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Orange County Observer (Hillsborough): A Democratic weekly published in Hillsborough from 1880. It provides detailed local reporting, with partisan coverage of elections and race. Read issue by issue for this index, 1880–1909.Open the sourceAll sources
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Entries
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1900s
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Orange Republicans elect Luico Lloyd county chairman
The Orange County Republican convention at Hillsborough chose delegates to the state and district conventions and adjourned to name a ticket later; a resolution by Henry N. Brown Sr. against supporting anyone who accepted the 1900 suffrage amendment as final was not acted on. The county executive committee then accepted D. F. Crawford's resignation as chairman and elected Luico Lloyd of Bingham Township chairman and W. E. Lindsay of Chapel Hill secretary.
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The county elections board creates St. Mary's precinct and moves two polling places
The Orange County Board of Elections merged the Pleasant Green and Orange Academy precincts of Little River Township into a new St. Mary's precinct voting at St. Mary's school house, moved the West Hillsboro polling place from J. W. Hooker's store to John Christmas's store on King Street, and moved the Patterson's precinct polling place in Chapel Hill Township to Joseph J. Whitfield's store.
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Orange Republicans name a county ticket
The reconvened Orange County Republican convention nominated E. N. Cates of Bingham Township for register of deeds, George W. Tate for surveyor, and William E. Hall, B. C. Patton and J. P. Teer for county commissioners, leaving the nomination for sheriff to the county executive committee.
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The first Yearly Union Picnic of Orange draws nearly a hundred Confederate veterans to Efland
The first Yearly Union Picnic of Orange, organized by the county's Christian Temperance Union for its white citizens and especially its Confederate veterans, was held at Efland; nearly a hundred old soldiers attended, and the Hillsborough chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy helped feed them.
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Mayor Norwood surfaces Hillsborough's sidewalks and crossings with crushed stone
Hillsborough's mayor, Norwood, had the town's streets, crossings and sidewalks repaired, surfacing the sidewalks and crossings with gravel from the Southern Stone Company's works; more money, the paper said, would buy more lasting work before winter.
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Hillsborough subscribers and the county school board fund a new public schoolhouse
Townspeople answered County Superintendent Charles E. Maddry's appeal with subscriptions for a new public schoolhouse at Hillsborough, where children were being turned away for lack of room, and the county board of education pledged to match every dollar so the house could be built at once; Maddry then advertised for building bids.
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J. William Jones leaves Chapel Hill for Richmond
The Rev. J. William Jones, the Confederate chaplain, moved with his family from Chapel Hill to Richmond, Virginia, to become secretary of the Confederate Memorial Association.
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Democrats carry Orange and Sheriff Hughes beats an independent challenger
Orange County went Democratic again in the general election: Sheriff John K. Hughes, against whom the hardest fight was made, defeated James M. Atwater, a Democrat running as an independent, and the rest of the Democratic county and legislative ticket won. W. N. Pritchard and R. L. Walker carried the Nineteenth Senatorial District over Thomas J. Oldham of Orange and J. E. Lyon of Durham.
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Caldwell school district votes a special tax for a rural graded school
Voters in Caldwell District No. 5, Little River Township, approved a local tax for a rural graded school by 17 to 10, setting 30 cents on the $100 of property and 90 cents on each poll.
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The county board of education apportions the school fund and sets aside $1,000 for new schoolhouses
The Orange County Board of Education divided the year's school fund among about 4,700 children of school age and set aside more than $1,000 for new schoolhouses to be built in 1903.
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James Nichols begins building a new public schoolhouse for Hillsborough's white children
The Black contractor James Nichols began work on a new public school building for the white children of Hillsborough and expected to finish it in February.
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More than a hundred state convicts arrive to quarry railroad ballast on Occoneechee Mountain
Over a hundred convicts were brought from Mitchell County to Hillsborough to get out stone on Occoneechee Mountain for ballasting the North Carolina Railroad, and another gang came from Raleigh in February.
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A passenger train kills two Caswell County farmers at Scarlett's crossing
The eastbound afternoon passenger train struck a covered wagon at Scarlett's crossing east of University Station, killing W. A. Cooper and his nephew, a young man named Boland, both Caswell County farmers on their way home from the Durham tobacco market; the crossing, on a sharp curve and steep grade, was known as dangerous.
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Orange County receives $1,315 in state aid to keep its schools open four months
State Superintendent J. Y. Joyner sent Orange County $1,315 as its share of the $100,000 the General Assembly voted to bring the public schools up to a four-month term.
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Hillsborough's commissioners fire the police chief and elect J. C. Scott
After Chief of Police Stone took off his badge in a bar room and fought a man who dared him to, the town commissioners discharged him and elected J. C. Scott in his place.
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A guard kills a convict trying to escape from the Occoneechee Mountain stone works
A white state convict named Stevens, serving thirty years for murder, was shot dead by a guard named Blake when he broke for liberty as the convicts went to dinner at the stone works on Occoneechee Mountain.
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Contractor Haywood H. Thompson begins a weave mill and dye house at the Eno Cotton Mill
Haywood H. Thompson began making brick for a weave mill and dye house at the Eno Cotton Mill, planned to run about 400 looms and employ 75 to 100 more hands; by early June he was preparing the foundations.
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Hillsborough Methodists sell their Churton Street parsonage lot to Shepperd Strudwick
The trustees of the Hillsborough Methodist church sold the Churton Street house and lot used as the parsonage to Shepperd Strudwick, who planned to build a residence there, and moved the parsonage to the Webb house at Tryon and Wake streets.
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The county commissioners adopt a general road law and elect road supervisors
The Orange County commissioners adopted a general road law drafted by S. M. Gattis for working the public roads everywhere but Chapel Hill Township, which kept its own road law, and elected road supervisors for the townships.
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Hillsborough votes for prohibition for the first time and elects Joseph A. Harris mayor
For the first time in the town's history the prohibition ticket carried Hillsborough's election: Joseph A. Harris was elected mayor, and O. J. Forrest, N. W. Brown, P. H. Smith and A. F. Crabtree won on the prohibition ticket with James Webb on the license ticket, giving a board expected to refuse saloon licenses after July 1.
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Charles G. Rosemond takes charge of the Hillsborough post office
Charles G. Rosemond took over the Hillsborough post office from J. Clyde Cheek, who had resigned in March, after a contest among six Republican candidates; A. J. Gordon became assistant postmaster.
