Chronology

The county agrees to pay for a home demonstration agent

The commissioners ordered two-thirds of an $800 salary paid for a home demonstration agent, with the school board paying the rest. The work stopped after the war and did not resume until 1935.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

Korean lespedeza is introduced on Orange County farms

By 1919 farmers had been persuaded to try Korean lespedeza and nearly a thousand acres were grown that year. The legume became the county's main hay crop and winter cover.

The clerk of superior court becomes judge of Orange County's juvenile court

A 1919 state law required a juvenile court in every county. In Orange, as in most counties, the clerk of superior court was made its judge.

School superintendent R. H. Claytor becomes the county's first welfare superintendent

After the 1919 law required every county to have a welfare board, the commissioners and school board jointly elected Claytor to the added post at $600 a year, half from county and half from school funds. Wiley B. Sanders took the job part time on July 5, 1920, for six months.

People: R. H. Claytor

Mount Olive Baptist Church is organized at Efland

Black Baptists at Efland organized Mount Olive Baptist Church and built a church the same year.

Masons lay the cornerstone of Grimes Dormitory

Masons from Hillsborough's Eagle Lodge and Chapel Hill's University Lodge laid the cornerstone of Grimes Dormitory. Past Grand Master Samuel M. Gattis of Eagle Lodge ran the ceremony and gave the address.

People: Samuel Mallett Gattis

Subject: Eagle Lodge · University Lodge

William B. Neal opens the Hill Bakery in Chapel Hill

Neal started the bakery in 1921 on the lot later taken by Strowd Motor Company. After his death Mrs. Neal ran it until 1945, and it supplied most of the town's bread for over thirty years.

Chapel Hill hires its first town manager, E. M. Knox

Chapel Hill appoints E. M. Knox as its first town manager. He served until 1928, when J. M. Foushee took the post.

McDuffie Memorial Baptist Church is organized

J. F. McDuffie and Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Franklin organized a Baptist church named for McDuffie, who became its first pastor. It built a 130-seat church the same year.

Fitch-Riggs Lumber Company buys Andrews and Lloyd's Carrboro lumber business

In 1923 the Mebane firm Fitch-Riggs took over Andrews and Lloyd, a small Carrboro lumber business with one employee, and R. Bernice Fitch ran the Carrboro plant. It traded as Fitch-Riggs Lumber Co. into 1925 and as Fitch Lumber Co. by 1927, and by 1953 it was Carrboro's oldest small concern, with 20 men, a planing mill and a coal yard.

Lettie Glass serves as acting superintendent of the Chapel Hill schools

Lettie Glass ran the Chapel Hill schools as acting superintendent while Fred W. Morrison was away, and again in 1923-1924. She is the only woman in the book's list of superintendents.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Louis Graves founds the Orange Printshop in Chapel Hill

Graves set up the Orange Printshop in 1923 alongside his Chapel Hill Weekly and leased it to W. M. Pugh in 1940. It printed books and magazines and set a record for delivering the state Session Laws.

Subject: The Orange Printshop

The commissioners issue $65,000 in bonds to pay off the county's bank loans

Road spending in the early 1920s outran taxes and kept the board borrowing from banks. On August 6, 1923 it voted $65,000 in bonds to clear the existing debt, which the book calls the first time the county funded its deficits.

An Order of the Eastern Star chapter is established in Hillsborough

A chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Masonic order open to women, was established in Hillsborough. Chapel Hill's chapter followed in 1947.

The Bank of Chapel Hill buys the Peoples Bank

Chapel Hill's second bank, the Peoples Bank, ran from about 1912 under presidents Vernon Howell and J. D. Webb. The Bank of Chapel Hill bought its assets in 1925.

Subject: Bank of Chapel Hill

The four Bivins brothers start a woodworking plant in Hillsborough

The Bivins brothers opened a plant in Hillsborough in 1925 that first made tobacco baskets and later, as Orange Furniture Craftsmen, upholstered furniture. It became the White Furniture Company's Hillsborough branch.

Orange County builds a new jail

The county replaced its run-down jail with a $65,000 building, also used as a base for convicts on road work. Five years later the state took over most sentenced prisoners and the jail was often nearly empty.

