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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
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Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1850s
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Fire destroys the railroad bridge over Cates Creek below Hillsborough
The North Carolina Railroad's bridge over Cates's Creek, just below Hillsborough, burned on the morning of Wednesday, March 12, soon after the down train had passed. Thomas Webb walked about a mile down the track with a red blanket and stopped the up train before it reached the gap, and a new bridge was ready for the cars by Saturday night, March 15.
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A fire set on the railroad bridge over the Eno is caught in time
Between two and three o'clock on the morning of Sunday, March 16, the passing train found the North Carolina Railroad bridge over the Eno above Hillsborough on fire, and the fire was put out. The editor judged it the work of an incendiary, suspected the same of the Cates Creek fire four days earlier, and reported that a watch would be kept at each bridge on the road.
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The Orange County Agricultural Society buys fair grounds near the railroad depot
By March 12 the Orange County Agricultural Society had bought a site for its annual fair near the railroad depot at Hillsborough, on ground just south of the railroad in the Thompson field. Its committee asked for bids by April 1 to put up a building there, and on June 10 the executive committee ordered subscriptions collected for the house and for enclosing the grounds.
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Hillsborough's commissioners organize the town patrol into weekly companies
Meeting on the evening of Saturday, April 5, the Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town collector to give the magistrate of police a list of every citizen liable for patrol duty, the night watch kept over enslaved people. A committee of the magistrate and three commissioners was to form them into companies, one to be called out each week.
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Logs laid across the railroad west of Hillsborough strike the passenger train
On Wednesday, April 23, the engineer of the eastbound passenger train found logs laid across the North Carolina Railroad about six miles west of Hillsborough and struck them before he could stop, though little damage was done. Two men named Turner who were seen nearby ran, were caught and were jailed in Raleigh, but on May 2 they were brought to Hillsborough on a writ of habeas corpus and discharged for want of evidence.
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Fanny Burwell dies aboard the steamer Jamestown as her parents bring her home to Hillsborough
Fanny Burwell had gone to New York to complete her music education, but fell ill with erysipelas in early March. Her mother went north to nurse her, and she died at dawn on the steamer Jamestown between New York and Norfolk with both parents beside her, in her eighteenth year; her body was brought home to Hillsborough for burial.
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The Hillsborough depot reports its first year's shipments
In its first year of operation, from May 1, 1855, to April 30, 1856, the North Carolina Railroad depot at Hillsborough shipped 3,864 barrels of flour, 137,845 pounds of tobacco, 6,869 pounds of bacon and 17,373 pounds of dried fruit, along with cotton goods, rags and wheat, according to the railroad's agent there.
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A permanent depot at University Station brings a plan for a town there
By May 10 the North Carolina Railroad had made University Station, on Stone's Creek, a permanent depot through which the trade of Chapel Hill and that part of Orange would pass. The court of equity ordered twenty half-acre lots there sold on June 7 for Calvin G. Strayhorn and others, and the sale notice said a town would be laid off.
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John W. Norwood puts the neighborhood's first Hussey reaper to work
In mid-June John W. Norwood began cutting wheat near Hillsborough with a Hussey reaper bought from agents at Norfolk, the first such machine used in the neighborhood. He reported that it cut about fifty acres cleanly over smooth and rough ground alike, and that the enslaved men who worked it had learned it from the printed directions.
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Hillsborough's commissioners pass ordinances against nuisances
At a called meeting, Hillsborough's town commissioners made it an offense to keep a lot, house or cellar in a state that endangered the town's health, with a five-dollar fine and three dollars more for every day the nuisance stood after notice, and fined anyone who threw nuisances into the streets two dollars. An enslaved offender could instead be whipped, up to thirty-nine lashes, at the discretion of the magistrate of police.
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Orange elects Paul C. Cameron to the state Senate over Josiah Turner Jr.
In the state election, Democrat Paul C. Cameron won Orange's Senate seat by 30 votes over Josiah Turner Jr., an old-line Whig running with American party support; the editor credited Cameron's old associations and character with carrying many Whig votes. The American party's Commons candidates, young men new to politics, finished within fifty votes of one another.
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Orange votes for Governor Thomas Bragg, reversing its 1854 Whig majority
Orange cast 1,119 votes for Democrat Thomas Bragg's re-election as governor against 1,015 for John A. Gilmer, the American and Whig candidate. In 1854 the county had given the Whig Alfred Dockery 1,080 votes to Bragg's 963.
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Orange County Agricultural Society holds its third fair near Hillsborough
At the society's third annual fair, on its grounds near Hillsborough, members elected Paul C. Cameron president and Thomas Webb secretary. Cameron, away in Alabama, had given the society a flag that flew from a pole more than eighty feet high.
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Orange gives James Buchanan a majority of 162 over Millard Fillmore
In the presidential election, Orange cast 909 votes for Democrat James Buchanan and 747 for Millard Fillmore, the American and Whig candidate, a smaller turnout than in the August state election.
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A post office opens at University Station with A. C. Hunter as postmaster
A new post office opened at University Station, the railroad stop five miles from Hillsborough, with A. C. Hunter appointed postmaster.
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A sixteen-inch snow and record cold kill three enslaved people in Orange
Snow began on the night of Saturday, January 17, fell all day Sunday and lay sixteen inches deep by Monday morning; on Friday morning, January 23, the thermometer at Hillsborough stood at 13 degrees below zero, the worst cold Dennis Heartt had known in thirty-seven years there. Three enslaved people froze to death in the county: one held by Gray Barlee near Chapel Hill, one held by Samuel Thompson of Alamance near Mount Willing, and one held by Mrs. Parish near Hillsborough, who lost his way in an old field on Sunday evening while walking to his wife's house.
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Hillsborough commissioners forbid open fires in the town's streets and lots
The town commissioners passed an ordinance fining anyone ten dollars and costs, with jail until paid, who built a fire in a street, lane or public or private lot without the Magistrate of Police's leave, or refused to put one out after notice; the town constable was told to put such fires out.
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Orange Superior Court tries and discharges Jacob, an enslaved man, in the death of James Woods
At the spring term of Orange Superior Court, Judge Saunders presiding, Jacob, an enslaved man held by the estate of James Woods, was tried for killing Woods six or seven years before, when Woods had been found dead in the woods near the road and thought thrown from his horse. The case rested mainly on a confession Jacob was said to have made to companions; the evidence was found incomplete and he was discharged.
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J. M. Henderson begins publishing the Chapel Hill Weekly Gazette
J. M. Henderson, lately editor and publisher of the Concord Gazette, began the Chapel Hill Weekly Gazette, a paper neutral in politics and given to literature, science, news, markets and agriculture, at two dollars a year.
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Professor Elisha Mitchell is killed in a fall on the Black Mountains
Elisha Mitchell, for nearly forty years a professor at the university in Chapel Hill, fell to his death from a cliff into a pool on a branch of the Caney River while crossing the Black Mountains alone on June 27. Searchers found his body on July 7, and he was buried at Asheville on July 10.
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Hillsborough orders jail and a fine for free Black people found drunk and disorderly in town
At a special meeting on August 7 the Hillsborough commissioners passed an ordinance that any free Black person seen drunk in the town and disturbing the peace with loud talk, swearing or obscene language should, on conviction before the magistrate of police, serve a month in the county jail and pay a $10 fine. The town constable was told to arrest everyone it covered.
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Orange Superior Court sentences Alves, an enslaved youth, to hang for a killing at the Chapel Hill polls
At the September term of the Superior Court in Hillsborough, Judge Manly presiding, Alves, an enslaved youth from Orange County, was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing an enslaved boy from Chatham County at the election near Chapel Hill on August 6, and was sentenced to hang on a Friday in October.
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The Orange County Agricultural Society holds its fourth fair near Hillsborough
The society held its fourth annual fair on its grounds near Hillsborough on October 29 and 30, re-elected Paul C. Cameron president, and heard him speak when no orator could be had. Premiums went to Jones & Hooker of Hillsborough for implements, furniture and iron castings, to A. C. Murdock for buggies and to John Laws for tinware, and the paper reported yields of 55 bushels of corn on an acre, 20 bushels of wheat on half an acre and 1,100 pounds of tobacco on an acre.
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Hillsborough boys organize the Junior Orange Guards
Boys of Hillsborough, following the example of the Orange Guards, organized a cadet company called the Junior Orange Guards on November 14, with Halcott P. Jones as captain and Robert D. Graham as first lieutenant. They chose Dr. Edmund Strudwick Jr. as surgeon and Pride Jones as secretary and treasurer.