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Hillsborough's commissioners refuse every saloon license, making the town dry after June 30
The new town board unanimously refused the applications of James A. Cheek, Theodore Turner and H. Goodman to retail liquor, so that when the licenses ran out on June 30 Hillsborough would be dry for the first time.
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Hillsborough's barrooms close and the town goes dry
Hillsborough's saloons closed on the night of Tuesday, June 30, 1903, ending the legal sale of spirituous liquor in the town.
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Fire destroys John Christmas's store at King and Occoneechee streets
A one-story frame storehouse belonging to John Christmas at the northwest corner of King and Occoneechee streets burned to the ground between 11 and 12 o'clock on the night of July 10, 1903, with the stock of groceries kept there by a Mrs. Rosemond as agent.
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Orange County's Black teachers hold their institute at Hillsborough
The Orange County institute for Black teachers met at the court house in Hillsborough in the week of July 27, 1903, conducted by Prof. Charles H. Boyer of St. Augustine's School, Raleigh; on July 30 A. C. Burnett, a Black graduate of the A. and M. College at Greensboro raised near Ridge Church, spoke to it on agriculture.
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A monument is raised over Archibald D. Murphey's grave in the Presbyterian churchyard
By the start of July 1903 a monument had been erected over the grave of Judge Archibald D. Murphey in the Presbyterian churchyard at Hillsborough; his grandson Judge Archibald Aiken of Danville, Virginia, came to see it.
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Commissioners call a special school tax election in the Chapel Hill district
On August 3, 1903, the county commissioners ordered an election in the Chapel Hill school district on September 14 to learn whether its voters would levy a special school tax, naming John O'Daniel registrar and S. W. Andrews and J. D. Webb judges.
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Orange County physicians reorganize the county medical society
Meeting at the court house in Hillsborough on August 27, 1903, with Dr. Hubert A. Royster of Raleigh explaining the state society's plan, the county's physicians organized the Orange County Medical Society, with Dr. Isaac H. Manning president and Dr. C. D. Jones secretary, to meet quarterly. A county medical society had already petitioned the legislature in 1897.
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Major George P. Collins dies at Hillsborough
Maj. George P. Collins, son of Josiah Collins of Washington County and a Confederate quartermaster of Pettigrew's, later Kirkland's, brigade, died at his Hillsborough home on August 30, 1903, in his 58th year, and was buried in St. Matthew's churchyard on September 1.
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M. A. McCauley resigns as county treasurer and Ed. A. Dickson is elected
At their September 1903 session the county commissioners accepted the resignation of County Treasurer M. A. McCauley for failing health and elected former treasurer Ed. A. Dickson to the unexpired term, by two votes to one for McCauley's son Charles F. McCauley.
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The county school board merges districts for new schoolhouses at Efland and near Ridge
Meeting at Efland on September 18, 1903, the county board of education merged the Efland and Railroad districts and voted a two-room schoolhouse at Efland, merged the Occoneechee and Ridge districts with a schoolhouse to be built near M. C. Ray's, and obtained a loan from the State Board of Education to build both.
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Elm Grove district voters turn down a graded school tax
At an election held at Cates' mill in Chapel Hill Township on October 12, 1903, voters of the Elm Grove district rejected a special tax to establish a graded school, 19 to 16.
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B. C. Patton replaces Mrs. William Allison as Cedar Grove postmaster
By October 22, 1903, B. C. Patton, a member of the county Republican executive committee, had been appointed postmaster at Cedar Grove in place of Mrs. William Allison, the former postmaster Delia Findley, who had lately married a Democrat.
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Mars Hill Baptists build a new church north of Hillsborough
By late October 1903 the Baptists of Mars Hill, just north of Hillsborough, had built a new church. It was dedicated on Sunday, September 30, 1906, with Dr. Vann preaching.
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Two rural free delivery routes are laid out from Hillsborough
By October 8, 1903, two rural free delivery mail routes had been laid out from Hillsborough to start on October 15: Route 1 east by the Oxford road toward Overaker's corner, 20 3/4 miles serving 105 houses, with E. Marvin Lockhart as carrier, and Route 2 north through Cedar Grove and Heno, 21 miles serving 104 houses, with Edward R. Sykes as carrier; the Mohun and Heno post offices were to close.
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Fire destroys the Hillsborough depot
About midnight on November 9, 1903, fire destroyed the Southern Railway's freight and passenger depot and telegraph office at Hillsborough with all the freight, baggage, tickets and records inside, including goods just unloaded for local merchants.
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Former Solicitor General Samuel F. Phillips is buried at Chapel Hill
Samuel F. Phillips, Solicitor General of the United States under Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Arthur, died in Washington on November 18, 1903, and was buried at Chapel Hill on November 21 by members of the university faculty and citizens of the town.
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R. W. Finlator succeeds J. K. Powell as Southern Railway agent at Hillsborough
In November 1903, days after the depot fire, R. W. Finlator of Greensboro succeeded J. K. Powell as the Southern Railway's agent at Hillsborough, Powell being promoted to Selma.
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The county board of education apportions the school fund and counts the schools
Meeting on January 4 and 5, the board divided about $10,660 among the townships by the number of children: 3,077 white children (60 fewer than a year before) and 1,731 Black children (150 more). The county had 46 white and 23 Black schools; only Hillsborough, Cedar Grove and Chapel Hill townships had money enough for a four-month term, and the board resolved to cut Bingham Township's many small districts to about eight.
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State convicts leave the Southern Railway's ballast quarry at Hillsboro
The state convicts who had been getting out ballast at Hillsboro for the Southern Railway were taken back to the penitentiary at Raleigh on January 20, and the Southern Broken Stone Company was to suspend work for a month or so.
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James Webb, a builder of the Eno Cotton Mills, dies at Hillsboro
James Webb, merchant and manufacturer, died at his Hillsboro home on January 28, three days after returning from Texas for his health. With his brother Joseph C. Webb and A. J. Ruffin he had built the Eno Cotton Mills and a flour mill, and he was a director of the Raleigh and Neuse mills at Raleigh; he was buried at St. Matthew's on January 31.
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Hillsboro quarantines itself against Durham
The Hillsboro town commissioners met on April 4 and ordered the town quarantined against Durham, as Chapel Hill and other places already had.