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Orange County operates under a budget for the first time

After 175 years without a budget or central accounts, the county adopted its first budget for fiscal 1927-1928 under the new County Fiscal Control Act. That year it spent $3,363.21 on the county home and farm and $730.50 on outside poor relief.

Subject: Orange County poorhouse (County Home)

The Church of God of Carrboro is organized

C. T. Boyd and others organized a Church of God congregation in Carrboro and built a 450-seat church the next year.

Don S. Matheson becomes Orange County's full-time farm agent

After years of on-and-off support for extension work, the county hired Matheson full time. Over the next quarter century he moved farmers from soil-depleting row crops toward grass and livestock.

People: Don S. Matheson

White Rock Church is organized

Laura Atwater, Henry Thompson and others organized White Rock Church, a United Holy Church congregation, and built it the same year. R. C. Turner, pastor of the Temple of Truth, was also its first pastor.

People: R. C. Turner

George H. Lawrence becomes the county's first full-time welfare superintendent

The commissioners and school board, in joint session, elected Lawrence full time. For years he worked with only a part-time clerk, from an old university-owned house in Chapel Hill.

People: George H. Lawrence

Gilbert W. Ray becomes Orange County's first county accountant

Under the 1927 County Fiscal Control Act the county hired Ray as accountant and purchasing agent, and he set up its first working system of books and central buying. Ray stayed in the job until August 31, 1947.

People: Ira Ward

Eno Cotton Mill installs new machinery and switches to combed yarn

New machinery went in at the Eno mill in 1929, and combed yarn replaced coarse carded yarn. Broadcloth shirting and corduroy became its main products.

Subject: Eno Mill

The Chapel Hill recorder's court is established

The new court heard all misdemeanors from Chapel Hill Township every Tuesday, with a judge elected by town voters and a clerk and prosecutor named by the aldermen.

Orange County consolidates most of its small white schools

After a county survey by the Board of Education and Superintendent Claytor, most small white schools were merged by 1930, with buses provided. As late as 1925 the county still had 21 one-teacher white schools and several one-teacher Black schools.

People: R. H. Claytor

Farmers of Durham and nearby counties organize the Farmers Exchange cooperative

About 400 farmers and farm leaders formed the Farmers Exchange in March 1930 to market farm products and buy supplies at cost. John Sprunt Hill of Durham backed it, and by 1952 it served about 4,100 members in five counties including Orange.

People: John Sprunt Hill

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

The state takes over Orange County's roads and most of its prisoners

The 1931 act moved every public road outside town streets to state upkeep and made the state responsible for longer-term prisoners, ending one of the county's oldest duties. The Gardner survey had found Orange spent $48,076 on its 412 miles of roads in 1929.

People: O. Max Gardner

UNC establishes its School of Library Science

A School of Library Science was added at Chapel Hill in 1931, early in Frank Porter Graham's presidency.

People: Frank Porter Graham

University Lodge buys Chapel Hill's old Baptist church for its hall

University Lodge No. 408 bought the old Baptist church building on Franklin Street and made it into its lodge hall.

Subject: University Lodge

R. A. Eubanks serves on the Orange County Board of Commissioners

Lefler and Wager's list of Orange County commissioners gives R. A. Eubanks a term from 1932 to 1934, when W. P. Berry and John H. Hanner were also on the board.

The university is consolidated with the Greensboro and Raleigh colleges

In 1932 the university at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina College for Women at Greensboro and State College at Raleigh were joined administratively into one University of North Carolina.

People: Frank Porter Graham

A three-mile rural power line from Chapel Hill to Calvander is built with federal money

Built in 1933 as a Civil Works Administration project, the line ran three miles from Chapel Hill to Calvander, and the Hogan brothers supplied cedar poles when funds ran short. The book says it was the first rural electric line in the United States built with federal funds.

People: George H. Lawrence

Robert B. House becomes Dean of Administration at Chapel Hill

As part of consolidation, President Frank Graham chose Robert Burton House, confirmed by the trustees in 1934, as Dean of Administration for the Chapel Hill campus. His title became chancellor in 1945.

