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Hillsborough Recorder: A weekly published in Hillsborough from 1820, Whig before the Civil War and Conservative after it. It provides detailed local reporting. After 1865 it opposed the Freedmen's Bureau, the Union League and Governor Holden and played down Klan violence. Read issue by issue for this index, 1820–1879.Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 201–400 of 769, 200 to a page.Back to highlights
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Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1840s
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The university's Executive Committee contracts for two new dormitory buildings
With the new session crowded beyond its rooms, the university's Executive Committee contracted for two new buildings of eight rooms each to be used as dormitories, which the builders promised to finish by January 1, 1842.
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The Orange Troop of cavalry escorts General Trolinger's militia review at Hillsborough
The Orange Troop, a cavalry company of about forty men from the Haw River Regiment under Captain Dickey, rode into Hillsborough with General Trolinger, his staff, a band and baggage wagons and escorted him to the field for his review of the militia. The troop went with him through his whole tour of the division, including a dinner at Chapel Hill on September 24.
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Anderson Mayo, a free Black man, is convicted at Hillsborough of murdering his wife
Anderson Mayo, a free Black man jailed in early July after his wife's body was found near her father's house, was tried at the fall term of Orange Superior Court, convicted of her murder and sentenced to hang in October.
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Anderson Mayo is executed at Hillsborough for the murder of his wife
Anderson Mayo, a free Black man convicted of murdering his wife at the fall term of the Orange County Superior Court, was executed at Hillsborough under his sentence.
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Hillsborough merchant Col. David Parker dies
Col. David Parker, a Hillsborough merchant, died in the town after an illness of three or four weeks, in the 27th year of his age. Eagle Lodge No. 71 put on mourning for him the next day.
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Hillsborough men form the Washington Temperance Society of Orange County
Meeting at the court house, Hillsborough men organized a Washington Temperance Society on the total-abstinence pledge, adopted a constitution and elected Col. Henry Webb president. The drive followed talks in the village by John F. Carey of the Baltimore Washingtonians, and about half the adult men of Hillsborough signed the pledge.
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Orange County Whigs meet at the Masonic Hall and nominate Henry Clay for president
A Whig meeting at the Masonic Hall in Hillsborough, chaired by Dr. James S. Smith and addressed by Senators Willie P. Mangum and William A. Graham, nominated Henry Clay for president and Governor John M. Morehead for re-election. It refused to recognize President Tyler as a Whig and called for delegates from every captain's district to meet at Hillsborough at the May court to name the party's ticket for the General Assembly.
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Former Superior Court judge William Norwood dies near Hillsborough
William Norwood, a retired judge of the state Superior Courts, died at his home near Hillsborough after a long illness, aged about 78.
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Dr. James Webb counts 13 deaths in Hillsborough and its vicinity for
Dr. James Webb's annual bill of mortality counted 13 deaths in 1841 among about 1,000 people in Hillsborough and its vicinity, besides about 153 pupils in the schools. He recorded 37 births: 15 white and 22 Black.
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Hillsborough elects Thomas Clancy magistrate of police and chooses its town commissioners
Hillsborough's annual town election made postmaster Thomas Clancy magistrate of police for the coming year and chose seven commissioners, among them William H. Brown, Lemuel Lynch, John Berry, John Jones, Pride Jones and James Mebane.
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Orange County justices turn down a plan to tax the county $10,000 for a new court house
At the February term of the county court, the justices of the peace refused a motion to build a new court house, which would have cost the county about $10,000 in taxes. Meetings that spring, both for and against dividing the county, praised the refusal on the ground that taxpayers could not bear the cost, though they granted the old court house was in bad condition.
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Michael Holt, planter, magistrate and former legislator, dies suddenly
Michael Holt, about 64, a prosperous farmer, justice of the peace and former member of both houses of the legislature, died suddenly after a brief illness. His obituary praised the improvement of his farms, his support of schools and his long membership in the Lutheran church; his son Edwin M. Holt was an executor of his will.
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A meeting at the High Falls of Haw River demands a central division of Orange County
A large meeting at the High Falls on Haw River, chaired by William Montgomery, resolved to keep petitioning the legislature for a central division of Orange County, condemned the recent attempt to tax the county $10,000 for a new court house, and pledged to support no legislative candidate who opposed division. A substitute offered by Giles Mebane to settle the question by a popular vote at the August election was voted down.
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Delegates form the Orange County Temperance Society at Hillsborough
A convention of delegates from the county's temperance societies met at the court house and organized the Orange County Temperance Society, auxiliary to the state society, with every member of a local society counted a member. It elected Thomas Clancy president, James C. Turrentine recording secretary and William J. Bingham corresponding secretary, and set an annual meeting in Hillsborough each August.
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Hillsborough citizens adopt an address urging voters to reject a central division of Orange County
A meeting of Hillsborough citizens chaired by Thomas Clancy adopted an address 'To the Voters of Orange County' written by a committee of six Democrats and seven Whigs. It argued that a central division would still leave western voters across the Haw River from a court house, would double county taxes and require new court houses, jails, poorhouses, bridges and roads, and would cost the eastern half a senator.
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Orange County sends Democrat Joseph Allison to the state Senate while voting for Whig governor John M. Morehead
Orange voters gave Governor John M. Morehead, the Whig, 1,576 votes to 1,172 for Louis D. Henry, yet elected Democrat Joseph Allison to the state Senate over Hugh Waddell and returned only one Whig, Henry K. Nash, to the House of Commons with Democrats John Stockard, Julius C. Bracken and Cadwallader Jones Jr. The Whig Recorder blamed poor Whig turnout and alleged illegal votes, and some Whigs spoke of contesting the result.
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Orange County voters reject a central division of the county
In a poll taken at the August election on the county court's order, Orange voters turned down a central division of the county, 1,697 to about 1,150. Hillsborough voted 495 to 32 against division, while some precincts, such as Faucett's, voted heavily for it.
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Orange Superior Court convicts Pleasant Tudor of the murder of James Roney
At the fall term of the Superior Court in Hillsborough, Pleasant Tudor was tried and convicted of murdering James Roney in July 1841 and was sentenced to hang on October 7.
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The Orange County grand jury urges the legislature to build a state penitentiary
Before adjourning, the grand jury at the fall term of the Orange Superior Court, with Stephen Moore as foreman, presented the need for a state penitentiary, declaring the present modes of punishing crime inadequate and commending the question to the county's members of the next General Assembly.
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Pleasant Tudor is executed for the murder of James Roney
Pleasant Tudor, convicted at the September Superior Court of murdering James Roney, was hanged under his sentence.
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The legislature elects Cadwallader Jones Jr. of Hillsborough solicitor for the judicial district
The General Assembly elected Cadwallader Jones Jr. of Hillsborough, then one of Orange County's members of the House of Commons, solicitor for the judicial district on the fourth ballot, by seven votes over John F. Poindexter.
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James Jackson Jr. buys the Hillsborough House tavern on King Street
James Jackson Jr. bought the tavern known as Faddis's old stand, lately kept by Thomas D. Crane as the Hillsborough House, and advertised it to travelers and drovers and to people with business at the court house. He promised low charges and a bar kept apart from the house.
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The university's catalogue for 1842-43 lists 171 students
The university's printed catalogue for 1842-43 listed 171 students: 33 seniors, 44 juniors, 41 sophomores, 39 freshmen and 14 irregulars, 142 of them from North Carolina. They were taught by seven professors and two tutors under a board of 60 trustees.
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Orange Whigs nominate Henry K. Nash for Congress
A Whig meeting at the Masonic Hall, with Catlett Campbell presiding, nominated Henry K. Nash of Hillsborough for Congress in the seventh district, which the Democratic legislature had gerrymandered. A committee led by Willie P. Mangum drafted the resolutions, and Nash accepted in a speech.
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A post office named Ruffin's Mills opens in the western Hawfields
A new post office called Ruffin's Mills was established in the western part of the Hawfields, with James A. Craig as postmaster.