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Chapel Hill forms a volunteer military company
A new volunteer company was formed at Chapel Hill with J. R. Hutchins as captain, David McCauley as first lieutenant and J. M. Blackwood as third lieutenant, and it planned a uniform like that of the Orange Guards.
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Fire destroys the Union Hotel in Hillsborough
Fire broke out in an upper front room of the Union Hotel, kept by Maj. Thomas Howerton, about two o'clock on December 10 and destroyed the whole building, though the furniture on the first floor was saved and the flames were kept from the hotel kitchen and nearby buildings. The hotel belonged to Long, Webb & Co. and was insured for $4,000; the Howertons lost $1,450 to $1,600 and Mr. and Mrs. H. Norwood about $1,050.
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University trustees elect William J. Martin to Elisha Mitchell's chair
Meeting in Raleigh with eleven members present, the university trustees elected Prof. W. J. Martin of Washington College, Pennsylvania, a native of Richmond, to succeed Elisha Mitchell as professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology. He was chosen over several other candidates.
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Hillsborough's commissioners order every householder to keep fire ladders
The Hillsborough town commissioners passed an ordinance requiring every householder to keep a ladder reaching from the ground to the roof and a second, hooked ladder reaching to the comb, so that roof fires could be put out.
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University trustees fund two new buildings and work on the chapel
The university trustees appropriated money to enlarge and improve the chapel and to build two new buildings, needed because students were renting rooms in the village. An architect was preparing plans, and work was to start when the weather allowed.
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North Carolina Railroad stockholders hold their ninth annual meeting in the Masonic Hall at Hillsborough
The stockholders of the North Carolina Railroad Company met in the Masonic Hall at Hillsborough on July 8, 1858, with Thomas Webb of Hillsborough among the secretaries and Thomas Ruffin voting the state's stock as proxy. Before adjourning the next day they re-elected Charles F. Fisher president, chose the private directors and passed resolutions on the company's finances.
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Orange County elects Josiah Turner Jr. to the state Senate over Paul C. Cameron
Orange County voters on August 5, 1858, elected Josiah Turner Jr., running as an independent Whig, to the state Senate over the Democratic nominee Paul C. Cameron. In the same poll the county gave John W. Ellis 1,012 votes for governor and Duncan K. McRae 1,037.
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Pride Jones and John W. Norwood are elected to the House of Commons for Orange
Orange County elected Democrats Pride Jones and John W. Norwood to the state House of Commons in the August 1858 election.
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Hillsborough holds a town meeting over an outrage at the Female Academy and three men are bound over
After young men committed what the editor called a scandalous outrage in the Hillsborough Female Academy building on the night of September 28, 1858, citizens met the next morning with Cadwallader Jones in the chair, heard Judge Frederick Nash, and resolved that town and county officers should bring the offenders to trial. The culprits were arrested that afternoon and on September 30 three were bound over by Calvin E. Parish to the March Superior Court.
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Raleigh stonecutters McCowan and Grier take freestone from a quarry at Durham's Station
By late September 1858 the Raleigh stone and marble cutters McCowan and Grier were taking building freestone from their quarry at Durham's Station on the North Carolina Railroad (now Durham County). State geologist Ebenezer Emmons examined the samples and judged the fine-grained stone good enough for carving and for the outside of buildings.
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Alexander Dickson of Orange patents a combined turning and subsoil plough
Alexander Dickson of Orange County had by early October 1858 obtained a patent for a plough that turned and subsoiled the ground in one pass, with a detachable subsoil attachment; the editor examined one at James Webb's store in Hillsborough.
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Samuel Wellwood Hughes opens his own school near Cedar Grove
After fourteen years as founder and principal of Cedar Grove Academy, Samuel Wellwood Hughes opened his own classical school five miles northwest of Hillsborough, its first session beginning on the second Monday of January 1859. He taught there until his death in 1884; the surviving schoolhouse, dated about 1862, was later moved to Hillsborough and restored.
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The General Assembly incorporates the Orange Guards
The General Assembly incorporated the Hillsborough volunteer company commanded by Capt. Pride Jones as the Orange Guards. Members were exempted from jury duty and road work, and seven years of continuous service exempted a man from militia duty.
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Webb and Whitted buy the first tobacco ever sold in Hillsborough
Webb and Whitted bought the first load of tobacco ever sold in Hillsborough and began putting up fixtures to manufacture it. The editor expected the home market to save Orange farmers the freight to distant markets.
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Dr. Bartlett L. Durham dies at Durham's Station
Dr. Bartlett L. Durham, the physician whose name the railroad station carried, died at his home at Durham's Station, aged about 37.
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Orange Superior Court tries Obadiah Christmas for the murder of an enslaved man
The Orange Superior Court tried Obadiah Christmas for killing an enslaved man held by Thomas J. Taylor in Granville County in February 1858, a case removed to Person and then to Orange. The jury returned its verdict on Saturday morning, and an appeal to the Supreme Court followed.
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Durham's Station ships 1,733 barrels of flour in two months
Durham's Station sent out 1,733 barrels of flour and 1,013 bushels of corn in March and April, along with wheat and cotton. Nearly all the flour went to Rowland and Brothers in Norfolk, the corn west along the North Carolina Railroad, and the wheat and cotton to Petersburg.
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Corporators organize the Hillsborough Savings Institution
The corporators of the Hillsborough Savings Institution, among them Thomas Webb, William A. Graham, James F. Cain and Pride Jones, met in the county court clerk's office on April 1, 1859, adopted the charter and appointed Webb and others to open subscription books. By December 1860 Webb was its cashier.
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Hillsborough Methodist Church builds its church
The Hillsborough Methodist congregation, organized about 1807, bought its lot on April 4, 1859, and John Berry built the church, which was to be dedicated on Sunday, October 6, 1861. The war held up the finishing and the building was not paid for until 1874. Lefler and Wager counted 200 seats, and it was still the congregation's church in 1953.
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The Hillsborough Savings Institution elects its directors and opens for deposits
The Hillsborough Savings Institution completed its organization by electing seven directors, who chose Thomas B. Hill president and Thomas Webb cashier. The bank set Friday as its discount day and opened daily from three to four o'clock in Webb's office.
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Nash and Kollock School for young ladies opens in Hillsborough
After Chief Justice Frederick Nash died in 1858, his daughters Sarah and Maria Nash and their cousin Sarah Kollock opened a select boarding and day school for girls in the Nash home.
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Professors Shipp and Wheat resign from the university
Albert M. Shipp resigned the university chair of history to head a college in South Carolina, and the Rev. Dr. Wheat resigned the chair of logic and rhetoric to become rector of the Episcopal church at Little Rock, Arkansas. Both chairs were left for the trustees to fill.
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Orange gives L. O'B. Branch a majority as he keeps the Fourth District seat in Congress
Orange County voted 729 for Democrat L. O'B. Branch and 572 for Linn B. Sanders of Johnston County, an independent Democrat who ran against Branch's bill to put thirty million dollars toward buying Cuba. Branch carried the district by about 3,300 votes on a light turnout, since no Whig ran, while Whigs took four of the state's eight seats.
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The Hillsborough Military Academy holds its first annual examination
The academy examined its cadets in arithmetic, algebra, geometry and French over two days at the close of its first annual session. A visitor whose report the editor adopted as his own praised the system and the teachers, and said the school's training and discipline had won him over to military schools.
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Orange Whigs condemn John Brown's raid and name delegates to the state convention
A Whig and Opposition meeting at the Hillsborough court house, with Harrison Parker in the chair, heard William A. Graham and Maurice Q. Waddell and adopted resolutions from a committee led by Josiah Turner Jr. They denounced the raid on Virginia as the work of abolition incendiaries, approved its swift punishment, pledged Orange's help to Virginia and the South, blamed the Democrats for stirring the slavery question for party ends, and named Orange delegates to the party's state convention at Raleigh in February 1860.
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University trustees elect Charles F. Deems professor of history and elocution
Meeting on the evening of Monday, December 19, the university trustees elected the Rev. Charles F. Deems of Wilson professor of history and elocution, at the same session that chose the Rev. Andrew Hepburn of Virginia for rhetoric, logic and metaphysics.
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West Orange post office closes as new offices open at Hughes's Academy and Bain's Mills
The West Orange post office was discontinued and a new office opened at Hughes's Academy, north of Hillsborough, with William H. Ellis as postmaster. Another new office opened at Bain's Mills with Willie Merrill as postmaster.