People: Frank Porter Graham · R. B. House

Catholics organize a congregation in Chapel Hill

The Catholic Church of Chapel Hill was organized under its first priest, Francis J. Morrissey. With no building of its own, it held services in Gerrard Hall on the university campus.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

A Church of God congregation is organized in West Hillsborough

Garland Crabtree and T. E. Boman organized the Church of God of West Hillsborough, with Edd Mize as first pastor. It built a 250-seat church in 1945.

Dr. I. H. Manning leads the founding of the Hospital Saving Association

After a 1933-1934 study of hospital care for people of small means, the Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina, known as the Chapel Hill Blue Cross plan, was founded in 1935. Dr. Isaac H. Manning, longtime medical dean, was its leading figure and first president.

M. C. Burt begins work as the county's agent for Black farmers

From 1935 Burt served Orange County's Black farmers as extension agent, for a time shared with Chatham County. Edwin P. Barnes became assistant county agent the same year.

UNC creates the General College

The university added a new division, the General College, at Chapel Hill in 1935.

The commissioners turn relief money over to welfare officer George Lawrence

As Depression requests multiplied, the board stopped voting on each small grant and paid Lawrence $150 a month for January and February 1935 to put into the ERA fund for totally disabled people on the relief list. In March it gave him charge of all relief for March and April.

People: George H. Lawrence

Robert A. Eubanks receives his regular appointment as Chapel Hill postmaster

Eubanks, acting postmaster since April 5, 1933, was given his regular appointment on January 16, 1935. He held the office until he resigned in 1939.

Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

Grace E. Holcombe revives home demonstration work in Orange County

Hired jointly by Orange and Chatham counties, Holcombe organized four home demonstration clubs and nine 4-H clubs within a year. By 1941, under her successor Woodward Byars, the county had 17 home demonstration clubs.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

Oak Grove Baptist Church is organized

Oak Grove Baptist Church was organized in 1936, led by Robert A. Thompson, Jesse E. Sykes, Woody Thompson and M. E. Thompson.

The Durham Bank and Trust Company buys the Bank of Orange

The Bank of Orange stayed independent until 1936, when the Durham Bank and Trust Company bought it. Its assets were about $750,000 at the sale.

The sheriff stops serving as the county's tax collector

The sheriff had collected Orange County's taxes since colonial days, and that ended in 1936, with collection moving to the county accountant's office. Carl C. Davis became tax collector in 1938.

Dr. W. P. Richardson becomes health officer of the district serving Orange

Richardson followed Dr. M. H. Rourk, who left in February 1936, and served until Dr. O. D. Garvin replaced him in 1944.

People: William P. Richardson

G. C. Kennedy and Sons build the Piedmont Packing Company plant north of Hillsborough

The meat packing plant about five miles north of Hillsborough was first built in 1937 and later enlarged. It held state permit No. 18, employed about 40 people and supplied markets from Hillsborough to Raleigh.

The county welfare department is reorganized under Social Security

A new three-member welfare board of O. L. Crabtree, Bruce Strowd and Charlie McDade, a Black member, took charge, and W. T. Mattox became superintendent in July 1937. The office moved to Hillsborough that year and kept a branch in Chapel Hill.

People: Bruce Strowd · William T. Mattox

Second Baptist Church is organized in Chapel Hill

A second Black Baptist congregation was organized in Chapel Hill and put up its building in April 1938.

The Neuse River Soil Conservation District is formed with Orange County in it

Created in 1938 under state enabling law, the district covered Durham, Johnston, Orange, Wake and Wilson counties. Orange later had three men on its board.

The county begins small yearly grants to Hillsborough's Confederate Memorial Library

Even before state library grants were available, and at least as early as 1938, Orange County made small annual appropriations to the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsborough.

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Nunn's Chapel Baptist Church is organized

W. N. Nunn and other ministers organized Nunn's Chapel Baptist Church, a Black congregation, which built a church in 1946.

Granville wilt first appears in Orange County tobacco

The bacterial disease known as Granville wilt showed up in the county's tobacco crop for the first time in 1939. Growers later turned to wilt-resistant varieties.

Soil Conservation Service work begins in Orange County

Federal soil conservationists started farm planning in the county in 1939, with R. L. Mohler as work unit conservationist. By June 1953 plans covered 1,265 farms and about 142,000 acres.