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Green, an enslaved man, is jailed on a charge of robbing and burning Thomas Thompson's house on Cane Creek
Green, enslaved by Hugh Wilson, was committed to jail on a charge of setting fire to Thomas Thompson's house on Cane Creek while the family was at church, after taking about sixty dollars from it. At the fall superior court his trial for arson was put off to the next term for want of time.
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Orange County gives Whig Henry K. Nash a majority, but Democrat John R. J. Daniel wins the district
In the election for Congress Orange gave Henry K. Nash a majority of about four hundred, carrying Hillsborough and Chapel Hill, but John R. J. Daniel won the seventh district by 155 votes. The Recorder called Nash's county majority the largest any candidate had received in a contested election there for many years.
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Andrew M. Steel is convicted of manslaughter in the shooting of his mother
At the fall superior court, Judge Manly presiding, Andrew M. Steel was tried for murder in the death of his mother, Nancy Steel, whom he had shot on April 19. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to be branded and imprisoned for twelve months.
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Hillsborough bans hog pens close to its streets
The town commissioners made it unlawful to pen hogs within thirty feet of any street, lane or alley, or on the public lots, wherever the pens were a nuisance, under a fine of five dollars and a further dollar for each day a pen remained after notice.
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Jesse O'Daniel dies after Henderson Griffin strikes him with a rifle barrel
Jesse O'Daniel was struck on the head with the barrel of a rifle by Henderson Griffin on October 5 and died of the blow on the night of October 13. Griffin was jailed at once to await trial; the paper laid the affair to drink.
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Hillsborough orders free people of color to prove their freedom and post bond to live in town
The town commissioners directed the town constable and the patrol captains to bring before the magistrate of police any person of color passing as free who was not known to be free; anyone who could not show free papers within thirty days was to be jailed. Free people of color settling in town had to give a hundred-dollar bond for good behavior or leave, and an enslaved person found at a grog shop without a written pass could be given up to thirty-nine lashes.
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Mrs. Harris of Orange makes silk handkerchiefs from silk she raised
The editor was shown two heavy, well-made silk handkerchiefs from a lot made in the county by Mrs. Harris, who had also raised enough silk for six yards of cloth. He urged other women to take up silk culture.
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Hillsborough elects Richeson Nichols magistrate of police
Hillsborough voters chose Richeson Nichols magistrate of police for the coming year and elected Lemuel Lynch, William H. Brown, James M. Palmer, Dr. Pride Jones, Henry K. Nash, John A. Faucett and a Carmichael as town commissioners.
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The Recorder begins reprinting Herman Husband's account of the Regulation
Dennis Heartt began reprinting in the Recorder, from the Greensborough Patriot, Herman Husband's rare account of the Regulation in Orange so that subscribers could read and keep it, praising the Regulators' spirit of liberty. The Patriot's copy had come through the Rev. Mr. Caruthers from a Regulator's granddaughter living in Indiana.
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David Mebane, former legislator and Revolutionary partisan, dies
David Mebane died in Orange County in his eighty-fourth year. The Recorder recalled that he had several times represented the county in the legislature and had been a bold partisan in the Revolution; Alexander Mebane and G. A. Mebane qualified as his executors at the February court.
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County court lays an $8,000 tax to build a new courthouse
At its February term the Orange County Court voted, reportedly 42 to 33, to build a new courthouse at Hillsborough instead of repairing the old one, and then laid a tax of $8,000 to pay for it. Western voters saw the tax as a move to fix the county seat and block a division of Orange.
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Courthouse commissioners let the contract to John Berry
The commissioners named by the county court to build the new courthouse, James S. Smith, Cadwallader Jones sen., Osmond F. Long, John U. Kirkland, Harrison Parker, William Murray, Edwin M. Holt and Michael W. Holt, let the contract privately to John Berry of Hillsborough without public notice. Western critics attacked the bargain in the paper through the spring.
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Superior Court sentences Green and Dick, two enslaved men, to hang
At a spring term crowded with capital cases, the Superior Court under Judge Dick convicted Green, enslaved by Hugh Wilson, of arson and Dick, enslaved by Samuel McBroom, of burglary and an assault on a white woman, and sentenced both to hang on April 26. Bradshaw Fuller of Person County was acquitted of passing counterfeit notes on a technical defect, and the editor urged a state penitentiary, arguing that prison would be adequate punishment for the two young men.
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Green and Dick, enslaved men, are hanged
Green and Dick, the two enslaved men sentenced at the spring Superior Court for arson and burglary, were hanged on the day the court had set.
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A gold nugget is plowed up on John Paul's farm
A lump of native gold weighing 21 pennyweights, free of any other rock, was plowed up in a field belonging to John Paul about five miles northwest of Hillsborough.
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County school board orders a new survey of the school districts
The Orange County Board of Superintendents of common schools ordered a new survey of the county's school districts, kept the old district committeemen in office until elections under the new lines, and urged districts that had not drawn their school money to hold schools by fall, after which the funds would be apportioned by the new survey.
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John U. Kirkland is elected a Warden of the Poor for Orange County
At an election in April 1844 Orange County chose Cadwallader Jones, Dr. James Webb, Green Jordan, Nathaniel Bain, James Faucett, John U. Kirkland and Samuel N. Tate as Wardens of the Poor.
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William Gattis, superintendent of the county poorhouse, dies
William Gattis, for many years superintendent of the Orange County poorhouse and an elder of the Presbyterian church, died in his seventy-first year. Two days later the Court of Wardens met in Hillsborough, recorded that he had served the public with the utmost fidelity and sent its sympathy to his widow.
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Western Orange meeting at George Foust's denounces the courthouse tax
A meeting at George Foust's resolved that the $8,000 courthouse tax was ill-timed, unjust and unlawful, called on all the magistrates to reverse or sustain the order at the August court, and declared that Orange should be divided somewhere between its center and a line nine miles west of Hillsborough. Jonathan Gant chaired, and a committee of forty was named to address the county and circulate memorials for division.
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Meeting at Tate's store asks for a division vote and names the proposed county West Orange
People gathered at Samuel N. Tate's store resolved to vote for no legislative candidate who would not pledge to carry a central division of Orange, asked the sheriff to open polls at the August election for or against a central division, and proposed that the new western county be called West Orange. A committee reported that the sheriff agreed.
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Orange elects its whole Whig ticket
Orange voters returned the entire Whig ticket, sending Hugh Waddell to the state Senate and Giles Mebane, Chesley F. Faucett, Loftin K. Pratt and John B. Leathers to the House of Commons by an average majority of 157, and re-elected Sheriff James C. Turrentine over William Nelson. The county also gave its own William A. Graham a majority of nearly 200 over Michael Hoke for governor.
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Orange voters reject a central division of the county
At the August election, polls opened at the request of the division men gave a majority of 292 against a central division of Orange, with 1,291 votes cast for division. All the legislative candidates had pledged beforehand to follow the result.
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Eagle Lodge Masons lay the cornerstone of the new Orange County courthouse
Masons of Eagle Lodge, with brethren from University Lodge, laid the cornerstone of the new courthouse in Hillsborough, with Dr. James S. Smith acting as deputy grand master. The Rev. William M. Green gave the oration in the old courthouse nearby.
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Henderson Griffin, tried for the murder of Jesse O'Daniel, is branded for manslaughter
At the fall Superior Court, Judge Pearson presiding, Henderson Griffin, indicted for the murder of Jesse O'Daniel, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to be branded; the sentence was carried out in the presence of the court and he was discharged.
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Henry, enslaved by William Blackwell, is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding
On the Thursday of the fall Superior Court, Henry, enslaved by William Blackwell, was tried for murder, found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to be branded. At the request of men learned in the law, the Recorder asked the legislature either to set a specific penalty for manslaughter by enslaved people or to leave it to the judge, and renewed its call for a penitentiary.