- 1860s
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A cold snap drives the Hillsborough thermometer to four below zero
After six or seven inches of snow fell on Saturday, December 31, the cold deepened until the thermometer at Hillsborough stood at four degrees below zero at sunrise on Tuesday, January 3. Townspeople filled their icehouses with ice four inches thick before the weather turned mild again.
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The Hillsborough Savings Institution declares its first dividend
At the first general meeting of stockholders on January 2 in the court house, the Hillsborough Savings Institution adopted a committee report on its affairs, opened its stock to new subscribers at fifty dollars a share and elected seven directors. The next day the directors declared Dividend No. 1, five per cent on the profits of the first six months.
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Joseph A. Tinnen opens a day school for boys in Hillsborough
Joseph A. Tinnen opened the Hillsborough Male School, a day school for boys preparing them for college, on the second Monday of January 1860. By April a Hillsborough correspondent counted it among the new schools of the town and said it was "winning golden opinions."
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The Rev. Andrew Hepburn takes up the university chair of rhetoric, logic and metaphysics
The Rev. Andrew Hepburn, newly appointed professor of rhetoric, logic and metaphysics, arrived at Chapel Hill and began his duties at the opening of the spring session. About twenty-five new students entered at the same time, and Professor Kimberly returned from a year of study in Germany.
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Flat River men organize the Flat River Guards
A meeting of Flat River citizens at Mangum's Store formed a volunteer company, the Flat River Guards, and elected Robert F. Webb captain, William K. Parrish, W. P. Hampton and William B. McMannen lieutenants and Dr. E. M. Holt surgeon. By the summer the company had new arms and uniforms and was preparing a Fourth of July celebration at South Lowell.
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Hillsborough elects Andrew Murdock magistrate of police and seven town commissioners
Hillsborough voters chose Andrew Murdock magistrate of police and elected Josiah Turner Sr., William F. Strayhorn, James C. Turrentine, A. W. Hedgepeth, Thomas C. Hayes, Henry N. Brown and H. C. Strowd town commissioners. That evening the board re-elected John Laws town treasurer, chose Charles L. Cooley constable and collector and named Col. William McCauley weigh master.
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Orange Democrats meet at the court house and name delegates to the state convention
A county meeting of Democrats in the Hillsborough court house, with Gen. Joseph Allison in the chair and Calvin E. Parish as secretary, adopted resolutions from a committee led by John W. Norwood warning that continued Northern aggression on Southern rights would end in disunion, and commended Governor Ellis for re-election. It named a long list of delegates, among them Paul C. Cameron, Cadwallader Jones and Pride Jones, to the state Democratic convention at Raleigh on March 8, and Norwood then spoke for two hours.
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The county school board requires teachers to pass in grammar and geography
The Board of Superintendents of Common Schools, meeting in the county court clerk's office, elected William H. Brown chairman, named Samuel W. Hughes, Joseph A. Tinnen and William H. Brown its examining committee, and ordered that no teacher be employed or paid without the committee's certificate. Certificates were to go only to applicants able to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography, a rule that by late May had dropped some former teachers.
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The North Carolina Railroad stops carrying the mails and Hillsborough goes without
In a pay dispute with the Post Office Department, the North Carolina, Raleigh and Gaston, and Charlotte and South Carolina railroads stopped carrying the mails on May 1, and Hillsborough received no eastern mail. The roads resumed service within the week at the request of Congressman L. O'B. Branch, and the Recorder said the town was without mails from Monday to Saturday.
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Orange Democrats nominate Pride Jones, John W. Norwood and William F. Strowd
The Democratic county convention met at the Masonic Hall on Tuesday afternoon of May court and nominated Pride Jones for the state senate and John W. Norwood and William F. Strowd for the House of Commons. Precinct meetings in Sandy Field and eastern Orange had chosen delegates in the preceding weeks.
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The Orange Opposition convention nominates Josiah Turner Jr., Jones Watson and Henry K. Nash
A Constitutional Union (Whig and Opposition) county meeting on Tuesday of May court, with William A. Graham in the chair, nominated Josiah Turner Jr. for the state senate and Jones Watson and Henry K. Nash for the House of Commons on a platform of ad valorem taxation. The nominees accepted before the meeting.
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Hillsborough Academy trustees seek a new school as Tew's cadets move out
The trustees of the Hillsborough Male Academy, John W. Norwood president, announced that Col. Tew was about to move his military school from the academy buildings to his own new establishment, and invited classical teachers to propose schools for the vacant academy by July 10.
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Hillsborough Military Academy cadets move into Colonel Tew's new barracks
The cadets of the Hillsborough Military Academy paraded and marched out to the new barracks that Col. Charles C. Tew had built for them just outside the town limits, putting the whole school in its own buildings under his eye. The editor credited Tew's energy since he had settled in Hillsborough eighteen months before.
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Captain W. D. Gaillard, a professor at the Hillsborough Military Academy, dies
Captain W. D. Gaillard, a 24-year-old South Carolinian who had taught for eighteen months at the Hillsborough Military Academy, died on the morning of July 3. On July 8 the cadets met, adopted resolutions of regret and agreed to wear mourning for thirty days.
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Orange County elects Josiah Turner Jr. to the Senate and William N. Patterson and Hugh B. Guthrie to the Commons
In the state election of August 2, Orange County returned the Whigs Josiah Turner Jr. to the state Senate and William N. Patterson and Hugh B. Guthrie to the House of Commons.
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Orange County gives John Pool a majority for governor
Orange County voted 1,238 for the Opposition candidate John Pool and 1,109 for Governor John W. Ellis in the August 2 election, a majority of 129, though Ellis carried the state. In 1858 the county had given Ellis 1,012 votes to 1,037 for McRae.
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Superior Court acquits university student Frederick Foard in the death of Nathaniel Watson
At the fall term of Orange Superior Court in the week of September 10, Judge Saunders presiding, university student Frederick Foard was tried for killing Nathaniel Watson, son of Jones Watson of Chapel Hill, in March. The jury acquitted him on a doubt raised by physicians whether the wound caused the death, since Watson had died in a fit of delirium tremens.
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The Hillsborough Military Academy's register lists 107 cadets from eight states
The academy's semi-annual register, just published, counted 107 cadets entered since February, from North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi and Virginia.
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The Orange Guards celebrate their fifth anniversary with visiting companies
On Monday, October 1, the Orange Guards under Captain Pride Jones marked their fifth anniversary by receiving the Flat River Guards and the Guilford Greys at Hillsborough. With the Salisbury Brass Band the companies paraded, watched the Hillsborough Military Academy cadets drill, where Paul C. Cameron thanked Colonel C. C. Tew for the school, and held a ball at the Masonic Hall before parting on October 2.
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Orange County gives John Bell its vote for president
In a quiet election on November 6, with a smaller vote than in August, Orange County gave a majority to John Bell of the Constitutional Union party over John C. Breckinridge, who polled 787, and Stephen A. Douglas, who polled 72. Breckinridge carried the state and Abraham Lincoln won the presidency.
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An Orange County mass meeting at the courthouse takes up the crisis of the Union
Called by William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Cadwallader Jones, John W. Norwood and other men of both parties, a meeting of Orange County people at the Hillsborough courthouse on Saturday, December 15, directed that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions on the state of the Union and adjourned to December 22.
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Sidney Smith speaks for a state convention at an Orange County mass meeting in Hillsborough
At an adjourned mass meeting of Orange County citizens in the Hillsborough courthouse after Lincoln's election, with William H. Brown in the chair, William A. Graham's committee reported resolutions on the crisis. John W. Norwood moved to ask the legislature to call a state convention; Capt. Berry opposed it, Sidney Smith spoke for it, and the amendment was rejected before the committee's resolutions passed.
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Col. Cadwallader Jones, chairman of the county court, dies
Col. Cadwallader Jones, chairman of the Orange County special court and of its finance committee, died at his home near Hillsborough in his seventy-fourth year. A Virginia-born former navy midshipman and army officer who had long sat on the state Board of Internal Improvement, he had lived in Orange about thirty-five years, and the February county court entered tributes to him on its records.
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A Union meeting at the court house nominates Graham and John Berry for the convention
Union men of all parties met in the court house at Hillsborough, nominated William A. Graham for the proposed state convention and, on the report of a committee of nineteen, added Capt. John Berry. Berry accepted after Col. Guthrie withdrew David L. Swain's name, and on February 22 Swain confirmed that he had left the race.
