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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 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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13 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–13.Back to highlights

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13 dated events
1904Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. The university opens a summer course in library work

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    By 1904 the university had begun a summer course of instruction in library work, meant to train librarians as workers with books rather than custodians. Louis Round Wilson taught library methods in the 1905 Summer School.

    People: Louis Round Wilson

    Subject: University Summer School

  3. Louis Round Wilson has a Craftsman house built on East Rosemary Street

    Construction or physical change · 607 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill

    Louis Round Wilson, the university librarian, had a large Craftsman-style house built at 607 East Rosemary Street in 1911, an early example of the Arts and Crafts mode in Chapel Hill.

  4. The university organizes a Bureau of Extension under Louis Round Wilson

    Founding or opening · UNC, Chapel Hill

    Set up as Venable left for Europe in mid-1913 and run by university librarian Louis Round Wilson with no budget of its own, the bureau started programs to take the university's work into the state; the trustees endorsed it in January 1914.

    People: Edward Kidder Graham

  5. The Bureau of Extension begins correspondence courses for credit

    Founding or opening · Bureau of Extension, UNC, Chapel Hill

    Under Louis R. Wilson, the university's new Bureau of Extension began organizing correspondence courses for credit during the 1914-15 term. It had already widened its free advice for teachers to help town officials with water systems and streets.

    People: Louis Round Wilson

  6. The SATC is demobilized and half its men leave Chapel Hill

    Closing or ending · UNC, Chapel Hill

    Demobilization of the Students' Army Training Corps was completed on December 10, 1918, ending military control of the campus, and half of the SATC men left on the next train. Faculty judged the arrangement a failure because the university had answered to two masters.

    People: Louis Round Wilson · Marvin Hendrix Stacy

  7. Trustees and faculty back a $150,000 student building as Edward Kidder Graham's memorial

    Naming or commemoration · Governor's office, Raleigh (for UNC, Chapel Hill)

    A joint committee of trustees and faculty, meeting in the governor's office in mid-December, agreed to raise $150,000 privately for the student activities building Graham had hoped for, to stand where Person Hall was. Albert Coates ran the drive and by the end of January 1919 announced $20,000 pledged by students, $14,500 of it in one night.

    People: Louis Round Wilson · Albert Coates

  8. Louis R. Wilson and W. C. Coker are raised to Kenan professorships

    Award or honor · UNC, Chapel Hill

    At the 1920 commencement meeting the trustees made librarian Louis Round Wilson and botanist William C. Coker Kenan professors, in the same action that recognized Horace Williams.

    People: William Chambers Coker

  9. Louis Round Wilson's survey finds thin library collections in Orange County's white schools

    Statistic or record · Orange County

    A questionnaire of Orange County's 48 white schools for 1921–22, including the Chapel Hill and Hillsboro graded schools, found seven with no library and 3,692 volumes for 1,586 pupils, slightly more than two books per pupil. Ten of the 25 teachers who answered said the books were used "not very much"; Wilson published the results in January 1923.

    People: Louis Round Wilson

  10. The University of North Carolina Press is founded

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    On June 12, 1922, university librarian Louis Round Wilson, nine other faculty members and three trustees founded the University of North Carolina Press, the first university press in the South. Its first book, William C. Coker's study of water molds, appeared in 1923, and William T. Couch became director in 1932.

    Part of The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press · 20 events

    People: William T. Couch · Louis Round Wilson

  11. Robert W. Madry becomes the University's full-time publicity man

    Appointment, election or service · UNC, Chapel Hill

    Persuaded by Louis Round Wilson that the University had to tell its story better, Chase hired Madry, an alumnus then writing for the New York Herald, as its first full-time publicity man.

    People: Harry Woodburn Chase · Louis Round Wilson

  12. William T. Couch joins the University of North Carolina Press as assistant director

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Couch, who had moved to the Chapel Hill area in 1917, began at the press in 1926 as assistant director under Louis Round Wilson and took over as director in 1932.

    People: Louis Round Wilson

  13. The new University Library, later Wilson Library, is dedicated

    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill

    UNC dedicated its new University Library, designed by Arthur Cleveland Nash, on October 19, 1929, weeks after students began using the building that fall. It served as the main campus library for decades, was named for librarian Louis Round Wilson in 1956, and after a 1984 to 1987 renovation became the home of UNC's special collections.

    People: Arthur Cleveland Nash

    Subject: UNC Libraries

  14. Coates publishes his first history of the Institute of Government, paid for by DeWitt Wallace

    Publication, speech or performance · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill

    In place of a speaking tour, Coates wrote a 76-page account of how the Institute grew out of his law classroom, issued under the Popular Government name in the National University Extension Association's studies series. Wallace paid for 30,000 copies for national distribution, and on the advice of Louis R. Wilson and W. T. Couch, Coates took out the profanity before it went to press.

    People: William T. Couch · Louis Round Wilson

    Subject: Institute of Government

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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