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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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17 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–17.Back to highlights

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17 dated events
1875Reconstruction and the New South
  1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  2. George Tayloe Winston joins the faculty of the reopened university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Winston, a Cornell graduate who had also studied at UNC, came to Chapel Hill in 1875 as professor of Latin and German when the university reopened.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 46 events

  3. George T. Winston buys Benjamin Hedrick's house with its polygonal annex

    Property or economic transaction · Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill

    Professor George T. Winston bought the former Hedrick house in 1879. In the 1880s or early 1890s he tied the old farmhouse and its many-sided annex together with a Queen Anne addition of porch, entrance hall and parlor, turning the house toward Franklin Street. It is now called the Horace Williams House after its later owner.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

    Subject: Horace Williams House

  4. Election fight splits the Philanthropic Society

    Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill

    A quarrel over whether two South Building students could join the Philanthropic Society at the last meeting of a term, in time to swing its election, led some members to secede in 1884, and a split nearly followed in the Dialectic. Professors Winston and Manning could not bring the seceders back.

    People: John Manning · George Tayloe Winston

    Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

  5. The new Board of Education sets aside $50 for an institute for Black teachers

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    At its first meeting in the Hillsboro courthouse, the board created under the 1885 school law organized with Joseph Harris as chairman and voted fifty dollars to hold a training institute for the county's Black teachers.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  6. The school board requires the superintendent to visit every school and grade its teachers

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    On resolutions offered by Professor Winston, the board told Superintendent Currie to spend a day at each public school while in session, give each teacher a mark for practical skill, meet each district committee and report on where districts and schoolhouses should be, at $2.50 a day.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  7. W. V. Andrews takes Professor Winston's seat on the county Board of Education

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Professor Winston of the university left the new Orange County Board of Education six months after its first meeting, and W. V. Andrews was named in his place.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  8. The literary societies merge their libraries with the university's

    Founding or opening · Smith Hall

    The Philanthropic Society voted almost unanimously and the Dialectic 42 to 30 to join their books to the university library in Smith Hall, to be called the Library of the University of North Carolina endowed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies and opened every weekday. Borrowing rose from 3,657 books in 1885-86 to 4,761 the next year.

    People: George Tayloe Winston · James Lee Love

    Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre) · UNC Libraries · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

  9. George Tayloe Winston serves as president of the university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Elected president when Kemp Plummer Battle resigned in 1891, Winston led the university for five years, during which enrollment tripled to almost six hundred. In 1896 he left Chapel Hill to become the first president of the University of Texas.

    People: Kemp Plummer Battle

  10. The faculty delays fraternity membership to end a campus feud

    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill

    After non-fraternity students threatened to take their grievances to the trustees and the legislature, President Winston and a faculty committee ruled that no student could join a fraternity until a year after matriculation. In 1896 the trustees set October of the sophomore year and forbade pledging in advance.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  11. Carolina's football team beats Virginia 26 to 0 at Atlanta

    Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill

    Under captain Michael Hoke the 1892 team lost only to Virginia in October and then beat Richmond College, Trinity, Alabama A. and M., Vanderbilt and, in a rematch at Atlanta, Virginia. Students met the team at University Station and pulled their carriages to the campus.

    People: Charles Baskerville · George Tayloe Winston

  12. The legislature rejects a bill to strip the university of undergraduates

    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill

    A bill drafted by Davidson College president Shearer would have abolished the university's four undergraduate classes over ten years. After a joint committee hearing at which President Winston defended the university, the General Assembly of 1893 instead voted it $10,000 for repairs.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  13. The University Magazine issues its Golden Jubilee number

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    In 1894 the University Magazine marked fifty years since its first issue with a Golden Jubilee number, prepared largely by faculty editor Collier Cobb and filled with articles on the university's history.

    People: Collier Cobb · Stephen B. (Stephen Beauregard) Weeks · Kemp Plummer Battle · George Tayloe Winston

  14. President Winston ends support and the University Magazine stops

    Closing or ending · Chapel Hill

    In 1895 President George T. Winston decided the university was not getting enough for its subscription, and the University Magazine stopped publishing until it was revived a few years later.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  15. Princeton's Thomas Trenchard coaches Carolina to its best football season yet

    Competition or sporting achievement · UNC, Chapel Hill

    The Athletic Association hired Thomas G. "Doggie" Trenchard, an 1893 Princeton all-American, and his team won seven games and tied one before losing again to Virginia. In February 1896 President Winston called off a planned tribute to the coach, saying he had been drinking and betting on games while in Chapel Hill.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  16. President Winston turns back a legislative effort to cut the university's funding

    Law, policy or court · Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill

    Two years after the move to confine the university to graduate study failed, church-college allies in the 1895 General Assembly tried to shrink its state appropriation; Winston rallied alumni legislators and prevailed after Populist leader Marion Butler came out for the university. Students met him at the west gate on his return and escorted his hired coach and four to a bonfire and celebration at Gerrard Hall.

    People: Marion Butler

    Subject: Gerrard Hall

  17. The faculty sets study and conduct rules for athletes

    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill

    After a disorderly fall term the faculty barred students neglecting their studies or on probation from the football and baseball teams, required parents' written consent, limited team absences to five days a year and made players pledge not to drink or gamble on trips.

    People: George Tayloe Winston

  18. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  19. Commencement marks twenty-five years since the university reopened

    Naming or commemoration · Memorial Hall

    The 1900 commencement was given over to the reopening of 1875, with nineteen members of the 1875-76 student body present and addresses by Kemp Battle, George T. Winston, W. J. Peele and President Alderman.

    People: Kemp Plummer Battle · George Tayloe Winston · W. J. Peele

    Subject: Memorial Hall

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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