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Orange County voters reject a secession convention
In the February 28, 1861 vote on calling a state convention, Orange County voted 1,436 against and 458 for, and chose Unionists William A. Graham and John Berry as delegates over secession candidates Henry K. Nash and Pride Jones. The governor's count showed the convention defeated statewide, 46,603 to 46,409, before Davie County reported.
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The legislature charters a University Railroad Company from Chapel Hill to the North Carolina Railroad
The 1860-61 General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the University Railroad Company, to run a line from Chapel Hill to the North Carolina Railroad.
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The legislature incorporates the Hillsborough Military Academy
The 1860-61 General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the Hillsborough Military Academy, Col. Charles C. Tew's school west of Hillsborough.
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The legislature incorporates the Orange Light Infantry
The 1860-61 General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the Orange Light Infantry, the volunteer company that left Chapel Hill for the war that April.
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Hillsborough orders its constable to keep Black people off the streets on Sundays and at night
The town commissioners made it the town constable's duty, until further orders, to keep Black people out of the streets and lots of Hillsborough on Sundays and at night, and allowed him a dollar a week for the work.
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The Orange County court refuses to appoint the tax collector the legislature ordered
The Orange County court declined to appoint the county tax collector that an act of February 1861 required for Orange and some twenty other counties, leaving, the act's supporters said, no officer to collect the county and state taxes. Commoner William N. Patterson defended the act in the Recorder, and Sheriff R. M. Jones answered that his bond as sheriff still entitled him to collect the taxes.
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Col. Charles C. Tew leaves the Military Academy to command Fort Macon
Col. Charles C. Tew, superintendent of the Hillsborough Military Academy, left Hillsborough on Thursday, April 18, 1861, to take command of Fort Macon. Capt. Lightfoot of the academy followed the next day after the Governor named him to his staff.
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The Orange Guards leave Hillsborough for Fort Macon
The Orange Guards, Hillsborough's volunteer company, left town for the coast on Saturday, April 20, 1861, the day after other companies passed through on their way to Fort Macon. The roster the company sent home from the fort a week later listed Pride Jones as captain, Joseph C. Webb and John W. Graham as first and second lieutenants, and Dr. William Strudwick as surgeon.
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Hillsborough requires written passes for enslaved people in town at night and on Sundays
The town commissioners made it unlawful for slaveholders to let enslaved people be in Hillsborough away from their own homes between dark and daylight on weekdays, or at any hour on Sunday, without a written pass naming where they might go. Anyone found without a pass was to be committed to the county jail by the magistrate of police until the costs were paid.
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The Hillsborough Military Academy counts 131 cadets in its new brick barracks
The academy's annual register reported 131 cadets, new and old, entered between February 6 and April 1, in new buildings put up under Superintendent Charles C. Tew: a brick main building 215 feet long and three stories high, and a second long building holding the mess hall, kitchen, hospital, surgeon's office and society hall. Two literary societies had formed among the cadets.
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Volunteers at Durham's form a company called the Orange Greys
Volunteers at Durham's Station began forming a military company in April 1861 and took the name Orange Greys. Paul C. Cameron addressed the company, which received a donation of $500.
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Orange County sends delegates to the secession convention
On May 13, 1861, after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, Orange County voters again chose William A. Graham and John Berry as delegates to the state convention, over Paul C. Cameron and Henry K. Nash. The Recorder printed the precinct returns and noted the convention would meet in Raleigh on May 20.
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North Carolina secedes from the Union
Meeting in Raleigh on May 20, 1861, the state convention, with Orange County's delegates William A. Graham and John Berry among its members, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving North Carolina's union with the United States and the same day ratified the provisional Confederate constitution.
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The university catalogue counts 376 students for 1860-61
The university's annual catalogue, printed by John B. Neathery of Chapel Hill, counted 376 students for the year: 320 in the classical course, 40 in the scientific course and 16 partial-course students. North Carolina sent 221 of them, Mississippi and Tennessee 26 each, and every Southern state but Maryland and Delaware was represented.
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The Orange Greys lose men at First Manassas
Capt. William J. Freeland's company, the Orange Greys of the Sixth North Carolina State Troops, fought at First Manassas on July 21, where their colonel, Charles F. Fisher, was killed. Two of the company were killed in action and fourteen wounded; by early September two more had died of their wounds and three of typhoid fever.
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Gen. Joseph Allison, former legislator and county court clerk, dies
Gen. Joseph Allison died at his home in Orange County early on the morning of July 23. He had been elected many times to represent the county in the legislature and served eight years as clerk of the county court before poor health led him to decline reelection.
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Hillsborough receives the body of Lt. William P. Mangum, mortally wounded at Manassas
The body of Lt. William Preston Mangum of the Flat River Guards, only son of former Senator Willie P. Mangum, arrived by train on August 1. Citizens met it at the depot and escorted it through town with the church and court house bells tolling and the town flag at half mast, and young men of the town went with it to his father's home for burial in the family graveyard.
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Women of southwest Orange form a Soldiers' Relief Society
Women of the southwest corner of Orange and the adjoining corner of Alamance met on August 2 and organized a Soldiers' Relief Society with Mrs. Rachel Morrow as president. Within a week they sent a box of hospital stores, with some money, to the sick soldiers at Yorktown.
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Sheriff R. M. Jones calls on Orange women for blankets and socks for the army
Acting on the governor's request to the sheriffs, Sheriff R. M. Jones on August 20 asked the women of Orange for woolen socks and blankets for soldiers in the coming winter and named agents around the county to receive them. Through the fall he printed lists of the gifts.
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Former Senator Willie P. Mangum dies at his home near Red Mountain
Willie P. Mangum, who had represented Orange in the legislature, sat as a superior court judge and served North Carolina in both houses of Congress, including as president of the Senate, died at his home near Red Mountain on September 7 after several years of illness. Members of the bar attending the fall term of Orange Superior Court met with J. W. Norwood presiding and adopted resolutions in his memory.
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Professor Martin's volunteer company leaves Chapel Hill for camp at High Point
A volunteer company raised around Chapel Hill by Professor Martin of the university left for the camp at High Point on September 10, the second company to leave the neighborhood. Its lieutenants were Johnston and Morrow, both university tutors, and Oldham, principal of the classical academy near Rock Spring, and its privates came from Chapel Hill and the Bethel, Antioch, Cane Creek and Bethlehem church neighborhoods. The night before, the Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian ministers held a union prayer meeting for the company at the Baptist church.
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Families fleeing New Bern take refuge in Hillsborough
After Fort Hatteras fell to Union forces at the end of August, many people left New Bern for the interior, chiefly women and children, and several families had come to Hillsborough by September 4.
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Hillsborough subscribers send $11,000 to the Confederate loan
Subscriptions of $11,000 to Confederate States stock were sent from Hillsborough to the commissioners at Raleigh by early September, $10,000 of it taken by the Hillsborough Savings Institution.
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The Eno Soldiers' Relief Society gathers supplies for the army
The women of the Eno Soldiers' Relief Society had sent or readied a large store of supplies for Confederate soldiers by late October, among them blankets, comforts, sheets, pillows, towels, shirts, drawers and more than a hundred pairs of socks, with hospital stores such as old linen, lint, bandages, sugar and tea.
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The Orange Cavalry leaves its Hillsborough camp for the coast
The Orange Cavalry, Capt. Josiah Turner Jr.'s company, left its camp at Hillsborough for a camp near Kittrell's Springs and then Hertford, and by mid-October was at Camp Pembroke near Edenton. First Lt. William A. Graham Jr., commanding, thanked the women of Hillsborough for their kindness during the encampment, and in November the company received uniforms they had made.
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Orange's Josiah Turner Jr. loses the Fifth District race for the Confederate Congress
In the November 6 election of presidential electors and members of the first Confederate Congress, A. H. Arrington of Nash won the Fifth District, which included Orange, over A. W. Venable and Josiah Turner Jr. of Orange. The vote in Orange was thin.
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Josiah Turner Jr. resigns as Orange County's state senator
In a public letter dated at Hillsborough on November 10, Josiah Turner Jr. resigned his seat as Orange County's state senator, saying the constitution barred an army officer from sitting in the legislature. He praised the Orange Light Infantry, the Flat River Guards and the Orange Grays and warned his constituents not to underrate the enemy.
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Hillsborough orders a nightly patrol and a pass rule for Black people on its streets
On December 7 the Hillsborough commissioners ordered the magistrate of police to appoint a patrol to go out every night. Any Black person found in the streets between dark and daylight, or on a Sunday except going to or from church, without a pass stating where he was permitted to go was to be arrested and brought before the magistrate of police.