The Durham Bank and Trust Company takes over the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Hillsborough

The Durham bank acquired Hillsborough's second bank, the Farmers and Merchants Bank, in 1939. From then on it ran a single Hillsborough branch.

Orange County tobacco growers begin farming under acreage allotments

From 1940 each grower's tobacco acreage was allotted and enforced after a referendum on compulsory control that more than 90 percent of growers backed. The book credits the controls with better quality and yields.

The Efland Knitting Company is started

A second family hosiery firm, the Efland Knitting Company, began about 1940 as an offshoot of John L. Efland's mill.

The Farmers Mutual Exchange installs a 30,000-egg electric incubator

About 1940 the Exchange put in an all-electric incubator holding 30,000 eggs, supplied by blood-tested county flocks. It sold baby chicks and gave farmers a steady market for eggs and broilers.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

White Furniture Company of Mebane takes over Orange Furniture Craftsmen in Hillsborough

The Mebane firm bought the Hillsborough plant and turned it to dining room buffets and cabinets, many of them eighteenth-century reproductions. By 1953 it employed 125.

Ruby Crews becomes the county's first home demonstration agent for Black women

An assistant agent was added in 1941 to work only with Black farm women, and Crews, later Mrs. Ruby Carraway, was the first to hold the job.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

The county home closes

The poorhouse on the land bought in 1823 closed in 1941, since most of its residents now qualified for old age assistance and could live in boarding homes.

Subject: Orange County poorhouse (County Home)

The livestock auction market at Hillsborough holds its first sale

The county gave the land, the town installed watering, and the Farmers Exchange built the barn for a livestock auction at Hillsborough. Its first sale was held November 6, 1941, and yearly sales grew from $150,000 to $1,100,000 by 1951.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

A state farm forester begins part-time work in Orange County

From 1942 Orange County farmers could call on a state forester part time for help with woodland management and timber sales. The 1947 forester, V. G. Watkins, reported on thinning demonstrations.

Orange County farmers bring in more than a hundred beef cattle

Over a hundred beef cows and heifers arrived in the county in 1942, and purebred bulls were placed as well. Fourteen 4-H boys bought Hereford heifers, and the Farmers Exchange Market bought the State Fair's first-place Hereford bull.

The Institute of Government becomes part of the university

The Institute of Government, begun as a separate body, was made part of the university in 1942.

Subject: Institute of Government

UNC's General Faculty names John M. Booker to chair a committee on University government

The General Faculty authorized a committee, chaired by English professor John M. Booker, to study faculty government and write a uniform set of principles for the powers and duties of the University's divisions. Reporting in sections over eight years, its work became the 1950 Faculty Legislation on University Government.

Black shank disease first strikes tobacco in Orange County

A new tobacco disease, black shank, appeared first in 1943 and spread quickly through the tobacco belt. The book ranks it with wilt for damage and notes a partly resistant seed.

The Farmers Mutual Exchange builds a slaughterhouse on Occoneechee Farm

In summer 1943 the Exchange put up an abattoir next to the Hillsborough livestock market on Occoneechee Farm. Farmers could bring cattle and hogs for slaughter at cost and collect the meat the next day.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm · Farmers Mutual Exchange

The B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation buys a lot on Cameron Avenue

The North Carolina B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation bought a lot on Cameron Avenue in Chapel Hill and later built a house there where a rabbi held services for students and townspeople.

W. B. Thompson sells the Chapel Hill News, which becomes the News of Orange County

W. B. Thompson, who had published the Chapel Hill News since its start, sold it in 1944 to J. Roy Parker. The paper was renamed the News of Orange County.

Subject: The News of Orange County

Quakers organize the Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting of Friends

The Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting was organized, the first Friends meeting in Orange County since the old Eno Meeting was laid down about a century earlier. It had no building and had bought a lot on Highway 54.

People: Dudley Dewitt Carroll · Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs

Four Orange County farmers run hybrid corn demonstrations

Four farmers ran corn demonstrations in 1945 on Experiment Station lines, using hybrid seed, shallow cultivation, close spacing and heavy nitrogen. The results showed yields could be more than doubled.

Hesslein and Company buys the Belle-Vue mill, ending local ownership

Belle-Vue Manufacturing Company had been run from Hillsborough since 1904, lately under L. E. Beard. In 1945 Hesslein and Company bought it and spent over half a million dollars on new machinery and on baths for the mill village houses.