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The board of education orders Chapel Hill's Black school rebuilt in Potter's Field
The county board of education ordered the superintendent to sell the Black school house and grounds in Chapel Hill and rebuild in Potter's Field, the Black settlement. At the same meeting it abolished Bethel district in Bingham Township, sending its patrons to White Cross and a neighboring district, and allowed Caldwell's patrons to vote on a local school tax.
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The Bank of Orange is chartered and elects its officers
The Bank of Orange was chartered at Raleigh on April 18 with $5,000 capital, which might rise to $50,000, to do a commercial and savings business. Its stockholders met on April 26 at the court house, adopted by-laws and elected directors, who chose J. S. Spurgeon president, C. A. Scott vice president and Paul C. Collins cashier.
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Orange Republicans meet in convention and endorse Roosevelt
The Orange County Republican convention met at the court house in Hillsboro on April 30 with nearly every precinct represented, chose A. J. Gordon chairman and P. Tinsley Cheek secretary, named delegates to the congressional and state conventions at Greensboro, and adopted resolutions endorsing President Roosevelt and state chairman Rollins.
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Work begins on a new railroad depot to replace the one burned in November
Contractor J. D. Elliott began work on the new depot on May 9; it was to resemble the one destroyed by fire the previous November and to be finished in about four weeks.
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A brick bank house for the Bank of Orange goes up on Churton Street
Ground was broken on May 11 for the Bank of Orange's building, a brick house with a glass front built by the Webbs beside their large brick store on Churton Street; by mid-June the bank had moved from a desk in Webb's store into its new quarters.
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Hillsboro's commissioners ban the sale of chemical ciders
A town ordinance passed by the Hillsboro commissioners on June 1 forbade selling apple, orange, peach, apricot or any other 'cider' made from chemicals, under whatever name, with a fine of $10 and costs.
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Hillsboro merchants form a Business Men's Association
Business men of Hillsboro and the county met at the court house on June 2 and organized a Business Men's Association to bring before the public matters for the good of the town and county, electing Shepperd Strudwick president and Paul C. Collins secretary; the association adopted its constitution and by-laws on June 27.
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Orange Democrats instruct their delegates for Robert B. Glenn for governor
The Orange County Democratic convention at Hillsboro on June 4 chose delegates to the state and congressional conventions at Greensboro and instructed them to cast most of the county's ten votes for Robert B. Glenn and the rest for Charles M. Stedman for governor, to back Hoke and Brown for the Supreme Court and W. W. Kitchin for Congress; S. M. Gattis was made a delegate at large.
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Charles E. Maddry resigns as pastor of the Hillsboro Baptist church
The Rev. Charles E. Maddry, pastor of the Baptist church at Hillsboro and county superintendent of schools, resigned the pastorate on June 26, effective after the fourth Sunday in August, to enter the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville.
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Superintendent Maddry reports Orange County's school figures
County Superintendent Charles E. Maddry's annual report counted 2,981 white and 1,337 Black children of school age, with 1,993 and 983 enrolled, 43 white and 23 Black districts, school property worth $9,680 for white and $2,180 for Black schools, and 15 rural libraries holding 2,000 volumes.
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H. W. and J. C. Webb take over the James Webb Jr. & Bro. store
H. Winder Webb and J. Cheshire Webb bought the stock, trade and good will of James Webb Jr. & Bro. from the estates of its late partners and put up their own sign at the old stand on Churton Street. The old firm was dissolved except for collecting its debts, which John Cox Webb took in hand.
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Republican county convention nominates P. Tinsley Cheek and D. S. Miller
The Orange County Republican convention, addressed by congressional nominee Charles A. Reynolds, nominated P. Tinsley Cheek for the House, D. S. Miller for sheriff, Chester D. Turner for register of deeds, William H. Parker for treasurer and George W. Tate for surveyor, with J. P. Teer, B. G. Patton and George F. Crutchfield for county commissioners.
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Dr. Robert L. Gattis dies at Chapel Hill
Dr. Robert L. Gattis, a well-known Chapel Hill physician, died of typhoid fever at his home there, leaving a wife and six children.
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Democratic county convention nominates S. W. Andrews for sheriff
The Orange County Democratic convention, with John W. Graham as chairman, took eleven ballots to choose S. W. Andrews for sheriff over six rivals. It nominated Ira E. D. Andrews for the House, John Laws for register of deeds, Calvin R. Parish for treasurer, Dr. A. C. Jordan for coroner, James O. Webb for surveyor, and John F. McAdams and Joseph W. Pickett among the commissioners.
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Town commissioners accept three gasoline street lamps from a citizens' association
The Hillsborough commissioners accepted an offer from Paul C. Collins, for an association of citizens that included Shepperd Strudwick, to buy and put up three gasoline street lamps at Churton and King, at Churton and Tryon, and on King Street near the Occoneechee Hotel at no cost to the town. In return the town agreed to keep them in order and lit for five years.
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Lewis Ruffin is sentenced to thirty years in the penitentiary
At the August term of Orange Superior Court, Lewis Ruffin, a Black man arrested in July on a charge of breaking into a Hillsborough woman's house at night and attempting an assault, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to thirty years at hard labor. The Observer's report of the sentence carried a threat of lynching.
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The State Farmers' Alliance meets at the Barracks, and Governor Aycock speaks at its picnic
The North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance held its eighteenth annual session at the Barracks near Hillsborough, where President William A. Graham gave his annual address. On August 10 a well-attended farmers' picnic heard State Superintendent J. Y. Joyner, Governor Charles B. Aycock, Dr. Tait Butler and Charles E. Maddry.
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W. A. Lloyd succeeds Herbert Lloyd as Chapel Hill postmaster
W. A. Lloyd succeeded Herbert Lloyd as postmaster at Chapel Hill.
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The citizens' gasoline street lamps are lit in Hillsborough
The three street lamps given to the town by Bank of Orange cashier Paul C. Collins and his associates were lighted for the first time, to general approval.
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The county board of education orders three new schoolhouses
Meeting with incoming superintendent John C. Hocutt, the Orange County Board of Education ordered three new schoolhouses built at once and let the contracts. It set school openings from mid-October to mid-November, with Hillsboro Township opening November 1.