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The Recorder cuts the size of its sheet for lack of paper
With paper scarce and much dearer, the Hillsborough Recorder came out on December 25 on a smaller sheet of poorer paper, promising to cut advertising rather than reading matter, and announced it would skip the next week's issue for the printers' holiday.
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A posse kills a man who had escaped slavery and hidden near Hillsborough for eight months
Several white men went out to capture a man who had fled slavery in Alamance County in May 1861 and had been hiding near Hillsborough with help from a free Black woman and other enslaved people. When he refused to surrender and tried to escape up a chimney, one of the party shot him, and he died within minutes.
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Hillsborough bars Sunday liquor sales and orders free Black residents to renew good-behavior bonds
The Hillsborough commissioners fined any liquor retailer who opened or sold on Sunday ten dollars an offence and required retailers to close every night at ten o'clock. They also ordered all free Black residents of the town to renew their bonds for good behavior within ten days.
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Orange County's militia regiments draft a third of their men for state service
Under the state's call for troops, Orange County's 45th and 46th militia regiments drafted one third of their enrolled men unless enough volunteered. The 46th met at Hillsborough for the draft, and the 45th's drafted companies chose officers at Durham's on March 4 and were organized there the next day, while examiners heard claims for exemption.
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The Orange Light Artillery organizes at Hillsborough under Capt. William Cameron
The Orange Light Artillery, raised by Capt. William Cameron of Hillsborough under a Confederate commission, organized and elected James F. Cain senior first lieutenant, Henry Dickson junior first lieutenant and John Malone second lieutenant, with Thomas Dickson as first sergeant.
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A Confederate provost marshal takes charge of railroad passes at Hillsborough
Lt. P. L. Harwell of the Confederate infantry was appointed provost marshal at Hillsborough, and no citizen or soldier was allowed to travel on the railroad without a pass from him.
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The Orange Cavalry joins a night attack at Gillett's farm and Capt. Turner is wounded
The Orange Cavalry was one of four companies under Lt. Col. Robinson that attacked a Union party at Thomas Gillett's house below Trenton at midnight. The mounted attack failed, Robinson was wounded and captured, the regiment lost a man killed and ten wounded, and Capt. Turner of the Orange company was wounded and sent home.
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John W. Graham's volunteer company leaves Hillsborough and elects its officers
A volunteer company raised by John W. Graham to spare its men from conscription left the Hillsborough depot for Camp Mangum near Raleigh, and the next day elected John W. Graham captain, D. S. Ray first lieutenant and R. D. Graham third lieutenant.
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Company G of the 28th Regiment loses its captain and much of its strength near Hanover Court House
In the fight near Hanover Court House, Company G of the 28th North Carolina lost one man killed and four wounded, and Capt. G. B. Johnston with about thirty-four men, most of them on a scouting party with him, was captured. A Chapel Hill letter later reported Johnston and his men held safe on Governor's Island in New York harbor.
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The Orange Grays fight at Seven Pines and Capt. William J. Freeland is mortally wounded
At Seven Pines most of the Orange Grays fought alongside the 22nd North Carolina while fifteen men guarded Gen. Johnston's headquarters. Capt. William J. Freeland fell with a thigh broken by a shell, was left on the field and taken prisoner, lost his leg, and died at Fortress Monroe in late June; about ten of his men were wounded.
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The Orange County court orders ten thousand bushels of salt for the county's people
At its late-May session the county court appointed a salt commissioner and authorized him to buy ten thousand bushels of salt for the citizens of Orange, after the Recorder had urged the court to follow Mecklenburg in buying salt at cost.
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Capt. William K. Parrish of the Flat River Guards is wounded at Gaines's Mill
Fighting with the 6th North Carolina in the Seven Days, Capt. William K. Parrish of the Flat River Guards was wounded at Gaines's Mill on June 27, where the regiment lost four killed and forty-three wounded; in the fighting of early July it lost two more killed, among them Capt. Carter of the Hawfields company.
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North Carolina Railroad stockholders hold their annual meeting at Hillsborough
The North Carolina Railroad's stockholders met at Hillsborough, heard the president's report of the year's earnings, a large share of them from Confederate government traffic, and elected directors including Thomas Webb and Giles Mebane. The directors added an installment to the sinking fund for the company's bonds, declared an eight percent dividend, and the next week reappointed Webb president.
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The Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society reports six months of gifts to companies, hospitals and soldiers' families
The Soldiers' Aid Society of Hillsborough published the gifts of clothing, food, medicine supplies and money it had received since January and reported sending supplies to the Orange Guards, the Orange Cavalry and hospitals at Goldsborough, Petersburg and Richmond. In the past month it had given eighty dollars to needy families of absent soldiers, and merchant Henry N. Brown had pledged fifty dollars a month for them.
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Hillsborough forbids selling liquor in less than a thirty-gallon barrel
The Hillsborough commissioners banned the sale of spirituous liquor in any quantity less than a thirty-gallon barrel within the town or a mile of it, on pain of a hundred-dollar fine or thirty days in jail, while letting drug stores fill doctors' prescriptions and orders from the magistrate of police.
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Orange elects William A. Graham to the state senate and H. B. Guthrie sheriff
Orange County voters sent William A. Graham to the state senate, chose John Berry and William N. Patterson for the House of Commons over J. L. Stewart and William F. Strayhorn, and elected H. B. Guthrie sheriff over the incumbent R. M. Jones. At home the county gave Zebulon B. Vance 1,051 votes for governor to 308 for William Johnston.
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The Orange Cavalry charges into Washington, N.C., and loses John Grey
Capt. Turner's Orange Cavalry, led by Lt. Graham, rode in the dawn attack on Union-held Washington, North Carolina, charging into the town behind the infantry. The raiders held the place for about three hours before gunboat fire drove them out, and John Grey of the company was killed.
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Col. Charles C. Tew, founder of the Hillsborough Military Academy, is killed at Sharpsburg
Col. Charles C. Tew, who had founded the Hillsborough Military Academy and led the 2nd North Carolina State Troops, was shot in the head while leading his regiment at Sharpsburg. His body was never recovered, and Hillsborough held out hope for weeks that he had been taken prisoner.
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Maj. Robert F. Webb is wounded leading the 6th Regiment at Sharpsburg, where the Orange Grays lose their captain
At Sharpsburg Maj. Robert F. Webb of Orange, commanding the 6th North Carolina, was severely wounded in the arm. In the regiment's Company C, the Orange Grays, the captain was killed and several men were badly wounded, among them M. V. and W. V. Blalock.
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The Orange Guards lose three killed and about twenty wounded at Sharpsburg
Company G of the 27th North Carolina, the Orange Guards, fought at Sharpsburg under Lt. James A. Graham with three men killed and about twenty wounded. Lt. J. Y. Whitted was wounded in the leg and left in Union hands, and Sgt. Thomas C. Carmichael later died of his wound.
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The Little River neighborhood sends money and clothing to Capt. Miller's company and Vance's regiment
Families of the Little River neighborhood of Orange collected cash, shirts, socks, quilts, blankets, pants and drawers for Capt. Miller's company and for Col. Vance's 26th Regiment, and published the list of givers.
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Hillsborough women ride to Durham's almost daily to feed sick and wounded soldiers on the trains
Six or eight members of the Hillsborough Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society took the train to Durham's nearly every day, handing out food and tending sick and wounded soldiers passing through before returning in the evening. The society appealed to exempted men and men over thirty-five in Orange to give provisions and money for the work.
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Hillsborough meeting resolves to erect a monument to Col. Charles C. Tew
A Hillsborough meeting chaired by M. E. Manly resolved to raise a monument to Col. Tew, killed at Sharpsburg, at or near the front of his Military Academy, and named Dr. Edmund Strudwick, Dr. Pride Jones and Thomas Webb to collect funds and build it.
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Confederate authorities arrest the Rev. R. J. Graves of Bethlehem Church and remove him from the state
Confederate military authorities arrested the Rev. R. J. Graves, Presbyterian pastor of Bethlehem Church in Orange, over a letter in the Richmond Enquirer about Northern opinion that he wrote after a summer trip through the Union lines, and took him out of North Carolina for trial. A resolution by Mr. Graham in the legislature demanded his return, and the Recorder defended his loyalty and his right to be tried at home.
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President Jefferson Davis speaks to a crowd at the Hillsborough depot
Passing through by train on his way back to Richmond from the western states, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was met at the Hillsborough depot by a large crowd of women and men and made a short address praising North Carolina for the troops it had sent and its promptness under conscription, and hoping for an early peace.