Subject: Bellevue Mill

UNC establishes its Communication Center

The university set up a Communication Center at Chapel Hill in 1945. Departments of radio and religion followed in 1947.

The Farmers Exchange opens its Carrboro branch

The cooperative's Carrboro unit opened in March 1945, joining its Hillsborough branch. In the year to June 1952 the two branches bought $303,096 in produce and sold $1,149,392 in supplies.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

The Latta Cooperative Dairy opens its milk plant in Hillsborough

Organized in 1944, the Latta Cooperative Dairy built a small 500-gallon plant in Hillsborough that began work in June 1945. It bought milk from about thirty nearby farmers and ran routes in Hillsborough, Mebane and Durham.

Lee County joins the health district serving Orange

The district health department, begun with Person County in 1935 and joined by Chatham in 1937, added Lee County in 1946.

Orange County farmers seed the first ladino clover plots

There was no ladino clover in the county in 1945. Half a dozen farmers planted trial plots in 1946, and the next year about 200 farmers sowed more than 1,000 acres.

The Farmers Cooperative Dairy opens its plant in Chapel Hill

A larger cooperative of Orange, Chatham and Durham dairymen let the contract in June 1945 for a modern plant at West Franklin and Roberson streets; it was nearly finished in February 1946 and held a public open house at the end of May 1946. It handled fluid milk and made butter, ice cream and condensed milk.

The Gospel Baptist Tabernacle is organized

Willie Thompson, S. E. Elmore and W. J. Johnson organized the Gospel Baptist Tabernacle and built a 250-seat church the same year, with Elmore as first pastor.

Lutherans organize Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill

Holy Trinity, the first Lutheran congregation in Orange County, was organized with 34 charter members and D. P. Rudisill as pastor. Its building was consecrated on January 6, 1952.

Subject: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

An Order of the Eastern Star chapter is established in Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill gained a chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, twenty-two years after Hillsborough's.

Bethsada Baptist Church builds a 500-seat church

Bethsada Baptist Church, a Black congregation led by Jesse Morrow and Rudy Whitmore, built a church seating 500 in 1947.

Clyde Roberts wins the Bank of Chapel Hill corn growing contest

The Bank of Chapel Hill sponsored a yearly corn contest with at least 50 entrants. In 1947 Clyde Roberts won with 93.3 bushels of N. C. Hybrid 26 on one acre, against a contest average of 61.9.

Subject: Bank of Chapel Hill

Orange County breeders organize the Spotted Poland China Breeders Association

Hog breeders formed a county Spotted Poland China association in 1947, building on 4-H pig chains started by the Chapel Hill Rotary Club and the Sears-Roebuck Foundation. It had 65 members four years later.

Orville Campbell starts the Colonial Press in Carrboro

Established in 1947, the Colonial Press did commercial printing for the university and state agencies and had 20 workers by 1953. Its owner also wrote the football song All the Way Choo-Choo.

The Farmers Mutual Exchange opens a pulpwood yard in Carrboro

In 1947 the Exchange began buying pulpwood at its Carrboro warehouse, paying cash for any amount from a wagonload up. The book calls this new market the main advance in county farm forestry.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

The New Hope community helps build Camp New Hope for Orange Presbytery

Beginning in 1947 the New Hope Grange community contributed a good deal toward building Camp New Hope, which belonged to Orange Presbytery. The camp was also open to other youth groups, among them 4-H clubs and Boy Scouts.

The Orange Hosiery Mill starts at Efland

Opened in 1947, the Orange Hosiery Mill was the only one of Efland's four family hosiery plants under corporate ownership. Together the four employed about 100.

J. L. Phelps wins the county corn contest with 136.4 bushels an acre

In the 1948 Bank of Chapel Hill contest eleven growers topped 100 bushels an acre. The winner, with 136.4 bushels, was J. L. Phelps, from the county's sandy tobacco section.

Subject: Bank of Chapel Hill

New Sharon Church members build a $50,000 church and pay for it in a year

Members of New Sharon Church, most of them poultry farmers, put up a $50,000 building in 1948 and 1949. It was dedicated on Sunday, June 5, 1949, at a homecoming of about 800 people, and Lefler and Wager say the cost was cleared within a year.