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Deputy Sheriff Joseph Nichols is shot dead serving a warrant
Deputy Sheriff D. Joseph Nichols was shot in the arm and bled to death while trying to arrest Knapp Horner, about 13 miles north of Hillsborough, on a warrant charging Horner with whipping his son's wife. A posse found and wounded Horner on September 11, and he was held without bail in the Durham jail for trial.
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The Eno Cotton Mill reopens with James H. Webb as manager
The Eno Cotton Mill, shut down for a month or two, resumed work with James H. Webb of Hillsborough, son of the late Thomas Webb, as superintendent and general manager.
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Heavy rain and wind wash out the railroad trestle over the Eno
A storm of heavy rain and wind damaged crops across the county, washed away the Southern Railway trestle over the Eno at Occoneechee Mountain, carried off cordwood and damaged the brickyard of the Eno Cotton Mill, drowned one of Julian S. Carr's mules above the town bridge, and wrecked the bridge over New Hope Creek at Robson Station.
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Dr. Thomas J. Wilson dies at Chapel Hill
Dr. Thomas J. Wilson, a physician much loved in Hillsborough, where he had lived for many years, died at his home in Chapel Hill.
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Democrats carry Orange County, and S. W. Andrews is elected sheriff
Orange County voted 900 to 558 for Parker over Roosevelt and 952 to 556 for Glenn for governor, and elected the whole Democratic county ticket. S. W. Andrews beat Republican D. S. Miller for sheriff, 805 to 704, the closest county race.
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Federal officers raid two Hillsborough places for illegal whiskey
Special Agent Charles A. Banks and Deputy Marshal J. T. Stone raided two places in Hillsborough, finding a few sealed pints of whiskey and several hundred empty whiskey and beer bottles, then made a seizure in the country that they shipped to Greensboro. The raid followed a letter signed "Reform" charging that blind tigers were selling whiskey in town.
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Fire destroys the Chapel Hill waterworks station
The pumping station that supplied water to the university and the town of Chapel Hill burned early on November 20, cause unknown, with a loss of $700 to $1,000 and no insurance. The water supply was cut off until a temporary pump was put in.
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Haywood H. Thompson builds a knitting mill west of Hillsborough for the Bellevue Manufacturing Company
Contractor Haywood H. Thompson was pushing work on a knitting mill being built west of town by the Bellevue Manufacturing Company, which was expected to be running by spring.
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The Efland district finishes a new public school building
The new public school building for the Efland district was completed. The Observer called it one of the best, if not the best, public school buildings in the county.
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Orange County cotton growers resolve to hold their crop for ten cents
A meeting of Orange County cotton growers at the court house, called after cotton fell to about 7 1/2 cents at Hillsborough, resolved to hold their cotton until it reached ten cents a pound and to cut their 1905 acreage by a quarter, and made their organization permanent.
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Hillsborough's commissioners ask the legislature for a much higher saloon license
The town board unanimously adopted a charter amendment raising the town liquor license from $100 to $1,000 and giving the board power to regulate the trade and revoke licenses, and Representative Ira E. D. Andrews introduced it in the House. The bill was reported favorably in February with a compromise figure of $750.
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Bellevue stockholders enlarge the company to spin its own yarn
At a meeting the stockholders of the Bellevue Manufacturing Company decided to raise its subscribed stock above $35,000 so it could install a spinning plant and make its own yarns. Cold weather slowed work on the buildings, and in May Samuel M. Gattis described the new plant as a $60,000 knitting mill.
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The county cuts the public school term to three months
County superintendent John C. Hocutt shortened the current public school term from four months to three because of the cost of building and repairing schoolhouses, after consulting the state superintendent in Raleigh.
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Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1 opens out of Efland
A rural free delivery mail route began running from the Efland post office, with Dan W. Clark appointed its carrier.
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Sophie Neville pleads guilty to manslaughter in her father's death
At the spring term of Orange Superior Court, Sophie Neville, a Black woman charged with shooting her father dead with a pistol at Chapel Hill that winter, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four months in the county jail. At the same term the murder case against J. Knapp Horner for killing Deputy Sheriff Nichols was continued to August.
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The Parish brothers' Hillsborough store fails
H. L. and C. R. Parish, dealers in dry goods and groceries on King Street, made an assignment naming Samuel M. Gattis trustee to sell their stock and pay their debts. Reynolds & Walker of Orange Grove bought the stock in May and reopened in the Parish storehouse.
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J. W. Goodman leaves the Hillsborough Presbyterian pastorate for Greensboro
After more than five years as pastor of the Hillsborough Presbyterian church, J. W. Goodman resigned to take the Bessemer Avenue and Buffalo churches in Greensboro. He preached farewell sermons at Hillsborough, New Hope, Eno and Fairfield in March and set out for Greensboro by buggy on March 28.
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A legislative committee kills a bill to tear up the University Railroad
A committee of the General Assembly killed the measure that would have let the railroad from University Station to Chapel Hill be abandoned once a planned Durham-Chapel Hill trolley line had run ninety days, leaving the trolley project in doubt. People along the line and at Chapel Hill had opposed removing the track.
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The Bellevue mill builds a railroad siding to its plant
The Bellevue Manufacturing Company built a siding from the Southern Railway, starting east of the Hillsborough depot and running to its new plant.
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The university sites its new chemistry building on the east side of the campus
The university decided to put the new chemical building, funded by the legislature that winter, on the eastern section of the campus nearly opposite the Mary Ann Smith building, and expected it finished by early winter.
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Sheriff John Knox Hughes dies
Sheriff and tax collector John Knox Hughes, whose father had also been sheriff of Orange, died after an illness of more than a year. On May 1 his bondsmen named his son Eugene A. Hughes to finish collecting the taxes and settle with the county commissioners.
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The university drops its summer school for teachers
The executive committee of the university trustees, meeting at Governor Glenn's office, decided to hold no summer school for teachers at Chapel Hill in 1905, though the summer law school would go on.
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The county puts its public roads under road supervisors
The county commissioners amended the Orange County road law to place the working of the public roads directly under township road supervisors, doing away with road overseers, and named supervisors for the townships. Hillsborough and Chapel Hill townships, which had special road laws, were left out.
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Hillsborough elects a town board expected to license saloons
Joseph A. Harris was re-elected mayor, and voters chose Shepperd Strudwick, William A. Hayes, Calvin R. Lassiter, Stephen E. Cole and George C. Lynch as commissioners over the old dry board of O. J. Forrest, A. F. Crabtree, N. W. Brown and P. H. Smith. The new ticket was understood to favor licensing barrooms, which the old board had refused for two years.