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Whigs hold a two-day mass meeting on the Alamance battleground
Whigs from Orange, Wake and neighboring counties camped for two days on the ground of the 1771 Battle of Alamance, hearing George E. Badger, Henry K. Nash, Henry W. Miller, Charles Manly, Ralph Gorrell and others tie the Regulators' cause to their own. Michael Shoffner, who owned the land, declared that the ground should henceforth belong to the nation in memory of the battle, and on October 11 Hillsborough's Whigs met the returning Wake delegation with a procession and a supper at the Masonic Hall.
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Orange gives Henry Clay a 97-vote majority over James K. Polk
In the presidential election Orange cast 1,686 votes for Henry Clay and 1,589 for James K. Polk, by the official returns printed in the Recorder, as North Carolina went for Clay and the nation for Polk.
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Hillsborough Academy appoints the Rev. John Witherspoon principal
The academy trustees appointed the Rev. John Witherspoon, D.D., principal in place of John A. Bingham and James H. Norwood, who had resigned, with the next session to open January 6, 1845, and Witherspoon to live in town and take boarders. Norwood announced a private classical school of his own half a mile south of Hillsborough for January.
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Catlett Campbell, long chairman of the Orange County Court, dies
Catlett Campbell, a Virginia native who had lived at Hillsborough for nearly fifty years and had long served as chairman of the Orange County Court, died near the town.
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Thomas W. Holden, now living in Milton, offers Enoe Mills for sale
Thomas W. Holden advertised all or half of Enoe Mills, five miles below Hillsborough, for sale. The works had about 300 acres, a threshing machine, saw mill, cotton gin, two wool-carding machines, an oil mill and a corn and flour mill, with his partner J. F. Lyon on the premises.
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A long drought cuts the oats and threatens the Orange corn crop
A drought that began in March cut short the oat crop, stopped the small-stream mills and left much of the county's corn near failure, prompting a public call for the county to lay in corn for the poor. A general rain at the end of July, the best since March, eased fears of scarcity.
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Hillsborough postmaster Thomas Clancy dies
Thomas Clancy, Hillsborough's postmaster and an academy trustee, died, and Eagle Lodge No. 71 resolved to bury him with Masonic honors and wear mourning for thirty days.
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An Orange County temperance convention asks the justices to shut down grog shops
Delegates of the county's temperance societies met in convention at Hillsborough during May court and asked the justices to use their power against retail liquor shops, to follow the Supreme Court's decision on retail licenses, and to refuse licenses except for public convenience. The convention also condemned treating voters at elections and agreed to meet each year on the Tuesday of May court.
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The University gives honorary doctorates of law to President Polk and Senator Mangum
At the University's commencement the trustees conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on two alumni, President James K. Polk and Senator Willie P. Mangum. At the Alumni Association meeting the night before, Governor Swain spoke of the postponed reburial of President Caldwell and of Governor Thomas Burke's unmarked grave near Hillsborough.
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Orange Presbytery votes to move Caldwell Institute to Hillsborough
Orange Presbytery chose Hillsborough over Yanceyville and Oxford as the new seat of its Caldwell Institute, and a town meeting chaired by Dennis Heartt welcomed the school and pledged the town's support. The trustees named Rev. John A. Bingham professor of Latin.
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Caldwell Institute reopens in Hillsborough after leaving Greensboro
The Orange Presbytery's Caldwell Institute, founded at Greensboro, moved to Hillsborough and began its first session there on July 9, 1845, with Alexander Wilson as president. It used the Hillsborough Academy building and absorbed that school.
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Orange citizens hold funeral honors for Andrew Jackson at Mason Hall
A large gathering of Orange citizens and the officers of the Hawfield Regiment marched in a funeral procession at Mason Hall in memory of Andrew Jackson, with minute guns, a prayer by Rev. Anderson Hughes and an oration by Cadwallader Jones Jr.
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Orange voters elect Richard M. Jones and Joseph Allison clerks of court
In the county's August election, voters chose Richard M. Jones clerk of the Superior Court and Gen. Joseph Allison clerk of the County Court, replacing the longtime clerks.
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Rev. John Paisley, pastor of Fairfield and Eno, dies
Rev. John Paisley, pastor of the Fairfield and Eno Presbyterian congregations and well regarded among his fellow ministers as a theologian, died after an illness of about six weeks.
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James S. Smith offers his estate for sale to pay his debts
In a notice dated August 19, 1845, in the Hillsborough Recorder, James S. Smith offered property he valued at not less than $35,000 to cover debts of $15,000 or $16,000, saying he would act as his own trustee and salesman. NCpedia says he went bankrupt that year and probably then moved from Hillsborough to a house on Smith Level Road outside Chapel Hill.
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Orange Wardens of the Poor require written applications for relief
The Court of Wardens of the Poor ordered that every application for county relief be made in writing and signed by a justice of the peace and at least two other respectable persons.
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A hundred and ten men of the Hawfields Regiment volunteer for the Mexican War
At a muster of the Hawfields Regiment, 110 men enrolled as volunteers for service in the war with Mexico.
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Long, Webb and Co. buy and refurnish the Union Hotel
Long, Webb and Co. bought the Union Hotel in Hillsborough, repaired it, fitted it with new furniture and hired Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Wren to run it.
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Volunteers of the 47th Regiment draw lots and organize John Cameron's company
The volunteers of the 47th Regiment drew lots to cut 108 enrolled men to the 77 a company needed and elected John Cameron captain, Shepard K. Nash first lieutenant and Addison Mangum second lieutenant. The company's return went to the Adjutant General.
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Hillsborough hands the refitted academy building to the Caldwell Institute
In the Institute chapel, before Orange Presbytery, students and townspeople, Henry K. Nash spoke for the town commissioners and delivered the keys of the newly finished building to the Caldwell Institute trustees. About seventy students were enrolled in the second week of the session.
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Orange votes against a state penitentiary
On the penitentiary question put to voters at the August election, Orange cast 2,135 votes against a state penitentiary and 815 for it.
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Col. Handy Wood, lieutenant of the Haw River volunteers, dies of fever
Col. Handy Wood, first lieutenant of the Haw River Volunteer Company raised for the North Carolina regiment, died of fever in western Orange after a few days' illness.
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Thomas Flint, Revolutionary soldier and longtime schoolmaster, dies
Thomas Flint, a Revolutionary soldier who had taught school in the county for fifty-three or fifty-four years and was still keeping a school, died. He was a longtime member of the Primitive Baptist Church.
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Citizens organize a new Orange County Bible Society
Citizens met in the Presbyterian session house in Hillsborough, adopted a constitution for a county Bible society and elected Giles Mebane president, David L. Swain and others vice presidents, Stephen Moore treasurer and the Rev. Dr. Alexander Wilson secretary.
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William Smith shoots his wife Elizabeth near Hillsborough
William Smith shot his wife Elizabeth with a musket at their home about two miles from Hillsborough, and she died of her wounds the next night. The paper withheld details because the case was to go before the courts.
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Harriet A. Reeves is killed in Orange County, and her brother is later convicted of her murder
Harriet A. Reeves was murdered in Orange County on January 13, 1847. Her brother Spencer S. Reeves, indicted for the killing, had his trial moved to Randolph County and then to Guilford, where Guilford Superior Court under Judge Bailey found him guilty in October 1847.
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The Orange Volunteers dine at the Hillsborough House and elect John Cameron captain
Townspeople gave the Orange Volunteers, raised for the Mexican War, a dinner at Robert F. Morris's Hillsborough House, where Cadwallader Jones Jr. and Gen. Joseph Allison addressed them. The company then marched to the court house and elected John Cameron captain and Shepard K. Nash first lieutenant, and was accepted as Company I, the ninth company of the North Carolina Regiment.
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The Orange Volunteers leave Hillsborough for the Mexican War
After bad weather held them a day, the Orange Volunteers received a Bible each from the Orange County Bible Society in a ceremony at the court house, with an address by the Rev. Robert Burwell, and marched for Chapel Hill and Raleigh on their way to Wilmington, escorted out of town by a crowd of citizens.