Subject: New Sharon Methodist Church

Orange County abolishes the office of treasurer

The treasurer, first called trustee, had held county money since 1778 without any power over spending. The office ended in 1948.

The News of Orange County is sold to E. J. Hamlin

In 1948 the News of Orange County changed hands again, passing to E. J. Hamlin.

Subject: The News of Orange County

UNC re-establishes its School of Education

The university, which had discontinued its School of Education in 1933, set it up again at Chapel Hill in 1948.

Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation builds its headquarters in Hillsborough

The rural electric cooperative serving Orange and five nearby counties put up a new headquarters building in Hillsborough in 1949. By 1953 it ran about 1,100 miles of line to more than 4,000 customers.

Subject: Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation

The two Orange County dairy cooperatives merge and take the Long Meadow name

In 1949 the Latta and Farmers cooperatives merged and bought the Long Meadow Dairies plant in Durham County, taking its name. Processing stopped in Hillsborough and went on in Chapel Hill.

UNC organizes the Division of Health Affairs

In 1949 the university grouped its schools of medicine, public health and pharmacy, the new schools of nursing and dentistry, and the University Hospital into a Division of Health Affairs to coordinate teaching and research.

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

Governor Kerr Scott appoints UNC President Frank Graham to the U.S. Senate

On March 22, 1949, Governor W. Kerr Scott named Frank Porter Graham to the United States Senate, ending his presidency of the university. Controller W. D. Carmichael Jr. became acting president.

People: W. Kerr Scott · William D. Carmichael Jr.

Orange County sets up a county recorder's court

Under a 1949 act, the commissioners created a recorder's court for the six townships outside Chapel Hill, sitting every Monday, with the clerk of superior court as its clerk.

Orange County voters approve $1.25 million in bonds for schools and a courthouse

Following a county-wide school study begun in October 1948, voters approved bonds of up to $1,250,000 for new and enlarged schools and a new courthouse. Voters had turned down similar bonds in 1947.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The 1950 census counts 2,038 farms in Orange County

The census found 2,038 farms averaging 87.9 acres, with 179,073 acres, about 70 percent of the county, in farms. Eighteen operations of more than 500 acres showed farms beginning to consolidate.

The Cedar Grove Ruritan Club is organized

Formed in 1950, the club helped landscape the new Aycock School and equip its gym, fielded a community baseball team and arranged group hospital insurance for members. In 1952 it placed first among 22 rural groups in the community improvement contest.

Subject: Aycock School

UNC establishes its School of Dentistry

The university's School of Dentistry dates from 1950, with John C. Brauer as dean. Its first class was due to graduate in 1954.

UNC establishes its School of Nursing

The School of Nursing was established at Chapel Hill in 1950, with Elizabeth L. Kemble as dean from August 1, 1950. Its first students entered in fall 1951, and its first class was due to graduate in 1955.

UNC trustees create schools of social work and journalism

In 1950 the Board of Trustees established a School of Social Work and a School of Journalism, and renamed the School of Commerce the School of Business Administration.

UNC's General Faculty adopts new rules creating a Faculty Council

The General Faculty approved the Faculty Legislation on University Government on May 10, 1950, to take effect in January 1951. It made an elected Faculty Council, meeting each month, the faculty's governing body.

People: John M. Booker

The Carrboro Church of God is organized

Clyde Maynor, Frank King and Robert Hill organized a second Church of God congregation in Carrboro in July 1950. It built a 300-seat church in 1952.

Every Orange County high school, white and Black, takes part in a grassland speaking contest

As part of the pasture campaign, each high school in the county entered a grassland oratorical contest in 1951. The Hillsboro branch of the Durham Bank and Trust Company gave $75 in prizes and winners went on to a district contest.

Masons lay the cornerstone of North Carolina Memorial Hospital

University Lodge No. 408 shared in the Masonic ceremony that laid the cornerstone of the new Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill.

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · University Lodge

Orange County 4-H members win at the Durham Fat Stock Show

In 1951 fifteen Orange County 4-H members showed fat steers, the largest group from any county, and ten took blue ribbons. Oliver Roberts showed the grand champion hog and Carl Walters the reserve champion.