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County commissioners refuse to license saloons in Hillsborough
After hearing both sides and receiving petitions from men, women, boys and girls across the county, the county commissioners rejected the applications of W. F. Jackson and T. H. Scoggins to sell liquor in Hillsborough, though the town board had recommended them. Commissioner Browning voted for license and Commissioner Pickett against, and Chairman McAdams broke the tie against it.
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Hillsboro grants John D. Morris a franchise to build a telephone exchange
The town commissioners gave John D. Morris of Roxboro the exclusive right for twenty years to build and run a telephone system and central office in Hillsboro, if he began work within six months of July 1, 1905. By late 1906 the Morris Telephone Exchange was advertising service in town.
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Hillsborough buries Capt. Robert D. Graham beside his mother
Capt. Robert Davidson Graham, a Hillsborough-born son of William A. Graham who had commanded a company of the 56th North Carolina and later served as secretary of the Civil Service Commission, died after a fall from a building in Washington on June 27. His body was brought to Maj. John W. Graham's house, and after a service at the Baptist church led by Charles E. Maddry he was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard beside his mother.
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Hillsborough Township brings in a rock crusher to macadamize the depot road
The Hillsborough Township road commissioners set up a rock crusher and roller in D. C. Parks's vacant lot west of the court house to build a macadam road from Churton and King streets to the railroad station, with a road builder from Charlotte in charge and an engineer hired for the survey.
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County commissioners levy special school taxes in the Caldwell and Mebane districts
At their monthly meeting on July 3 the county commissioners levied a special school tax of 15 cents on property and 45 cents on the poll in the Caldwell school district, and 30 cents on property and 90 cents on the poll in the Mebane school district.
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The Bellevue Knitting Mill fires up its engine for the first time
The engine at the Bellevue Knitting Mill in West Hillsborough was fired up for the first time on the morning of July 7, and its whistle told the town that work was near. The following week the tank that fed the mill's hose and sprinklers gave way, a loss of about $500 that delayed the start of operations.
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Hillsborough macadamizes King Street west of Churton
Work on a macadam road on King Street began on July 18 with the digging up of the old paving stones near S. E. Cole's store, after a survey by a Mr. Spoon of Burlington, and the Good Roads Machinery Company set up a rock crusher in early August. When superintendent Stewart of Charlotte left on October 31, nearly two blocks of King Street from Churton to Hazel had been macadamized, and the road commission of H. Winder Webb, James A. Cheek and E. A. Hughes hoped to carry the road to the depot the next summer.
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A farmers' institute meets at the Hillsborough court house
The county's farmers' institute met in the court house on July 21, with talks by State Veterinarian Tait Butler, R. W. Scott of Alamance County, C. K. McQuarrie of Florida and T. B. Parker; attendance was small.
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A tornado with hail ruins crops across northern Orange County
On the afternoon of July 29 a storm of wind, rain, hail and lightning swept northern Orange County from the Caswell line southeast past Laws' store and through Little River township to the Durham line, ruining tobacco, corn and fodder, felling timber and breaking farmhouse windows with hailstones as large as hen eggs. Will Lee McDade lost his tobacco crop, and A. L. Holden and others in Eno township were badly hurt.
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Superior court convicts J. Knapp Horner of killing Deputy Sheriff Nichols
At the summer term of Orange Superior Court before Judge George W. Ward, a jury found J. Knapp Horner guilty of second-degree murder on August 11 for killing Deputy Sheriff D. J. Nichols, and he was sentenced to 12 years in the state penitentiary. Horner, a Confederate veteran of about 59, appealed, and the state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in November.
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The Rev. H. S. Bradshaw is installed as pastor of New Hope Presbyterian Church
A presbytery committee led by the Rev. D. I. Craig installed the Rev. H. S. Bradshaw as pastor of New Hope Presbyterian Church on August 13; ruling elder Shepperd Strudwick of Hillsborough gave the charge to the congregation.
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Hillsborough voters reject a town liquor dispensary
In an election the town commissioners called on the petition of more than a third of the registered voters, Hillsborough voted 45 to 41 against establishing dispensaries on August 14. With the county commissioners already refusing saloon licenses, the vote left the town with no legal liquor sales.
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The State Farmers' Alliance offers its Hillsborough headquarters for an agricultural school
Meeting for its 20th annual session at the Barracks near Hillsborough, the State Farmers' Alliance voted to offer its Hillsborough buildings, built for a military school at a cost of $22,000, and 146 acres to the A. and M. College at Raleigh for an agricultural school, on condition that the college keep up the property and pay its taxes. It elected William A. Graham of Lincoln County president and re-elected T. B. Parker secretary-treasurer and state business agent.
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Three rural free delivery routes run out of Hillsborough
By late September three rural free delivery routes started at the Hillsborough post office, running east (carrier E. Marvin Lockhart), north (Edward R. Sykes) and south (W. A. Davies), and the Post Office Department had supplied three distributing desks for the carriers.
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The Hillsborough post office becomes a presidential office
On October 1 the Hillsborough post office was advanced to the presidential class, so that its postmaster would be appointed by the President and paid a salary. Charles G. Rosemond was postmaster, with A. J. Gordon as assistant.
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President Roosevelt greets a Hillsborough crowd from his train
As President Theodore Roosevelt's train passed through Hillsborough on the afternoon of October 19, the day of his visit to the State Fair at Raleigh, it slowed while he stood on the rear platform and bowed and waved to the crowd gathered there.
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The university enrolls its largest freshman class
The university's fall enrollment ran 60 ahead of the year before, and its freshman class of 200 was reported as the largest in its history; President Francis P. Venable called them as fine a set of young men as he had seen.
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Chapel Hill's fire company checks a fire in Mrs. M. E. Berry's house
Fire broke out in a student's room in Mrs. M. E. Berry's house at Chapel Hill on the morning of November 15; the fire company put it out before it spread, though the room's furnishings were lost and water damaged the furniture of other rooms.
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A Southern Railway freight train wrecks at the Eno railroad bridge in Hillsboro
Eastbound freight No. 72 left the track just west of the Eno bridge; one car went over the side into the river and eleven more piled up, twisting the bridge's iron supports. No one was hurt, and mail trains crossed again the next morning.