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Justice Manly binds the Rev. R. J. Graves over for trial on a treason charge
Returned to Orange on January 1 after the legislature demanded him back from Confederate authorities, the Rev. R. J. Graves had his examination at Hillsborough before Justice Matthias E. Manly of the state Supreme Court, with George V. Strong prosecuting and William A. Graham defending, and was bound over for trial in the Confederate court at Richmond on a charge of treason that rested on a single witness, a captured soldier named Parker. In June a Richmond grand jury refused to indict him.
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Farmers of the Oaks neighborhood pledge to sell food to soldiers' families at fixed prices
A plan for Orange farmers to join an association selling necessities to soldiers' families and the poor at set moderate prices (corn at $1 a bushel, pork at $10 a hundred, bacon at 20 cents and beef at 6 cents a pound) came to little when bad weather stopped the January meeting of delegates at Hillsborough, but one neighborhood, the Oaks, sent in a list of a dozen men willing to join, among them William J. Bingham and Thomas D. Oldham, and the Recorder printed it so that families would know where to find supplies.
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Military Academy cadets take up a subscription for the Tew monument
Meeting on March 5, the cadets of the Hillsborough Military Academy joined the plan of Col. Charles C. Tew's regiment and the townspeople for a monument to Tew, their founder and former superintendent, killed at Sharpsburg, and opened a subscription to which former cadets were invited. By early July the officers and cadets had raised $500, which cadet W. K. Cathcart paid to Pride Jones, chairman of the Hillsborough monument committee.
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A special court at Hillsborough condemns five enslaved men for the killings of John Lockhart and Isaac Strowd
Under a new state law allowing special criminal terms, Judge Gilliam held a Court of Oyer and Terminer at the Hillsborough court house for prisoners held on capital charges. Two enslaved men, America and Daniel, were convicted of murdering John Lockhart, killed in the southern part of the county on February 17, and Solomon as an accessory before the fact; Lucian and Allen were convicted of killing Isaac Strowd, killed near his home southwest of Hillsborough on February 12. The judge sentenced the condemned to hang on April 10, and Solomon was later granted a new trial.
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Hillsborough licenses food sellers at the depot and hires a paid town patrol
The Hillsborough town commissioners ordered that anyone selling cooked food at the railroad depot pay the magistrate of police two dollars a month, under penalty of a fine for white or free people and a whipping for the enslaved, and, because so many of the men liable to patrol duty were away, authorized the magistrate of police to hire two men to patrol the town for the next month.
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County commissioners call for builders of a new bridge over the Eno at Hillsborough
In a notice dated March 4, 1863, commissioners William H. Brown and J. W. Norwood announced they would let the building of a bridge over the Eno at Hillsborough to contract at the courthouse on Saturday, March 14. The plan was on view at the county court clerk's office.
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America, Daniel, Lucian and Allen are hanged at Hillsborough
The four enslaved men condemned at the March special court, America and Daniel for the killing of John Lockhart and Lucian and Allen for that of Isaac Strowd, were hanged at Hillsborough on April 10. Solomon, convicted as an accessory in Lockhart's death, stayed in jail awaiting a new trial.
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A county meeting at Hillsborough condemns bread riots and buys corn and bacon for the needy
Days after some women of the Cane Creek neighborhood west of town asked about seizing food from farmers who were asking fifty dollars a barrel for flour, a public meeting of Orange citizens at Hillsborough, chaired by magistrate of police A. C. Murdock with former governor William A. Graham explaining its object, heard reports of want from across the county, condemned violence and disorder by women or anyone else, and resolved that the legislature's appropriation and the county court's fund were enough to relieve soldiers' families and the needy if put to better use. It named a committee including William J. Bingham, Freeman Walker and J. W. Norwood, which within days had bought corn and bacon for distribution.
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Three Black prisoners break out of the Hillsborough jail
On the night of May 8 three Black prisoners broke out of the county jail at Hillsborough: Solomon, an enslaved man convicted of murdering his owner, John Lockhart of Flat River, and held for a new trial; a man enslaved by Capt. J. W. Latta; and a free young man who had been living near Raleigh. Sheriff H. B. Guthrie offered $200 for Solomon and $50 for each of the others.
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The Orange company of the 56th N.C. loses Lieut. David S. Ray at Gum Swamp
When Union troops surprised the 56th North Carolina in its breastworks at Gum Swamp below Kinston, the regiment's Orange company, Company D, fought under Lieut. Robert D. Graham while its captain, John W. Graham, was away on duty at Wilmington. First Lieut. David S. Ray was shot in the mouth, captured and died at New Bern, and about sixteen men of the company were captured or missing.
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The county court sets up commissioners to direct the Soldiers' Fund
At its May term the Orange County court ordered that three commissioners in each taxable district appoint committeemen in every captain's district, who would decide which soldiers' families and other persons should receive aid from the county's Soldiers' Fund, and it named the commissioners for the Hillsborough, St. Mary's, St. Mark's, St. Thomas's, Caswell and Orange districts.
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A Confederate grand jury refuses to indict the Rev. R. J. Graves of the Oaks
The Rev. R. J. Graves, a pastor living at the Oaks, the seat of William J. Bingham's school, had been arrested by Confederate military authority on an anonymous charge that he was a disloyal Northerner, taken out of the state and jailed; the arrest was protested in the Confederate Senate and Bingham defended him in print. In June the grand jury of the Confederate court at Richmond, which heard only the government's witnesses, refused to find a true bill against him, and the case was dismissed.
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A Sabbath school starts at the Orange Factory
In the summer of 1863 a Sabbath school was started at the Orange Factory, the cotton mill village in northern Orange County (now Durham County). Ellen Ann Murray, daughter of William H. and Catherine C. Murray, was one of its teachers until her death from typhoid fever on September 12, and her pupils followed her to burial at Little River Church.
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Chapel Hill counts its dead and wounded from Gettysburg
A casualty list for the companies from Chapel Hill at Gettysburg, calling the town a village of mourning, reported Lieut. John H. McDade of the 11th North Carolina and Lieut. Norwood Mickle of the 37th among the dead and Capt. E. Graham Morrow and Lieut. Lewis Battle among the wounded and captured. Maj. Joseph H. Saunders of the 33rd, at first counted among the dead, was reported in September to be alive, wounded and a prisoner.
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Capt. E. Graham Morrow of Orange dies of a wound received at Gettysburg
Capt. E. Graham Morrow, captain of Company C of a North Carolina regiment, died near Gettysburg of a wound received there on July 3. His obituary called him one of the best of the community's young men; at the August term of the county court Samuel F. Phillips qualified as executor of his estate.
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Hillsborough restricts Black vendors at the depot and in the produce trade
Meeting on the evening of Tuesday, August 4, the Hillsborough town commissioners amended their ordinance of March 13 so that the magistrate of police could issue no new licenses for enslaved or free Black people to sell food at the railroad depot, and could license white sellers there only on payment of five dollars a month. They also forbade enslaved and free Black people to buy chickens, butter, eggs or other provisions to sell again, on pain of twenty lashes for the enslaved and a ten-dollar fine for free people, for each offense.
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Enslaved men from Orange County work on the Wilmington fortifications
Enslaved men sent by their owners from the district of Orange County's 46th militia regiment worked on the Confederate fortifications at Wilmington. In August the regiment's colonel told the owners to send written orders so that Calvin G. Strayhorn of University Station could collect the pay due for their labor.
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Fire destroys the block at the northwest corner of Churton and King streets
A fire that broke out about 1 a.m. destroyed seventeen buildings on the northwest corner of Churton and King streets in Hillsborough, among them the corner store owned by John U. Kirkland and occupied by W. F. and T. J. Strayhorn. The Recorder reported that few owners were insured.
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Orange farmers begin delivering the Confederate tax in kind at Hillsborough and Durham's Depot
From September 30 the county agent for the Confederate produce tax, H. M. C. Strowd, began receiving farmers' tithes at Hillsborough and Durham's Depot, for the present in wheat, rye, oats, wool, Irish potatoes, cured hay and fodder, and offered millers contracts to grind the tithe wheat on government terms. In November and December the county's assessors rode a circuit of the county to assess the tax in kind on each farmer's crops.
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Hillsborough's W. W. Kirkland is promoted to brigadier general
Col. W. W. Kirkland of Hillsborough was promoted to brigadier general, and Capt. John W. Graham of Hillsborough, of the 56th North Carolina, was promoted major of that regiment in place of Major Schenck, who had resigned for ill health.
