Search and filters
Search and filters · 1 active
11 dated events match your filters.
Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–11.Back to highlights
- Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
-
Students win the use of Steward's Hall for the commencement ball
A committee chosen by a mass meeting of students, with Christopher C. Battle as its writer, petitioned the trustees on November 6, 1833 for a room in Steward's Hall for the commencement ball, and the trustees agreed. The ball managers then invited leading men of the state, among them Governor Swain.
People: David L. Swain · John H. Watson
Subject: Steward’s Hall
-
John H. Watson sits on Chapel Hill's board of town commissioners
A business directory of Chapel Hill dated Christmas 1857 listed John H. Watson among the town's commissioners, with H. B. Guthrie, P. H. McDade and Calvin Scott.
-
Thirty Chapel Hill families pool money to buy corn
Amid wartime scarcity, thirty heads of families sent Andrew Mickle to buy corn in a better-supplied district; he brought back about 1,921 bushels by rail to Durham and wagon from there, at $6.75 a barrel delivered. The livery keeper John H. Watson took ninety barrels, President Swain 33 and Judge Battle 24.
People: Charles Phillips · David L. Swain · Andrew Mickle · John H. Watson
- Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
-
Rival claimants to Chapel Hill's town offices are told to stand down
On March 30, 1870, the Chapel Hill commissioners recorded that a group of residents claimed to be the village's officers, had taken some of the town's books and papers and had named A. Mickle magistrate of police. On April 1, Solomon Pool reported that their election had been held without any law authorizing it, on informal notice from T. M. Argo, and the board adopted his advice to take no action if they gave up the books.
People: Solomon Pool · John H. Watson
-
John H. Watson serves as Chapel Hill's magistrate of police
Watson headed the town government as magistrate of police in 1872 and again from 1876 to 1878, before the amended charter of 1879 created the office of mayor.
-
John H. Watson buys the Chapel Hill Hotel from David McCauley
John H. Watson, a brother of Jones Watson, bought the Chapel Hill Hotel from McCauley. By 1891 he had taken W. W. Pickard as a partner.
People: David McCauley · John H. Watson
Subject: Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)
-
Jones Watson serves as mayor of Chapel Hill
Jones Watson, one of the five commissioners named in the town's 1851 charter, was mayor of Chapel Hill in 1882, an office the town's charter had created in 1879. His brother John H. Watson followed him in 1883.
People: John H. Watson
-
Alphonso J. McDade serves as mayor of Chapel Hill
A. J. McDade was mayor of Chapel Hill in 1884, an office the town charter had created in 1879. John H. Watson held it the year before and the two years after.
People: John H. Watson
-
Alphonso J. McDade returns as mayor of Chapel Hill
McDade served a second stretch as mayor from 1888 through 1890, following W. N. Pritchard. John H. Watson succeeded him in 1891.
People: John H. Watson
-
John H. Watson serves four years as mayor of Chapel Hill
Watson, who had been mayor in 1883 and again in 1885 and 1886, held the office from 1891 through 1894, his longest run. A. S. Barbee followed him.
-
Watson and Pickard rebuild the Chapel Hill Hotel and add the University Inn Annex
With money from W. G. Peckham, a New York lawyer, John H. Watson and his partner W. W. Pickard tore down the old hotel except for the Polk apartment, rebuilt it, and added a large new section called the University Inn Annex.
People: John H. Watson
Subject: Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)
Suggest a correction to an entry →
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.