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Orange County teachers organize separate white and Black associations
White and Black teachers in Orange County organized separate teachers' associations, both planning monthly meetings. The Rev. A. C. Hamby was president of the white association, which held its regular monthly meeting at the court house on November 25 with County Superintendent John C. Hocutt present.
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A dynamite charge explodes near Mayor Joseph A. Harris's house on Tryon Street
Someone set off a dynamite cartridge on Tryon Street about thirty feet from Mayor Joseph A. Harris's house a little after 8 o'clock on the night of January 10, breaking nearly a dozen of his window panes and shaking the houses nearby; no one was hurt. The Observer, Harris's own paper, laid the deed to liquor from the town's blind tigers and expected the grand jury to take it up at the March court.
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Dr. William Terrell dies suddenly at Cedar Grove
Dr. William Terrell died very suddenly at his home at Cedar Grove on the afternoon of January 15, apparently of heart trouble, and was buried there the next afternoon.
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Durham wins an injunction against the Eno Cotton Mills for fouling the Eno
The City of Durham, which drew its drinking water from the Eno, obtained a temporary order in early February barring the Eno Cotton Mills at Hillsboro from running sewage and filth into the river. After arguments at Durham on February 10, Judge G. S. Ferguson continued the injunction to a final hearing but suspended it until April 20 so the mill could put in a purifying system approved by the State Board of Health.
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The Hillsboro Milling and Manufacturing Company buys the old river mill from Jackson Crabtree
Jackson Crabtree sold the old river mill to the Hillsboro Milling and Manufacturing Company, which kept it running as it was for the time being with Charles A. Whitaker as manager.
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The Morris telephone exchange opens in Hillsboro
The Morris Telephone Exchange went into service at Hillsboro by late March, with its central office in W. H. Murdock's house on West King Street and his daughter Mamie Murdock at the switchboard. It started with 24 stations and nearly doubled them within a week, charging $1 a month on a shared line or $1.50 for a private one.
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Orange County's commissioners decide to buy a road machine and order a bridge over Back Creek
At their April 2 meeting the county commissioners decided to buy a road machine to rent to the townships and hired H. C. Walker and J. P. McAdams to run it. They also told Commissioner J. W. Pickett to let the building of a bridge over Back Creek at Hughes mill to the lowest responsible bidder.
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Orange Presbytery holds its spring session at Hillsboro
Orange Presbytery held its 272nd session in the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church from the evening of April 17 to the afternoon of April 20, opening with a sermon by the pastor of Durham's First Presbyterian Church and a welcome from H. S. Bradshaw. Townspeople housed the delegates, Allen J. Ruffin gave them an evening's entertainment, and the presbytery thanked the town by resolution before setting its fall session for Roxboro.
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The state supreme court orders the Eno Cotton Mills to purify its waste or stop dumping it in the Eno
On May 29 the North Carolina Supreme Court decided Durham's suit against the Eno Cotton Mills: the mill had to put in a crematory or other purifying plant at its own cost or be enjoined from emptying the sewage and dye refuse of the mill and its workers' houses into the Eno. The court ruled so although the mill stood about seventeen miles above Durham's intake and had been running before the city took water from the river, and mill owners across the state took note.
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A new iron bridge is set over the Eno just east of the Hillsboro station
On June 4 the Iron Bridge Company of Virginia, with Joseph Zilk as foreman, put in place a new iron bridge over the Eno just east of the Hillsboro station. J. M. Hall of Clarion, Virginia, bridge inspector for the Southern Railway, passed the work as first class.
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Orange Democrats instruct their delegates to back Samuel M. Gattis for judge
The Democratic county convention, meeting at the court house on June 9, chose delegates to the state, congressional and judicial conventions and, on a resolution by Ira E. D. Andrews, told its judicial delegates to vote solidly for Samuel M. Gattis of Hillsboro for superior court judge in the Ninth District; it also endorsed W. W. Kitchin for Congress and A. L. Brooks for solicitor. The district convention at Durham on June 14 nominated J. Crawford Biggs instead.
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The Durham-Parish Company is incorporated to keep a general store in Hillsboro
George A. Durham and S. M. Gattis of Hillsboro and H. L. Parish of Mayodan incorporated the Durham-Parish Company with the Secretary of State to do a general mercantile business, with $25,000 authorized capital and $3,500 paid in. By August the firm was selling dry goods, hardware, harness and groceries from the old D. C. Parks store on King Street.
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The county teachers' institute opens at Hillsboro
The Orange County teachers' institute opened at Hillsboro under Superintendent John C. Hocutt and Ira E. D. Andrews and kept up its work through nearly two weeks of daily rain; State Auditor B. F. Dixon was to address the teachers for State Superintendent J. Y. Joyner on July 26 and 27.
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Several hundred people attend a Farmers' Institute at Occoneechee Farm
A Farmers' Institute drew several hundred men, women and children from every section of Orange County to Julian S. Carr's Occoneechee Farm near Hillsboro, where Carr gave the address of welcome. A Women's Institute held with it heard Mrs. L. L. Brooks of Guilford County, Viola Boddie of the State Normal and Industrial College and R. W. Scott.
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Orange Democrats renominate the county officers and endorse John W. Graham for the Senate
The Democratic county convention at the court house, with S. M. Gattis in the chair, ratified the August 11 primaries, which had renominated every sitting county officer: D. H. Hamilton for clerk of court over Charles Strayhorn, S. W. Andrews for sheriff, John Laws for register of deeds, Calvin R. Parish for treasurer and Sterling Browning, John F. McAdams and Joseph W. Pickett for commissioners, with Isaac W. Pritchard for the House. The convention endorsed Maj. John W. Graham for the state Senate.
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The Daughters of the Confederacy hold a benefit to mark Confederate graves in the town cemetery
The Gen. G. B. Anderson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy gave an evening of patriotic songs, music, readings and recitations at Hillsboro to raise money for marking the graves of the Confederate soldiers buried in the town cemetery. Lizzie Jones managed it, and Mrs. David S. Tinnin and Mary Exum Meares gave readings to a large audience.
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The county school board merges four districts into the University District
The Orange County Board of Education consolidated the Mt. Hermon, Cool Springs, Barbee's and Couch's school districts, all in the University Station section, into one district to be known as the University District.