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The Orange Guards lose seven killed at Bristoe Station
In the charge of Cooke's and Kirkland's North Carolina brigades at Bristoe Station, Virginia, Company G of the 27th North Carolina, the Orange Guards, lost seven men killed, among them Corporal H. P. Woods, and many wounded, including Capt. S. Dickson; Lieut. James A. Graham of the company sent the full list home for publication.
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The 6th N.C.'s two Orange companies are captured almost whole at Rappahannock Station
When Union troops overran the Confederate bridgehead at Rappahannock Station, Virginia, at dusk on November 7, nearly all of the 6th North Carolina was captured, and the regiment's casualty list showed its two Orange companies, the Flat River Guards (Company B) and the Orange Grays (Company C), with their captains among the missing: Company B lost about thirty-five men and Company C about twenty-two, with a few wounded and none killed.
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William A. Graham resigns as Orange County's state senator on his election to the Confederate Senate
William A. Graham gave up his seat as Orange County's senator in the General Assembly after the legislature elected him to the Confederate Senate. Governor Vance named Edwin G. Reade to the Confederate seat until February 18, 1864, when Graham's term began, and ordered a special election for Graham's Orange seat.
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The 27th North Carolina, with 153 Orange men on its rolls, re-enlists for the war
The 27th North Carolina, which included the Orange Guards, re-enlisted unanimously for the war in its winter quarters in Virginia. Its record counted 153 Orange County men among all who had served in the regiment, the fifth-largest county contingent.
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The Hillsborough Savings Institution calls in its deposits before the currency change
Facing the new Confederate currency law, the directors of the Hillsborough Savings Institution resolved to pay undrawn dividends, certificates of deposit and checks dated before March 25 only in the old currency and asked holders to collect at once. They had already told depositors to withdraw their money by March 31.
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Orange voters elect John Berry to the state Senate and Addison Mangum to the Commons
In the special election to replace William A. Graham, Orange voters sent Capt. John Berry to the state Senate over James N. Patterson and elected Capt. Addison Mangum to Berry's old seat in the House of Commons over Col. J. S. Leathers and Capt. J. W. Latta.
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Smallpox kills John Parker and his wife near Walnut Grove
Smallpox struck near Walnut Grove in Orange County, killing John Parker on April 12 and his wife, Hannah, a few days later.
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The Recorder endorses Vance but refuses to print soldiers' charges against Holden
Dennis Heartt printed resolutions from the men of Dickson's Battery backing Governor Vance but left out two: one that denounced W. W. Holden and one he read as scorning every man not in the army as a coward. He wrote that Holden sought an honorable peace and that no evidence made him a traitor, and he kept that stand when Raleigh papers objected.
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Capt. Robert Walker Anderson of Hillsborough is killed at the Wilderness and other town men are wounded
Capt. Robert Walker Anderson, ordnance officer of Cooke's brigade, was killed in the Wilderness on May 5. He was about twenty-five, the son of the late William E. Anderson of Hillsborough, and had married Paul C. Cameron's eldest daughter a year before. In the same fighting Webb of the 27th had an arm broken, Lt. J. A. Graham was wounded and Sgt. T. B. Whitted lost an eye.
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Company A, 66th N.C., an Orange company, loses Lieut. J. E. Lynch and four men killed
Company A of the 66th North Carolina, raised in Orange, reported Second Lieut. J. E. Lynch and four privates killed and about twenty men wounded, several since dead, in the fighting from Bermuda Hundred to Petersburg between May 11 and late July. Capt. A. G. Faucett and his men published a tribute to Lynch.
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Capt. Samuel P. Collins of Orange is killed leading Company A, 31st N.C., near Drewry's Bluff
Capt. Samuel P. Collins of Orange County, commanding Company A of the 31st North Carolina, was killed leading his company in a charge on the Union works near Drewry's Bluff and was buried on the field. He left a wife and four daughters.
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Company A of the 56th North Carolina, an Orange company, loses two killed near Ware Bottom Church
Company A of the 56th North Carolina, raised in Orange County, lost Privates Sidney Browning and Lewis L. Christmond killed and about fifteen men wounded in the fighting of May 19 and 20 near Ware Bottom Church, Virginia.
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Governor Vance speaks for two hours to one of the largest crowds ever gathered at Hillsborough
Governor Zebulon B. Vance, campaigning for re-election against W. W. Holden, addressed one of the largest crowds the editor had seen gathered at Hillsborough for such an occasion. He spoke for more than two hours on Tuesday of May court.
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The university graduates seven seniors at a thin wartime commencement
The University of North Carolina held its 1864 commencement with seven graduates, the remnant of sixty-eight freshmen of 1860-61. The student body had fallen from seventy-three during the year to thirty-six at its end as young men left for the army, there were no outside addresses, and Governor Vance attended.
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The Orange Guards lose Alves Norwood near Petersburg, and Hillsborough buries him
Alves Norwood, youngest son of John W. Norwood of Hillsborough, was killed with Company G of the 27th North Carolina, the Orange Guards, in the fighting east of Richmond, where six other men of the company were wounded. His body reached Hillsborough on Sunday, June 19, and was buried in the family ground before a large crowd.
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Dr. Osmond F. Long, Orange County physician and Presbyterian elder, dies
Dr. Osmond F. Long of Orange County, a physician and for twenty-nine years a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church, died at his brother James A. Long's home in Greensborough of an illness he caught while nursing a son badly wounded in battle.
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The Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society, its funds spent feeding wounded soldiers on the railroad, appeals for provisions
The women of the Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society, having used up nearly all their means giving food and refreshments to the many sick and wounded soldiers passing through on the railroad, asked country people for flour, meat and other provisions. Gifts were to be left with Mrs. Owen in Hillsborough.
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Orange County elects John Berry to the state senate
Orange County elected John Berry its state senator in the August 1864 election, by the list of members elected to the 1864-65 General Assembly.
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Orange County gives Governor Vance 1,321 votes to Holden's 227
In the August governor's election, the official return gave Gov. Zebulon B. Vance 1,321 votes in Orange County to 227 for W. W. Holden, against Vance's 1,451 to 372 over Johnston in 1862. Soldiers voted in camp on July 28 and the people at home on August 4.
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Sixty-eight Orange magistrates pledge a tenth of their grain to soldiers' families at schedule prices
The Orange County court, with sixty-eight magistrates present, resolved unanimously that each would sell a tenth of his wheat and corn crop at government schedule prices to destitute soldiers' families, called on all farmers to do the same, and the citizens in the courthouse pledged likewise. County agents P. C. Cameron and J. W. Norwood reported they had bought and given out more than 6,000 bushels since the previous fall but could buy no more with wheat at $25 a bushel.
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Lieut. Thomas J. Strayhorn, former county register and trustee, dies of a wound received at Reams Station
Lieut. Thomas J. Strayhorn of Company G, 27th North Carolina, the Orange Guards, died in Richmond of a wound received leading his men over the Union works at Reams Station on August 25. He had served Orange as Public Register and then County Trustee, and though not liable to service had left Hillsborough with the Orange Guards on April 20, 1861.
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Merchant Henry N. Brown gives $5,000 to the Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society
The Hillsborough Soldiers' Aid Society acknowledged $5,000 from merchant Henry N. Brown, smaller sums from other townspeople, and gifts of wool, yarn, socks, sheeting, flour, sugar and food, including wool from Mrs. P. C. Cameron and sugar from the Misses Nash and Kollock.
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Dennis Heartt leases the Recorder to James M. Turrentine for
Dennis Heartt, in failing health, leased the Hillsborough Recorder for the coming year to James M. Turrentine, who became its editor and publisher and promised a conservative family paper, while Heartt kept his interest and its profits and stayed on to supervise.
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A Chapel Hill public meeting resolves to fight on after the peace talks fail
Meeting on the evening of February 10 and again the next afternoon, Chapel Hill citizens under Jones Watson resolved that peace could not be had on acceptable terms and pledged their support to the army and to soldiers' families. Samuel F. Phillips tried to substitute a call for a state convention, saying slavery was no longer the real question, but the move lost 81 to 62 in a disputed count, and the resolutions passed with a preamble amended by David L. Swain.
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Maj. James M. Palmer, railroad wood agent, dies at Hillsborough
Maj. James M. Palmer died at his home in Hillsborough. He had been for several years wood agent of the North Carolina Railroad.
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Gen. Hardee's son is buried with military honors at Hillsborough
Lieutenant Hardee, son of Gen. William J. Hardee, was buried in the Episcopal burying ground at Hillsborough with military honors, with many artillerymen camped near the town in attendance. The evening before, John Curtis, an artilleryman and son of the Rev. M. A. Curtis, had been buried at home after dying of a wound received in battle on March 19.