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Hillsborough's town commissioners have the market house moved
The town commissioners voted to move the market house from its old site and named George Laws, Stephen Moore and Richeson Nichols to let the job to the lowest bidder on January 9. In August the board paid John Jones for extra work on the market house.
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Robert F. Morris buys the Hillsborough House from James Jackson
Robert F. Morris, who said he had kept taverns for several years, bought the Hillsborough House, lately run by James Jackson, and promised to be ready for guests by the February court. He advertised a good table and stables and a bar stocked with liquors.
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The legislature incorporates the Caldwell Institute at Hillsborough
The General Assembly passed a bill, taken up in the Senate on the motion of Hugh Waddell, to incorporate the Caldwell Institute in Hillsborough. The school's spring session opened on January 7 with eighty-nine students, and the trustees' executive committee authorized hiring a teacher for an English department.
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Hillsborough tightens its patrol ordinance against enslaved and free Black people
The town commissioners repealed the patrol captain's discretion to release or whip enslaved people found off their owners' lots without a pass, and ordered that anyone caught after ten at night be jailed and whipped the next morning unless the owner paid a fine. They also ordered the constable to jail any enslaved or free Black person found drunk in town on a Sunday, the enslaved to be whipped and free people fined two dollars.
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David Dixon and his brothers form a firm to build threshing machines at Snow Camp
After the partnership of Stafford and Dixon dissolved, David Dixon and his brothers formed a firm at Snow Camp to make and repair threshing machines, straw cutters and edge tools, hiring Northern workmen and offering castings up to four thousand pounds.
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The Orange Volunteers are broken up to fill other companies of the North Carolina Regiment
At the regiment's camp at Smithville, the Orange company, still short of full strength, was divided among other companies, chiefly the Yancey company, leaving Capt. John Cameron without a command. Orange men served on in the regiment's companies in Mexico.
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The Whig district convention at Hillsborough nominates John Kerr for Congress
Delegates from Orange, Chatham, Granville, Caswell and Person met at Hillsborough with Hugh Waddell in the chair and Henry K. Nash as secretary, and unanimously nominated John Kerr of Caswell for Congress. William K. Ruffin, who had announced himself a candidate, withdrew the same day.
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Lieutenant James F. Waddell opens an army recruiting station at Hillsborough
James F. Waddell of the Hillsborough area, newly commissioned a lieutenant in the regular army, set up a recruiting station at Hillsborough to enlist men for the Mexican War, offering the federal bounty of twelve dollars and land warrants.
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Orange votes for John Kerr, but Abraham W. Venable carries the congressional district
In the congressional election Orange County gave the Whig John Kerr 1,621 votes to 1,437 for the Democrat Abraham W. Venable, a majority of 184, and Chatham also went for Kerr, but Venable carried the five-county district by 160 votes.
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A great freshet sweeps away mills and bridges on Little River and Flat River
After days of rain, a flood on the night of August 6 carried off nearly all the mills and bridges on Little River and Flat River, destroyed most of the corn on the low grounds, swept away hay and overwhelmed sheep and other stock. In the western part of the county the bridge over the Alamance was carried away.
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The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina meets at Hillsborough
The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina held its annual meeting at Hillsborough, with forty-one ministers attending and the church opened each day for public worship. It adopted resolutions on religious instruction of the Black population and on education, recommending Davidson College, and set its 1848 meeting for Salisbury.
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Duncan Cameron gives Thomas D. Bennehan's charity bequest to the Orange County wardens of the poor
The Court of Wardens of the Poor for Orange County accepted from Duncan Cameron a gift for the county's poor, made under the clause of Thomas D. Bennehan's will that left Cameron $1,000 for Christian and benevolent purposes at his discretion, entered it in their minutes and sent him their thanks.
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Hillsborough meeting of both parties backs Zachary Taylor for president
Citizens of both parties met in the court house during spring court week, put Peyton P. Moore in the chair and resolved that Gen. Zachary Taylor was their first choice for president; John W. Kerr urged men of both parties to rally to Taylor, and only one voice was heard against the main resolutions.
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Orange Whig convention nominates Hugh Waddell and a Commons ticket
Meeting at the Masonic Hall in Hillsborough on Tuesday of May court with Dr. Edmund Strudwick presiding, the Whig county convention nominated Hugh Waddell for the state Senate and Giles Mebane, Josiah Turner Jr., Isaac Holt and John B. Leathers for the House of Commons; when Leathers withdrew days later, a court-week meeting of Whigs named William W. Guess in his place.
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Chapel Hill gives a dinner for the returned Mexican War volunteers
Citizens of Chapel Hill gave a dinner near the village for the North Carolina volunteers just home from the Mexican War, and about five hundred people attended.
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Sheriff's casting vote sends Hugh Waddell to the state Senate
When the official count in Orange's state Senate race left Whig Hugh Waddell and Democrat John Berry tied, the sheriff cast the deciding vote for Waddell; within days Berry's friends charged that the return from John R. Holt's precinct had credited Waddell with five votes too many.
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Hugh Waddell resigns his disputed Senate seat and asks for a new election
Unable to settle whether the Holt's precinct return had wrongly given him five votes, Hugh Waddell sent the governor his resignation of the Senate seat that the sheriff's casting vote had given him and offered himself again to the freeholders; the governor ordered a new election for November 7.
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Orange County votes for Zachary Taylor for president
In the presidential election, Orange gave Whig Zachary Taylor 1,657 votes to 1,583 for Democrat Lewis Cass, by the totals of the paper's precinct table.
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Hugh Waddell contests John Berry's election to the state Senate
After the November 7 special election, in which returns from Faucett's precinct were made under an inspector's protest and the sheriff declared Democrat John Berry elected, Hugh Waddell petitioned the state Senate to unseat Berry, claiming a majority of the legal votes; in early December the Senate debated how evidence would be taken in Orange.
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The legislature passed the act creating Alamance County from western Orange
The General Assembly ratified an act on January 29, 1849, to lay off Alamance County from the part of Orange west of a line nine miles west of Hillsborough, if Orange voters approved. They voted for division 1,257 to 1,001 on April 19, and Governor Charles Manly proclaimed the act in force on April 24, 1849.
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Hillsborough orders its patrol to break up gatherings of Black people
The Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town patrol to disperse gatherings of Black people in the streets and to put down rioting, quarrelling and swearing, with fines of up to four dollars for free offenders and up to thirty-nine lashes and jail for enslaved ones. They also told town officers to enforce the bans on shooting in town, galloping through the streets, blocking streets and carrying uncovered fire.
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Orange County railroad meeting backs a central route through Orange and Guilford
A county meeting at the Hillsborough court house, chaired by Dr. Edmund Strudwick, adopted William A. Graham's resolutions that the central railroad should run through Orange and Guilford, pledged enough subscriptions to grade the road through the county, and named ten delegates to the Salisbury railroad convention in June. Graham and Giles Mebane spoke.
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Railroads through Orange
Orange County backed a central route for a state railroad in 1849, and its residents put up $100,000 toward the North Carolina Railroad. Built partly by enslaved workers, the line reached Durham's Station in December 1854 and Hillsborough in April 1855, and through trains ran early in 1856. The Hillsborough depot shipped flour, tobacco and bacon in its first year, a depot on the Orange-Alamance line gave rise to Mebanesville, and the railroad agreed to a depot at University Station in 1875. State convicts built the University Railroad from University Station, which brought trains to West End in 1882.
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Orange physicians meet at Hillsborough to form a county medical society
A meeting of Orange County physicians at Hillsborough, with Dr. Edmund Strudwick in the chair and Dr. Johnson B. Jones of Chapel Hill as secretary, resolved that a county medical society should be organized, named delegates to the state medical convention at Raleigh, and appointed a committee to draft a constitution for adoption at May court.
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Orange County voters approve dividing the county to form Alamance
In the referendum the Alamance act required, Orange County voters approved dividing the county, 1,237 for division to 1,001 against, at polls from Hillsborough to Haw River and Chapel Hill.