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Italian laborers arrive to work the Occoneechee Mountain quarry
Nearly thirty Italian workers came to Hillsboro to work in the Southern Broken Stone Company's quarry at Occoneechee Mountain.
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The State Farmers' Alliance holds its twentieth annual session at the Barracks
The North Carolina Farmers' Alliance held its twentieth annual session at the Barracks, its property near Hillsboro, and named its officers, with Thomas B. Parker as secretary-treasurer and business agent.
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Nineteenth District Democrats nominate John W. Graham and Cary H. King for the Senate at Hillsboro
The Democratic convention of the 19th Senatorial District (Alamance, Caswell, Durham and Orange) met in the Hillsboro court house with D. C. Parks as permanent chairman and Shepperd Strudwick as secretary, and unanimously nominated Cary H. King of Caswell and Maj. John W. Graham of Orange for the state Senate. Caswell sent no delegates.
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Orange Republicans name their county ticket
The Republican county convention at the Hillsboro court house nominated A. J. Gordon for sheriff, C. D. Turner for clerk of court, J. L. Cheek for register of deeds and W. R. Lloyd, E. P. Woods and G. W. P. Cates for county commissioners, with candidates for the House, treasurer and coroner.
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A Hillsboro crowd waiting for Bryan learns that Charles D. McIver has died on his train
Six or seven hundred people gathered at the Southern Railway station in Hillsboro to see and hear William Jennings Bryan. When his special train arrived, Governor Robert B. Glenn told them from the rear platform that Charles D. McIver, president of the State Normal College, had dropped dead in one of the cars after the train left Durham; Bryan bowed and went inside without speaking, and the crowd broke up in silence.
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Governor Robert B. Glenn speaks to a crowded court house in Hillsboro
Governor Robert B. Glenn spoke for about an hour and a half on the issues of the campaign to a court house crowded with men, women and children, defending the state administration and the Watts liquor law.
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Black teachers hold their county institute at Hillsboro
Orange County's Black teachers held a county institute at Hillsboro in the first week of September, which the paper called very successful.
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Democrats carry every county office in Orange
Every Democrat on the Orange County ticket won in the general election: W. W. Kitchin carried the county for Congress by 407 votes, John W. Graham beat Bramham for the state Senate by 431 and Isaac W. Pritchard won the House seat by 224, and the three Democratic commissioners, John F. McAdams, Joseph W. Pickett and Sterling Browning, were returned.
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County commissioners contract for a fireproof vault in the court house
The Orange County commissioners contracted with the B. F. Smith Fireproof Construction Company of Washington, D.C., to build a fireproof vault in the court house room where the board met, for $3,900, to be finished by May 1, 1907. By early May the new vaults for the clerk of court and the register of deeds were finished and on show to visitors.
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Stockholders organize the Hillsboro Clay Manufacturing Company and elect Shepperd Strudwick president
Stockholders of the Hillsboro Clay Manufacturing Company met and elected directors, who chose Shepperd Strudwick president and treasurer, A. J. Ruffin vice president and H. N. Brown Jr. secretary and general manager. Work on a brick plant a mile and a half east of town on the Southern Railway was to begin at once, on an authorized capital of $100,000 with $20,000 paid in.
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County treasurer Calvin R. Parish dies in office
Calvin R. Parish, treasurer of Orange County and deacon and treasurer of the Hillsborough Presbyterian church, died at his home in Hillsborough aged 30, after an illness of nearly two weeks. He was buried in the Hillsborough cemetery with Masonic honors by Eagle Lodge No. 71.
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Commissioners elect merchant Harry L. Parish county treasurer
At a called meeting the county commissioners unanimously elected Harry L. Parish, a Hillsborough merchant and brother of the late treasurer Calvin R. Parish, to fill out the unexpired term, in part so that the office's fees could help the dead man's family. Parish presented his bonds and took the oath of office on February 4.
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S. T. Forrest buys out his partners in S. T. Forrest & Co. at Efland
The Efland firm of S. T. Forrest & Co. was dissolved by mutual consent. Partners C. C. Taylor and Charles L. Boggs sold and assigned their whole interest to Stephen T. Forrest.
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Hillsborough Township voters ask for a $40,000 good-roads bond election
A meeting of Hillsborough Township voters in the court house unanimously asked State Senator John W. Graham to have the legislature authorize a vote on road bonds for thirty years, to be issued in $10,000 lots over up to four years for building the township's public roads. The meeting also asked that Churton and King streets be taken from the township road commission and put under the town, and named A. J. Ruffin, C. D. Jones and Shepperd Strudwick to handle the sale of the bonds.
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Commissioners call a $40,000 road bond election in Hillsborough Township
Under a new act of the General Assembly for working the public roads of Hillsborough Township, the county commissioners ordered an election for April 16, 1907, on issuing $40,000 in thirty-year bonds at no more than six per cent to macadamize the township's roads. They named John Christmas registrar and Henry Murdock and William Strain judges.
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Maria Nash, teacher for 32 years and the town's oldest resident, dies
Maria Nash, youngest daughter of Judge Frederick Nash and Mary Kollock, died at Hillsborough at 87. Born in the town in 1819, she taught for 32 years, was the last of the older generation of her family and the oldest resident of Hillsborough, and was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard.
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The Hillsborough post office moves into C. D. Turner's new brick building on King Street
Postmaster Charles G. Rosemond moved the Hillsborough post office into a new two-story brick building on King Street that C. D. Turner had put up for it on a vacant lot. Turner, who began the work at the end of January, held a contract with the Post Office Department to furnish the building, its fixtures, fuel and lights for a term of years.
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A hail storm wrecks the tobacco crop in the Pine Knot section of northern Orange
A destructive hail and rain storm swept through northern Orange County into Durham County. In the Pine Knot section many farmers lost all or part of their tobacco and other crops fared badly; it was the third hail storm in a few years to ruin crops there.
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Dr. William Strudwick dies and Hillsborough closes its stores for his funeral
Dr. William S. Strudwick, a Hillsborough physician, died in early July. At his funeral in the Presbyterian church on July 10 every place of business in Hillsborough closed, and many of his country patients came; he was buried in the family lot in the Hillsborough cemetery.
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The town sells the Old Academy lot on East Tryon Street to George C. Lynch
Under an act of the 1907 legislature the Hillsborough commissioners sold the Old Academy lot on Tryon Street, with its house offered separately for removal. The buyer, George C. Lynch, let a contract to James Nichols, a well-known Black builder, for a cottage on the lot and moved into it by early December.
