founding or opening · Norwood's medicine shop, west half of Lot #14, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    Dr. Norwood's medicine shop stood on Thomas H. Taylor's half of Lot #14, probably in Taylor's old store building, which Norwood later bought. From 1841 the shop housed the practice of Drs. Jones and Moore.

    People: Thomas H. Taylor · Walter A. Norwood

  3. Friends of education organize the North Carolina Institute of Education at Chapel Hill

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    During commencement week a meeting adopted a constitution on Benjamin M. Smith's motion, elected Simmons J. Baker president and made professors Elisha Mitchell, William Hooper and James Phillips its executive committee. The Institute met at the next few commencements and enrolled about 130 members before it lapsed.

    People: Elisha Mitchell · James Phillips · Walter A. Norwood

  4. Dr. Walter A. Norwood closes his medicine shop and moves to Hillsborough

    Closing or ending · Norwood's medicine shop, west half of Lot #14, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    Norwood gave up his Franklin Street shop and left for Hillsborough. Elisha Mitchell owned the land and building by the end of the year and soon sold them on credit to Isaac Partridge for a hotel.

    People: Walter A. Norwood

  5. Free people of color make up most of Dr. Walter A. Norwood's Hillsborough household

    Hillsborough

    In the 1840 census, as the Burwell School task force read it against the 1839 Bailey map of Hillsborough, Dr. Walter A. Norwood headed a household of five in which everyone but the doctor was a free person of color.

  6. Hillsborough Literary Association forms with Dennis Heartt as secretary

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    A Literary Association was formed at Hillsborough in early 1842 with Frederick Nash as president; James S. Smith, Cadwallader Jones and Robert Burwell as vice presidents; Dennis Heartt as secretary; and Walter A. Norwood as treasurer. Heartt, a charter member, had helped organize it.

    People: Frederick Nash · Cadwallader Jones · Robert Armistead Burwell · James Strudwick Smith · Walter A. Norwood

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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