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Governor Manly declares the Alamance County acts in force
After the sheriff of Orange certified the division vote, Governor Charles Manly proclaimed that a majority had voted for division and that the act laying off Alamance County and its supplement, both ratified January 29, 1849, were in full force.
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Orange County Court refuses licenses to retail liquor
At its May 1849 term the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions declined to license houses retailing ardent spirits, a decision that a temperance meeting at Ellis's old mill later praised and asked the court to keep as a precedent.
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Alamance County court holds its first session and elects county officers
At its first session, held at Providence meeting house as the law required, the court of the new county of Alamance elected the county officers: Peyton P. Moore clerk of the county court, Steuben White clerk of the superior court, Thomas Webb county solicitor, Joseph Holt sheriff and George J. Freeland register.
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North Carolina Railroad stock books open at Hillsborough
The commissioners opened the North Carolina Railroad subscription books at the Hillsborough court house, where John M. Morehead, David L. Swain and William A. Graham addressed the people; the editor called the first day's subscriptions respectable, and the books stayed open thirty days.
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Commissioners sell the first fifty lots in Graham, the new Alamance seat
The commissioners for the new county of Alamance laid off the county seat of Graham and sold its first fifty town lots at auction, then advertised about forty more for a second sale in August.
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Henry K. Nash carries Orange but loses the congressional race to Venable
In the congressional election the Whig Henry K. Nash of Hillsborough carried Orange 1,062 to 839 but lost the new county of Alamance 573 to 753, so led the two counties by only 42 votes, and the Democrat Abraham W. Venable won the district by about 700.
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Hillsborough forbids Black people to loiter in the streets on Sundays
The Hillsborough commissioners unanimously ordained that no free Black or enslaved person could loiter about the town streets on Sunday, punishing enslaved offenders with ten lashes for a first offense and twenty for a second and fining free Black offenders fifty cents and then a dollar. The board also paid for cleaning the town well and putting in a new pump.
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William N. Whitted advertises Lochiel for sale
William N. Whitted offered Lochiel, his place a mile northwest of Hillsborough, for sale: an eleven-room house with barn, ice house and kitchen on 205 acres, with 140 more acres to the northeast. The notice ran in the Recorder into early 1851.
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The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina meets in Hillsborough
The Synod of North Carolina met in Hillsborough with seventy to eighty ministers and a number of elders, elected John A. Gretter of Greensborough moderator, adopted a plan for colporteurs to distribute Presbyterian books, and thanked the town's citizens and its Methodist and Baptist churches for opening their houses of worship.
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Alamance physicians meet at Graham to organize a county medical society
Physicians of the new county of Alamance met in Graham, with Dr. Samuel Holt in the chair and D. A. Montgomery as secretary, to form a county medical society, named a committee to draft its constitution and invited every physician in the county to join.
- 1850s
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Hillsborough raises the good-behavior bond for free Black residents to $500
At a called meeting the Hillsborough commissioners amended the town ordinance so that free Black residents had to give bond with security of $500, instead of $100, for their good behavior while living in town. They also ordered the constable to arrest any enslaved or free Black person found drunk: an enslaved person was to receive 15 to 39 lashes unless the owner paid a $2 fine, and a free Black person was to be fined $2, and $5 for each repeat.
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Orange railroad meeting names a committee to raise subscriptions
A meeting of Orange County citizens at the court house in Hillsborough appointed a committee, among them Dr. W. A. Norwood, D. C. Parrish, John Berry, J. U. Kirkland, W. N. Pratt, C. W. Johnston and Josiah Turner Jr., to solicit subscriptions to the North Carolina Railroad and report at the February county court.
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Railroad convention at Hillsborough pledges the remaining North Carolina Railroad stock
A railroad convention at Hillsborough, called to complete the list of one hundred men pledged to take the unsubscribed stock, agreed that the whole amount still needed under the charter would be taken. When the general commissioners met at Greensborough on March 30 they found $76,000 to $78,000 still lacking, mainly because the Petersburg Railroad found it could not take its $40,000, and reopened the books, at Hillsborough until May 1.
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Orange school superintendents name district committees and order a school census
Meeting in the clerk's office at Hillsborough, the Board of Superintendents of Common Schools for Orange, with Stephen Moore as chairman, appointed three-man committees for the county's school districts, numbered to 51, and ordered each committee to take a census of its district and report to the chairman without delay; the Alamance committees were left as they were the year before.
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Hillsborough gives free Black residents five days to post bond or leave town
The Hillsborough commissioners amended the town ordinance so that free Black residents, once notified, had five days instead of thirty to give security for their good behavior or leave the town.
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Hillsborough hires a paid town patrol and orders town property reassessed
The Hillsborough commissioners ordered two men employed to patrol the town at no more than $50 a year each, to be commissioned by the magistrate of police on a committee's recommendation, and named Josiah Turner, Stephen Moore and a third man to reassess the value of real estate in town for taxation.
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Railroad commissioners at Chapel Hill declare the North Carolina Railroad Company formed
Meeting at Chapel Hill, the general commissioners of the North Carolina Railroad found that the $1,000,000 in private stock required by the charter had been subscribed and the first five per cent, $50,000, paid in. They declared the company formed as of June 6, 1850, and called the stockholders to meet at Salisbury on July 11 to organize.
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Frederick Nash and John L. Bailey form a law school at Hillsborough
Frederick Nash and John L. Bailey announced that they had joined to open a law school in Hillsborough, teaching young men the branches of the law and preparing them for practice in the state's courts.
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Baptist preacher William H. Merritt dies near Chapel Hill
The Rev. William H. Merritt, a preacher known across the state, died at his home near Chapel Hill in his seventy-second year. Lame for some years, he had kept up his farm and was noted for his gifts to the poor and to benevolent causes.
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Democrats win the Orange and Alamance Senate seat and all four Commons seats
In the state election, voters of Orange and Alamance, still voting together for the legislature, chose Capt. John Berry for the Senate and Cadwallader Jones Jr., Daniel A. Montgomery, Bartlett Durham and George Patterson for the Commons, all Democrats, over the Whig ticket headed by Chesley F. Faucett. The two counties also gave David S. Reid 1,855 votes for governor to Gov. Charles Manly's 1,634, reversing Manly's narrow lead there in 1848.
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Hillsborough commissioners drop the paid town patrol for citizen patrol duty
The Hillsborough commissioners repealed the ordinance that let the magistrate of police hire two paid patrolmen and made Thomas Faucett town constable and collector. They ordered the clerk to list the men liable to patrol duty so the magistrate could call out a patrol company every week.
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Orange Superior Court sentences an enslaved man named Ellick to hang
At the fall term of the Orange Superior Court, Judge Matthias E. Manly presiding, a jury convicted Ellick, an enslaved man, on a charge of raping a white woman, and he was sentenced to hang on October 18. Hugh Waddell, John H. Bryan and James S. Amis defended him by appointment of the court; the same term ordered thirty-nine lashes for James Mitchell, a free Black man who pleaded guilty to grand larceny.
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Lawyer Priestley H. Mangum dies at Hillsborough
Priestley H. Mangum, the oldest member of the Orange bar, county solicitor and a former member of the House of Commons for Orange, died at his home near Hillsborough after a brief illness. The Orange bar met at the court house during the November term to adopt resolutions in his memory.
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Railroad engineers survey the North Carolina Railroad routes near Hillsborough
Corps of engineers for the North Carolina Railroad were surveying alternative routes in the Hillsborough neighborhood in late October, after chief engineer Walter Gwynn passed through town in September with word that $3 million would build the road. At about the same time the directors, meeting at Greensborough, chose William A. Norwood of Hillsborough to replace William A. Graham on the board.
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Four professors and fifteen students join the Sons of Temperance at Chapel Hill
Philip S. White, past Most Worthy Patriarch of the national Sons of Temperance, lectured twice at Hillsborough on October 11 and then at Chapel Hill, where on the night of October 12 he initiated four members of the university faculty and fifteen or more students into the order.