The Unitarian Fellowship of Chapel Hill is organized

A lay Unitarian fellowship began holding religious meetings in Chapel Hill. It had 25 members in 1953.

People: John Gillin

Annie Strowd becomes superintendent of public welfare

Strowd succeeded Mrs. Jean Heer, who had followed W. T. Mattox after his death in 1947, and still held the post when the book was written.

People: William T. Mattox · Annie Strowd

The Grand Lodge of North Carolina meets in Chapel Hill

The state's Grand Lodge of Masons came to Chapel Hill for its annual session, with W. E. Caldwell, a member of University Lodge, as Grand Master.

Trustees make the campus heads chancellors and add a university vice-presidency

On May 22, 1951, on President Gordon Gray's recommendation, the trustees made the controller a vice-president, created a second vice-presidency, and gave the heads of the branches the title of chancellor. Logan Wilson filled the new post that fall.

People: Gordon Gray

The register of deeds begins photographing and microfilming deeds

New deeds were photographed, with the film kept by Hall and McChesney of Syracuse and a print returned for the county's books, and the older deed books were filmed as well. Deeds had been typed rather than handwritten since January 1, 1930.

Chapel Hill builds a new elementary school in the Glen Lennox area

In the fall of 1952 an elementary school was being built in the Glen Lennox area, the first of several planned so young children would not have to travel into downtown traffic.

Joffre Coe publishes an archaeological survey of the Occoneechee Hills area

Coe's study The Cultural Sequence of the Carolina Piedmont, in a volume edited by James B. Griffin, reported a survey and excavation near the Occoneechee Hills outside Hillsborough carried out under the Archaeological Society of North Carolina.

Orange County sells $250,000 in bonds for a new courthouse

The courthouse bonds brought the county's net bonded debt to $1,378,000 at the end of 1952. The new courthouse was then rising beside the old one on the same axis, sharing a courtyard.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The Tar Heel Hosiery Mill starts at Efland

The newest of the Efland family hosiery plants, the Tar Heel Hosiery Mill, began in 1952 making full-fashioned hose.

The district health department starts bedside nursing in southern Orange County

When the book was written, the health department's latest service was a small bedside nursing program for southern Orange County, carried on jointly with the University Hospital and its outpatient department. For 1952-53 the county appropriated $14,000 to the department.

Part of Public health in rural Orange County · 32 events

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church consecrates its Chapel Hill church

Holy Trinity Lutheran's new church in Chapel Hill, built in 1951 with 300 seats, was consecrated on January 6, 1952.

Subject: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Episcopalians organize the Church of the Holy Family in Chapel Hill

A second Episcopal congregation in Chapel Hill was organized with Maurice Arthur Kidder as its first pastor. Ground was broken for its building in June 1953.

People: W. Robert (William Robert) Mann

County welfare spending reaches $190,973 a year

In the year ending June 30, 1952 the welfare department spent $190,973.26, about three-quarters of it state and federal money. Old age assistance for about 290 people and aid to about 125 families with dependent children were the largest items.

People: Annie Strowd

About forty groups report on the Rural Progress Program at a county meeting in Hillsborough

In 1952 farm, civic and church groups competed to raise family farm income by $1,000, improve every home and finish a community project. Results and awards were given at a county-wide meeting in Hillsborough on October 30, and the program was repeated in 1953.

Fairview Baptist Church is organized in Hillsborough

Fairview Baptist Church was organized in Hillsborough in October 1952 under pastor James Clegg and put up a 250-seat building that year.

People: James J. Freeland

Covenant Presbyterian Church is organized in Chapel Hill

A second Presbyterian congregation, Covenant, was organized in Chapel Hill. It had 33 members and no building in 1953.

People: C. Hugh Holman

North Carolina Memorial Hospital is dedicated

Exercises at Chapel Hill on April 23-24, 1953, dedicated North Carolina Memorial Hospital and marked the new four-year School of Medicine and the schools of dentistry and nursing. The hospital had opened in September 1952.

People: W. Reece Berryhill · Henry T. Clark Jr.

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · UNC School of Medicine

The Church of the Holy Family breaks ground in Chapel Hill

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Family, organized in Chapel Hill the year before, broke ground for a building to seat 150.