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William A. Graham accepts emancipation and withdraws from the convention race
Answering Orange neighbors who wanted him as a delegate to the state convention, William A. Graham wrote from Hillsborough that emancipation was an accomplished fact the South must accept, and that he had already acted on it in his own affairs and advised others to do the same. Learning that unpardoned men in his position were barred, he then withdrew his name.
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A special county court at Hillsborough sets the state docket for trial
Sitting in special session at the Hillsborough court house, the county court ordered notice that every case on the state docket would stand for trial at the regular Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions on the fourth Monday of November, as the county's courts took up business again under the provisional government.
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Dennis Heartt is Hillsborough's postmaster
Dennis Heartt signed the Hillsborough post office's list of uncalled-for letters of October 1, 1865, as postmaster, in place of Calvin E. Parish, who had signed the list of April 1.
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The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina meets in Hillsborough
The Synod of North Carolina met in Hillsborough from the evening of November 1 until late on November 4, chose Charlotte for its next meeting, and after debate left the question of reunion with the northern Old School Assembly where it stood.
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Josiah Turner Jr. of Hillsborough is elected to Congress
Josiah Turner Jr. of Hillsborough won the Fourth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives over J. P. H. Russ, L. C. Edwards and A. H. Arrington, although he was still unpardoned and William A. Graham had publicly defended his eligibility.
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Orange elects Graham to the state Senate and Phillips to the Commons
Orange voters returned William A. Graham to the state Senate, Samuel F. Phillips to the House of Commons and George Laws as clerk of the county court, while also voting for governor and Congress and on the convention's ordinances against secession and slavery.
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The legislature incorporates the Durham Academy
Among the acts of its first postwar session, the General Assembly incorporated the Durham Academy in Orange County.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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John U. Kirkland serves as Orange County's clerk and master in equity
In 1866 John U. Kirkland, as clerk and master in equity at his office in Hillsborough, advertised court-ordered sales of Orange County land.
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The legislature names a new bench of Orange County magistrates
The General Assembly, called back in January to restore civil government, appointed a new body of justices of the peace for Orange County. Sheriff H. B. Guthrie summoned the long list of appointees to take their oaths at the Hillsborough court house on February 3, 1866.
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William A. Graham backs Black testimony in the state's courts
Writing from Hillsborough to two members of the House of Commons, former governor William A. Graham endorsed the code commission's proposal to let Black witnesses testify in all cases touching the rights of Black people, as a matter of right as well as safety. He held that the vote should stay with white men.
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Federal command lets Orange courts try freedpeople's cases
Answering a letter from Orange County's county attorney that Governor Jonathan Worth had passed on, General Ruger's headquarters ruled that the civil courts could try offenses where the law punished Black and white offenders alike. Freedmen's Bureau agents kept only petty cases punishable by up to a month in jail or a $100 fine.
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E. H. Pogue starts making tinware for the wholesale trade in Hillsborough
E. H. Pogue announced that he had begun manufacturing tinware in Hillsborough for merchants and retail dealers, and would also sell it to townspeople at wholesale rates. By early 1867 his store stood west of the courthouse, where he also sold groceries, stoves and tobacco and took country produce in barter.
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Orange Superior Court sentences convicted thieves to the lash
At the spring term of Orange Superior Court in Hillsborough a dozen white and Black defendants were tried for larceny, and most were convicted and sentenced to whipping. The judge warned the grand jury that harsher laws could follow if punishment did not check theft.
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William H. Brown, Hillsborough Methodist leader, dies
William H. Brown died suddenly at Hillsborough in his 57th year. A Methodist for forty years, he had served the Hillsborough church as steward, class leader and trustee and its Sunday school as superintendent for about twenty-five years, and the quarterly conference adopted a tribute to him.
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Frederick Nash Jr. is brought home from a prison burying ground and reburied at Hillsborough
The remains of Frederick Nash Jr., son of the Presbyterian minister F. K. Nash, who had joined the Confederate army at about seventeen and died a prisoner of war, were brought home and laid beside his kindred at Hillsborough.
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A. W. Hedgpeth, longtime keeper of the Hillsborough House, dies
A. W. Hedgpeth, for many years proprietor of the Hillsborough House hotel and a town commissioner elected that February, died suddenly at Hillsborough in his 54th year.
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Thomas Webb of Hillsborough becomes president of the North Carolina Railroad
The North Carolina Railroad's stockholders held their seventeenth annual meeting at Hillsborough on Thursday, July 12, 1866, and the directors elected Thomas Webb president in place of Nathaniel Boyden, with P. B. Ruffin as treasurer, F. A. Stagg as secretary and Edward Wilkes as superintendent. The state's directors for the year included John Berry and Josiah Turner Jr. of Orange.
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The Freedmen's Bureau turns freedpeople's cases in Orange and Alamance over to the county courts
After Governor Jonathan Worth certified that state law no longer discriminated against free people of color in the courts, the Freedmen's Bureau ordered its officers to send all cases involving freedpeople to the county and state courts, keeping only claims for wages under contracts its agents had approved. Lt. Isaac Porter, assistant superintendent of the Bureau's sub-district of Orange and Alamance, published the order in Hillsborough. The order reached Porter by an endorsement of July 13 from the Bureau's Central District headquarters, which turned criminal cases over to the civil courts and told him to act as counsel for freedpeople there.
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A Hillsborough meeting backs the National Union Convention and names district delegates
A public meeting at Hillsborough, with James P. Clark in the chair and Dr. Charles J. Freeland as secretary, endorsed the call for a National Union Convention at Philadelphia on August 14, 1866, in support of President Johnson's restoration policy. On resolutions offered by Josiah Turner Jr. it named thirteen men, among them Henry K. Nash, Thomas Webb, John W. Graham, Samuel F. Phillips and Paul C. Cameron, to a district convention at Raleigh, and recommended William A. Graham as a delegate for the state at large.
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R. F. Morris & Son form a partnership to make Durham smoking tobacco at Durham's Station
Robert F. Morris and his son Edward W. Morris, with William H. Willard as a special partner who put in $5,000 in cash, formed the limited partnership of R. F. Morris & Son to manufacture tobacco, especially 'the famous Durham Smoking Tobacco,' and to keep a small general store at Durham's Station (now Durham County). The partnership ran from September 1, 1866, to September 1, 1869.
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Orange Superior Court sends Wesley Watson and seven others to the whipping post
At the fall term of Orange Superior Court at Hillsborough, Judge Fowle had eight people whipped, four white and four Black, most of them for theft. Wesley Watson, described in evidence as a wartime deserter who had broken jail twice and led a band that robbed people in Orange and nearby counties, was sentenced for stealing a mule to thirty-nine lashes at once and more at the November and March terms, despite a plea for mercy from his counsel Josiah Turner Jr.
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The Philanthropic Society condemns the hazing of freshmen
The university's Philanthropic Society resolved to put on record its disapproval of the custom of abusing members of the freshman class, asked all who followed its motto of virtue, liberty and science to help banish the practice, and sent copies to the trustees, the faculty and the state's papers.
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Orange elects John Berry to the state Senate and S. D. Umstead and W. W. Guess to the Commons
In the state election of Thursday, October 18, 1866, Orange County chose Capt. John Berry for the state Senate over Richard M. Jones and Thomas Vickers, and S. D. Umstead and William W. Guess for the House of Commons over John F. Lyon, B. C. Hopkins and John H. Watson. The county also voted for Governor Jonathan Worth over Alfred Dockery.
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Nine prisoners rush the Hillsborough jailer and six escape
On Sunday morning, November 11, 1866, nine prisoners in the county jail at Hillsborough rushed the keeper when he opened the cage to give them breakfast, threw a blanket over his head, tried to choke him and ran out the jail door. The keeper and a few men who answered his call took three of them back; six, held on charges ranging from larceny and housebreaking to rape, got away.
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General Colston offers the state free scholarships at the Hillsborough Military Academy
Gen. R. E. Colston, superintendent of the Hillsborough academy, offered without charge one scholarship for a young man from each congressional district and one from the state at large, to be named by the governor. Governor Jonathan Worth laid the offer before the General Assembly in his annual message and asked it to help the poor young men chosen meet their other costs.
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James Webb Jr. advertises his Cheap Cash Store in Hillsborough
Advertisements in the Hillsborough Recorder in 1867 offered garden seeds, white granite cups and saucers, coffee, sugar and candies at the Cheap Cash Store of James Webb Jr.
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