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The county court elects Henry K. Nash solicitor for Orange County
The Orange County Court elected Henry K. Nash county solicitor in place of Priestley H. Mangum, who had died in September.
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A snowstorm leaves about a foot of snow at Hillsborough
The first regular snowstorm of the winter left about a foot of snow at Hillsborough, which the editor judged the deepest in some thirty years.
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Dennis Heartt takes his son Edwin A. Heartt into the Recorder
With the issue that closed the paper's thirty-first volume, Dennis Heartt took his son Edwin A. Heartt into the business, and the Hillsborough Recorder was thereafter published by Dennis Heartt & Son.
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Hillsborough hires two paid patrollers and widens the patrol's powers
The Hillsborough commissioners adopted a committee plan for a town patrol of two men, each paid at the rate of $50 a year and serving at the board's pleasure, passed an ordinance extending the patrol's powers with arrest fees charged to the persons arrested rather than the town, and had the magistrate of police appoint R. F. Pleasants and A. Murdock as the patrol.
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Hillsborough citizens meet to bring the railroad through town on the north side of the river
A meeting at the court house, chaired by Magistrate of Police O. F. Long with E. A. Heartt as secretary, heard John U. Kirkland and others argue that the North Carolina Railroad should pass through the town on the north side of the river, and named a committee including Dr. Edmund Strudwick, Dr. W. A. Norwood, Dr. Pride Jones, George Laws and W. H. Brown to report how to secure that location.
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Railroad directors adopt the line through Hillsborough and order the road put under contract
Meeting in Raleigh, the North Carolina Railroad directors received the engineers' reports, fixed the 223-mile line by Raleigh, Hillsborough, Graham, Greensborough, Jamestown, Lexington, Salisbury and Concord to Charlotte, and ordered the whole road put under contract that summer, with contractors paid half in cash and half in stock and the work to be finished three years from January 1, 1852.
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Railroad grading contracts are let for the line through eastern Orange to Pratt's store
At the North Carolina Railroad's letting in Raleigh, contractors took the grading of the line from the Neuse River west to Pratt's store in eastern Orange County (now Durham County), completing the contracts from Goldsborough to Pratt's store except for about ten miles in Johnston County; bids for the section from Pratt's store to the Alamance line were taken at Hillsborough two days later.
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Contracts for grading the North Carolina Railroad through Orange are let at Hillsborough
At a letting in Hillsborough on Wednesday, June 25, 1851, contractors took the grading and other work on the North Carolina Railroad from Pratt's Store to the Alamance line, except for one short section about five miles west of town, which was let within the following days. Contracts for the Alamance part of the line were taken at Graham two days later.
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Orange gives Calvin Graves a narrow majority, but Abraham W. Venable keeps the district seat in Congress
In the congressional election of August 7, 1851, Orange County voted 709 for Calvin Graves of Caswell, run as a Union Democrat against secession, and 670 for the sitting congressman Abraham W. Venable. Venable carried the six-county Fifth District and was re-elected; Graves had never declared himself a candidate.
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North Carolina Railroad directors meet in Hillsborough and order iron and locomotives
The directors of the North Carolina Railroad met in Hillsborough on January 8 and 9, heard that the whole line was now under contract, and authorized the president to contract for rails for the track and the chief engineer to buy two twenty-ton locomotives and cars. They also shifted the eastern end of the line to run through Waynesborough, a change New Bern stockholders soon protested.
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A blast injures two enslaved men building the railroad near Hillsborough
Two enslaved men held by Turner and Jones, contractors building the North Carolina Railroad near Hillsborough, were hurt when a blasting charge they thought had been drawn went off as they redrilled the hole; one was feared to have lost an eye and the other lost a finger. The account shows enslaved labor at work on the railroad's rock cuts in Orange.
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The county court names commissioners to value railroad land in Orange
Most Orange landowners on the route gave the North Carolina Railroad its right of way without charge, but four or five refused, so the company went to the county court to have their land valued under its charter. The court appointed William Lipscomb, Hezekiah Terry, Stephen S. Forrest, John W. Garrard and John McCown as the commissioners.
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An earthquake shock is felt in Hillsborough
An earthquake shock was felt in Hillsborough a little before one in the afternoon, as at Raleigh and Greensborough, shaking window sashes and rocking furniture for four or five seconds with a low rumbling. Later reports had it felt as far away as Lynchburg and Staunton, Virginia.
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Orange returns John Berry to the state Senate and splits its Commons seats
In the state election John Berry, a Whig, won Orange County's seat in the state Senate. The House of Commons seats for Orange and Alamance went to Democrats B. L. Durham and John F. Lyon and Whigs Samuel F. Phillips and Josiah Turner Jr.
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Whigs hold a Scott and Graham mass meeting and barbecue at Hillsborough
During Superior Court week some 2,000 to 2,500 people marched to a grove on the Chapel Hill road south of Hillsborough for a free Whig barbecue and speeches. William A. Graham, home after resigning from the cabinet to run for vice president, thanked the people of Orange and Alamance, and Willie P. Mangum said he would retire from public life at the end of the next Congress.
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Nathan Hooker's executor advertises his land and town lots for sale
O. Hooker, executor of the late Nathan Hooker, gave notice of a sale on November 24, 1852 at Hooker's former residence: a large tract south of town, Lots 84 and part of 85 in Hillsborough, and a hundred-acre tract half a mile north of town, with furniture, a buggy and cows.
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Orange votes for the Scott and Graham electors
In the presidential election the Whig electors pledged to Winfield Scott and Orange's William A. Graham carried the county by 1,441 votes to 1,307 for the Pierce and King ticket. Pierce carried North Carolina by 686 votes and won the presidency.
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The legislature passes a charter for the Chapel Hill and Durhamsville Plank Road Company
The state Senate passed on its third reading the House bill incorporating the Chapel Hill and Durhamsville Plank Road Company, a company to build a plank road from Chapel Hill to Durhamsville (now Durham). Samuel F. Phillips had introduced it in the Commons a week earlier.
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The legislature passes a bill incorporating the trustees of Hillsborough Academy
The state Senate passed the House bill incorporating the trustees of Hillsborough Academy, suspending its rules to give the bill its second and third readings the same day. Orange member B. L. Durham had introduced the bill in the Commons after the academy gave notice in September that it would seek a charter.
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The Hillsborough Fire Company reorganizes and elects Thomas Webb captain
Meeting at the court house, the Hillsborough Fire Company reorganized, named a committee to draft its rules, and elected Thomas Webb captain, Stephen Nichols, W. Johnston Freeland and L. G. Lynch lieutenants, John A. Turrentine secretary and Thomas J. Strayhorn treasurer.
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Hillsborough orders lamps for its main street
Hillsborough's commissioners ordered lamps set up along the main street of the town and lit on dark nights, and townsman William Cheek took the contract to furnish them.
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University trustees create a school of applied science and elect Charles Phillips professor of civil engineering
At their annual meeting the university trustees decided to set up a School for the Application of Science to the Arts with two new chairs, civil engineering and agricultural chemistry, and elected the mathematics tutor Mr. Phillips to the chair of civil engineering.
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An enslaved man is killed with a pair of tongs near Hillsborough
An enslaved man held by Capt. John Berry of the Hillsborough neighborhood was killed by blows to the head with a pair of tongs from an enslaved man held by Mr. Hargrave of Chapel Hill; after an examination before Judge Battle the accused was admitted to bail to await a jury trial.
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A post office opens at Orange Factory with John H. Webb as postmaster
The Post Office Department established a post office at Orange Factory, the Webb and Douglass cotton mill village on Little River, with John H. Webb as postmaster.
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Hillsborough orders a list of the free Black people living in town
Hillsborough's commissioners ordered the town constable to bring to their next meeting a list of all the free Black people living within the town limits.
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Copper ore is found on two farms southwest of Chapel Hill
Fine specimens of copper ore were found on the lands of Mr. Williams and Mr. Atwater about four miles southwest of Chapel Hill, a specimen from the Williams land was tested by Professor Mitchell of the university, and a company was expected to form to open the find.
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Orange County contracts for a new bridge over the Eno at Hillsborough
The Orange County court at its May 1853 term named commissioners to contract for a new bridge over the Eno at Hillsborough in place of the old one, and by early August the contractor had taken the old bridge down and was laying the foundations for a new and durable span. With no bridge, the Raleigh stage overturned in the rain-swollen river at the Hillsborough crossing on the night of July 26; the passengers were saved with difficulty, but three trunks were lost and the mails soaked.
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Orange votes for Whig Sion H. Rogers, who takes the congressional district from Venable
In the congressional election of August 4, 1853, Orange gave Sion H. Rogers of Wake, the Whig candidate, 962 votes to 767 for the Democratic incumbent, Abraham W. Venable, and 26 for Lewis, the Democrat backed by the Raleigh Standard. With the Democrats split, Rogers carried the Fourth District by 67 votes over Venable on the official count.
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The Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts is organized
Farmers and mechanics meeting at the courthouse in Hillsborough on Tuesday of August court, August 23, 1853, organized the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts under a subscription agreement circulated that summer, with Paul C. Cameron as president, James C. Turrentine as treasurer and Edwin A. Heartt as secretary. The legislature had lately voted aid to such county societies.
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Hillsborough offers the North Carolina Railroad town land for its principal shops
At a public meeting on August 29, 1853, the citizens of Hillsborough authorized the town commissioners to offer the North Carolina Railroad part of the land around the depot site at Hillsborough, free of cost, for the company's principal workshops, two days before the directors met in Raleigh to settle where the shops would go. The Recorder pressed the town's case in September, calling the site very eligible and easily graded.
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Dennis Heartt is replaced as Hillsborough postmaster by James M. Palmer
Dennis Heartt, editor of the Recorder and a Whig, was removed as postmaster at Hillsborough under the Pierce administration and succeeded by James M. Palmer, who signed the town's list of uncalled letters on October 1, 1853. Heartt marked his removal with a mock farewell in verse to the Postmaster General.
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Hillsborough charges free Black and enslaved sellers a dollar a day on public days
The Hillsborough town commissioners unanimously ordained that no free Black or enslaved person might sell victuals in town on election days or other public days without first paying the town constable one dollar for each day; the constable was to give a written permit naming the days, keep half the money for enforcing the rule, and pay the rest to the town treasurer.
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Contractors finish their grading on the railroad's second division toward Hillsborough
By mid-November 1853 several contractors on the second division of the North Carolina Railroad, the division running west from near Raleigh, had finished their grading, among them men named Trollinger, Mebane and Faucett; others were nearly done, and the Recorder expected the whole grading to be ready before the company could lay the track.
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Hillsborough meeting resolves to build a plank road to Milton
Citizens of Orange and neighboring counties met in Hillsborough during court week and resolved to build a plank road from Hillsborough to Milton, naming committees to sell stock in $50 shares and to ask the next legislature for a charter and state aid. Hugh Waddell urged a branch to Haywood by way of Chapel Hill.
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Sheriff arrests William Hester, wanted for stealing enslaved people
The Orange sheriff and a posse arrested William Hester near his home about five miles west of Hillsborough after a chase in which Hester twice aimed his gun at the sheriff. Governor Reid had offered $350 for him on a charge of stealing enslaved people; he was also under indictment for stabbing a Black man in Hillsborough and had forfeited $3,500 bail.
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Orange's Whig and Democratic conventions agree to put the liquor question to the voters
A joint committee of the Whig and Democratic conventions agreed, and both conventions adopted, that their nominees would follow the majority of Orange voters on liquor legislation, that the question would be decided by ballots for and against at the August election with the sheriff opening polls for it, and that nominees would not treat voters.
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Hillsborough closes its graveyard for Black people to new burials
The Hillsborough commissioners prohibited further burials in the town's graveyard for Black people from the next day and named a committee to set apart part of the town common as a new Black burying ground and to look for a site for a White burying ground.
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Hillsborough lays off its common in lots and names Hillsborough Avenue and Calvin Street
The Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town common south of King Street laid off in lots, Margaret Lane extended to the western town line and a 99-foot street run from King Street to the railroad. They named the wide street Hillsborough Avenue and the street parallel with the depot Calvin Street, for Calvin Graves, whose casting vote as Speaker of the Senate had carried the North Carolina Railroad bill.
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Hillsborough offers the North Carolina Railroad a depot site on the town common
The Hillsborough commissioners tendered to the North Carolina Railroad Company, for its depot, the part of the town common south of Calvin Street between Occoneechee and Nash streets, and ordered the newly laid-off town lots sold on October 10.
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Mary Burwell marries Frederick Nash Strudwick
Mary Susan Burwell, one of her mother's first pupils and later a teacher at the school, married the neighbor Frederick Nash Strudwick in Hillsborough, with the Rev. F. K. Nash officiating, joining two families who lived a town lot apart.
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North Carolina Railroad stockholders meet at Hillsborough and vote to raise a million dollars
The stockholders of the North Carolina Railroad, with more than 8,000 shares represented, met at Hillsborough with Calvin Graves in the chair. They accepted the amendments to the company's charter by a stock vote, elected directors including John M. Morehead and Francis Fries, and authorized the president and directors to raise $1,000,000 to complete and equip the road.
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Orange elects William A. Graham to the state Senate and Phillips and Turner to the Commons
Orange County voters elected the Whig ticket: William A. Graham to the state Senate over Cadwallader Jones Jr., and Samuel F. Phillips and Josiah Turner Jr. to the House of Commons over John F. Lyon and William Nelson. The county gave Alfred Dockery, the Whig candidate for governor, 1,080 votes to Thomas Bragg's 963, and voted against the liquor 'Reform' question.
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A West Orange post office opens northwest of Hillsborough
A new post office named West Orange was established about five miles northwest of Hillsborough, with a Mr. Bain as postmaster.
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Orange Superior Court sends the William Hester slave-stealing case to Chatham
Orange Superior Court removed the case of State v. William Hester, charged with stealing an enslaved man, to Chatham County on Hester's affidavit that he could not get a fair trial in Orange and feared violence if acquitted. The court house was crowded when the case came up. He was tried at Chatham Superior Court the next week.
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Joseph Brockwell's murder case is moved to Chatham and ends in a manslaughter verdict
Orange Superior Court moved the murder case against Joseph Brockwell, charged with killing James Davis at Chapel Hill in March, to Chatham County on the prisoner's plea that he could not get a fair trial in Orange. At Chatham Superior Court the next week he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to be branded and imprisoned six months.
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Hillsborough sells town lots beside the railroad station
The town of Hillsborough sold at auction the lots its commissioners had laid off near the coming North Carolina Railroad station. Ten lots of less than an acre each by the station brought $3,819 in all, and five one-acre lots in the northwest part of town sold for much less; the buyers were townspeople.
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Orange County holds its first agricultural fair at Hillsborough
The Orange County agricultural society held its first annual fair over two days, with 81 entries and 190 articles in the stock and mechanical departments and 180 in Floral Hall. Prizes went to castings from Allen Brown's Eagle Foundry, cloth from the Alpha Woolen Mills, local ploughs, carriages by A. C. Murdock and Hurdle & Hurdle, saddles and leather, and Paul C. Cameron gave a two-hour address on the second day.
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Durham’s rise while part of Orange
The North Carolina Railroad reached Durham's Station in December 1854, and flour and then tobacco went out by rail; a small smoking-tobacco factory opened by the depot in 1858. After the war Washington Duke began making smoking tobacco, the Dukes moved into a Durham factory in 1870, and by 1877 the town counted four sale warehouses and about fourteen factories. Hillsborough tobacco firms moved there, and in 1881 Durham County was formed from Orange over Hillsborough's protest.
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Thomas Webb serves as Orange County's clerk and master in equity
Thomas Webb signed notices as clerk and master of the Court of Equity for Orange County, at his office in Hillsborough, from at least 1855 into 1862.
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Hillsborough orders its patrol to break up gatherings of Black people before nine
At its first meeting the newly elected town board amended the patrol ordinance: patrols were to start at whatever hour after sunset the magistrate of police set, disperse gatherings of Black people in the streets before 9 o'clock, and after that hour arrest any found without a permit. The board also hired the town constable to patrol the streets on Sundays for $25 a year, less 50 cents for each Sunday missed.
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The legislature gives Hillsborough's commissioners a say over liquor licenses
The General Assembly ratified an act for the better regulation of Hillsborough, sought by a memorial from the town's citizens. The county court could license only those retailers of spirits in town whom the commissioners recommended, and the commissioners could tax those licenses for town purposes up to the amount of the state tax.
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Dr. James Webb dies in Hillsborough
Dr. James Webb died in Hillsborough on Saturday morning, February 17, 1855, aged 81, after an illness of several years. The Recorder praised his integrity and charity, and he was buried with his wife in the Webb-Long plot of the Old Town Cemetery.
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Orange magistrates abolish the county's Special Court
A majority of the county's magistrates voted to abolish the Special Court, to take effect after the February term.
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Orange flour starts going to Wilmington by rail from Durham's Station
After the first Wilmington merchant known to visit the section came through, several loads of flour were hauled to Durham's Station (now Durham County) to be sent to Wilmington. Until then produce carried on the North Carolina Railroad had gone to Norfolk and Portsmouth.
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The Orange County Agricultural Society votes to buy a permanent fair ground
Meeting in the grand jury room during Superior Court week, the society heard that a site could be had from the Misses Thompson on the south side of the river near the railroad at $10 an acre, and authorized its committee to buy twenty acres, have them surveyed and take a deed.
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John A. McMannen pays $4,000 for land at Durham's Depot
Mr. McMannen bought property at Durham's Depot (now Durham County) for $4,000, land that had sold a few years before for $225, put his son in charge of the place and planned a storehouse for the neighborhood trade. In late May he advertised to lay off a town there in half-acre lots, giving away every other lot to anyone who would bond to build within a year and barring the sale of liquor.
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Mrs. Margaret Woods dies when her house on Little River burns
Mrs. Margaret Woods died when her house on Little River, seven miles northeast of Hillsborough, burned one night in the week of the spring Superior Court. A coroner's jury held Presley Riley on suspicion of killing her and setting the fire, but Chief Justice Nash discharged him for want of evidence, and suspicion turned to enslaved men held by William D. Ray and Joseph Brown of the county.
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William McCauley takes charge of the Hillsborough House
William McCauley took over the Hillsborough House, the inn northeast of the court house long known as Faddis' Hotel. He repaired the buildings, bought new furniture and said he had retired from other business to run it.
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The North Carolina Railroad reaches Hillsborough
The Hillsborough Recorder of Wednesday, April 4, 1855, announced that the North Carolina Railroad was finished to the Chapel Hill Road, a few hundred yards south of town, and that passenger cars would begin running there that day. The editor cheered the end of two-day trips over muddy roads to Raleigh and costly wagoning of farm produce.
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Hillsborough lets the contract for a culvert and graded street to the depot
The town commissioners contracted with Josiah Turner (of James) to build a culvert where King and Occoneechee streets meet and to grade the streets from there to the railroad station, with macadam to follow if the money held out. The board also adopted an ordinance taxing everyone licensed to retail liquor in town, the constable to collect the tax when the license issued.
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The railroad bridge frame over the Eno collapses with nine men on it
While hands were raising the North Carolina Railroad bridge near Brown's mills, two miles west of Hillsborough, a support standing on poor footing in midstream gave way and the frame fell about sixty feet into the river. The superintendent, Mr. Wells, and eight hands, five white and three Black, were on it; all survived, but Wells broke a thigh and several others were badly cut and bruised.
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The Hillsborough Recorder enlarges and keeps its Whig flag
Dennis Heartt's Recorder came out about five columns larger at no increase in price. Announcing the change, the paper welcomed the principles of the new American or Know-Nothing party but said it would not strike the Whig flag for any new party.
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Hillsborough station opens its freight warehouse under agent Dr. Hooker
The North Carolina Railroad's freight warehouse at Hillsborough was ready for use, and Dr. Hooker, newly appointed the company's agent at the Hillsborough station, took up his duties. The road had also dropped a rule that charged more per barrel to farmers shipping fewer than five barrels of flour at a time.
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An Eno River flood sweeps away two bridges and breaks mill dams
A heavy night rain raised the Eno River high enough to sweep away the bridge above Brown's mill and a temporary bridge lower down that Gen. Trolinger had built. The flood broke the dam at Mr. Faucett's mill, and the dam at George Ray's mill on Forrest's Creek was also washed away.
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Orange gives the American Party's James B. Shepard a majority for Congress, but Democrat L. O'B. Branch wins the district
In the congressional election, Orange County voted for the American (Know Nothing) candidate James B. Shepard over the Democrat Lawrence O'B. Branch by 135 votes, 932 to 797, with Shepard strongest at Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Midway. Branch carried the Fourth District by a large majority.
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Edwin A. Heartt, the Recorder's junior partner and secretary of the town and county boards, dies
Edwin A. Heartt, son and partner of Recorder editor Dennis Heartt, died in late August. The Court of Wardens, whose secretary he was, the Hillsborough town commissioners, whom he also served as secretary, and Eagle Lodge No. 71, where he was an officer, passed resolutions of mourning.
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Orange County citizens meet at Hillsborough to raise aid for Norfolk and Portsmouth yellow fever sufferers
A meeting of Orange citizens chaired by William A. Graham, with Paul C. Cameron as secretary, adopted Josiah Turner Jr.'s resolutions for a collection and named a committee of sixteen to solicit money and provisions for yellow fever sufferers in Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Episcopal and Presbyterian churches in Hillsborough had already taken up collections of $159 and $46 on Sunday, September 9, and sent them on.
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The Orange County agricultural society holds its second annual fair at Hillsborough
The Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts and Manufactures held its second annual fair in the court house and on the fair grounds at Hillsborough, and John W. Norwood gave the annual address on the second day. Premiums went to C. C. Tinnin for the best corn, 13 barrels and 3 bushels from about an acre, to J. N. Craig for wheat, and to William H. Brown and Alexander Dickson for flour, among others.
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Hillsborough forms the Orange Guards volunteer company
Stirred by a visit from the Independent Guards of Raleigh on October 27, Hillsborough men formed a volunteer company of sixty-two members called the Orange Guards. They chose Dr. Pride Jones captain, Josiah H. Webb first lieutenant, Henry K. Nash ensign, William Johnston Freeland orderly sergeant, Dr. William Strudwick surgeon and Frederick N. Strudwick judge advocate.
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Rev. John A. Bingham, former Latin professor at the Caldwell Institute, dies at his brother's home
Rev. John A. Bingham died at his brother William J. Bingham's home in Orange County in his forty-first year. Raised and taught by his brother at the Hillsborough Academy, he had taught there with him, was licensed by Orange Presbytery in 1841, and was professor of Latin at the Caldwell Institute from 1845 until illness forced him to give up the post.
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Rev. James B. Donnelly, rector of St. Matthew's Church, dies
Rev. James B. Donnelly, rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, died on the eve of All Saints' Day. A native of Catskill, New York, and a Yale graduate trained partly at the General Theological Seminary, he had been ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Ives.
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The first through trains run on the finished North Carolina Railroad, with mail trains at Hillsborough
The North Carolina Railroad was finished on January 29, 1856, when the last rail was laid about four and a half miles west of Greensboro. Two days later the regular mail and passenger trains made their first through run from Charlotte to Goldsboro, with a westbound train due at Hillsborough each morning and an eastbound one before dawn, replacing the coach connection that had carried the Burwells' letters to their daughter Fanny in New York.
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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 4, 2026.