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County school superintendent John C. Hocutt becomes pastor of Hillsborough Baptist Church
The Rev. John C. Hocutt, county superintendent of schools, became pastor of the Hillsborough Baptist church, preaching there on October 13 and from January 1908 on the second Sunday of each month. On a Thursday night in October he baptized seven converts in the church pool.
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An educational rally at the court house urges local taxes for Orange schools
At an educational rally in the Hillsborough court house, Wake County school superintendent Judd told Orange's teachers and committeemen that local taxation was the only sound way to pay for modern schoolhouses and good teachers. Superintendent John C. Hocutt said Orange had not one local-tax district, that an election then pending was expected to carry, and that he meant to campaign for local taxes that winter; the Orange Grove school band and orchestra played.
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The Bank of Orange keeps paying in currency while neighboring banks issue scrip
During the Panic of 1907 the Bank of Orange was the only bank in its section not paying out scrip. Its directors found its cash balance rising, and it kept paying dollar for dollar in United States currency while banks in Durham and Alamance restricted payments; its December 3 statement showed the largest resources in its history.
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C. M. and W. H. Andrews take over the West End Drug Company in West Hillsboro
Two Chapel Hill natives, C. M. and W. H. Andrews, bought the West End Drug Company, a drug store with a soda fountain serving the mill families of West Hillsboro. C. M. Andrews ran it until he left town in 1926.
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President Roosevelt names William E. Lindsay postmaster at Chapel Hill
President Theodore Roosevelt sent the Senate the nomination of William E. Lindsay of Chapel Hill as postmaster of the town.
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Calvin Andrews, one of the county's best-known educators, dies in Chapel Hill Township
Calvin Andrews, called one of the best-known educators in Orange County, died at the home of A. L. Andrews in the Bethel Church neighborhood of Chapel Hill Township.
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County commissioners order a steel fence for the courthouse yard
The Orange County commissioners ordered a steel fence from the Ward Fence Company of Decatur, Indiana, to enclose the courthouse yard at about $250, and had Sheriff S. W. Andrews auction the old fence on February 8. The new fence arrived in early April, and on April 6 the board let the contract for painting it to George Laws for $37.50.
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A new steel bridge over Morgan Creek at Purefoy's mill is finished and accepted
The Carolina Engineering Company finished a steel bridge over Morgan Creek at the Purefoy mill near Chapel Hill, and county commission chairman J. F. McAdams inspected and accepted it; work had begun on January 20.
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Thomas A. Corbin reopens the old Occoneechee Hotel as the Corbinton Inn
After D. C. Parks sold the Occoneechee Hotel early in 1908, Thomas A. Corbin reopened it on West King Street as the Corbinton Inn. The inn kept that name until 1946, when it became the Colonial Inn.
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The Hillsboro Township road commission organizes a chain gang
The Hillsboro Township road commissioners organized a chain gang, with George S. Whitted as guard, to work prisoners sentenced at the March term of Superior Court on the township's roads; the commission paid their costs, board and jail fees so that the county bore none of the expense.
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An Orange County Anti-Saloon League is organized after Charles B. Aycock speaks for prohibition
Former governor Charles B. Aycock spoke for state prohibition to a large crowd in the Hillsborough courthouse, several merchants closing their stores so their clerks could hear him, and Rev. Charles E. Maddry of Greensboro then organized an Orange County Anti-Saloon League with Frank Nash as chairman, Nathan W. Brown as secretary and an executive committee drawn from every township.
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The Orange County Democratic convention gives Kitchin most of its vote for governor
The Orange County Democratic convention, meeting in the courthouse after the May 9 precinct primaries, cast 4.50 of the county's convention votes for W. W. Kitchin for governor, .81 for Ashley Horne and .69 for Locke Craig, and named the county's delegates to the state, congressional and judicial conventions.
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Orange County votes against state prohibition
Orange County voted against the state prohibition law by a majority of 314 out of 1,538 votes cast, though the state carried it; by the unofficial returns Chapel Hill, Efland, Cole's Store, Cates' and Cheek's Crossing gave dry majorities while Hillsboro and the other precincts went wet.
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Voters in the Hillsboro school district turn down a special school tax
Voters in a special tax district covering the town of Hillsboro and part of Hillsboro School District No. 1 defeated a proposed special tax for the public schools, with 59 voting against it.
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Hillsboro's commissioners order Churton Street macadamized
The Hillsboro town commissioners authorized their street committee to borrow up to $3,500 and begin at once to macadamize Churton Street from the Misses Cate's south to the river bridge.
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The Fairfield school district votes itself a special school tax
Voters in the Fairfield school district carried a special tax for their public school, and on June 1 the county commissioners levied it at 20 cents on each $100 of property in the district. In March a Charlotte Observer correspondent had listed Orange among eight North Carolina counties with no local school-tax district.
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University trustees allow the Colonial Dames to put up a monument to William R. Davie
Meeting at Chapel Hill during commencement, the university trustees granted the Colonial Dames' request to erect a monument on the campus to William R. Davie, the trustee credited with locating the university, possibly in the form of an arch.
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The Anderson Chapter of the UDC marks the Confederate graves in Hillsborough's cemeteries
The Gen. George Burgwyn Anderson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy set markers at the graves of Confederate soldiers it could identify in the Episcopal and Presbyterian churchyards and the town cemetery of Hillsborough. The chapter published the names and asked for help toward a monument or tablet naming every Orange County man who died in the war.
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John Ed Collins kills Monroe Walker in Cedar Grove Township
John Ed Collins shot and killed Monroe Walker, a young Black man, near R. W. Tate's home in Cedar Grove Township, and a coroner's jury under S. J. Hall named Collins as the killer. Indicted for murder at the August term, Collins was arrested at Julian in Guilford County in September and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at the October term.
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Hillsborough macadamizes Churton Street
Under Street Commissioner T. Norfleet Webb, a road crew using convict labor and a rock crusher set up near Dr. J. S. Spurgeon's house laid a macadam surface on Churton Street. The street committee put the total cost at $3,085.47, most of it borrowed from the Bank of Orange.
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Orange County Republicans nominate Thomas Sparrow for the House
The Republican county convention at the Hillsborough court house nominated Thomas Sparrow for the House, D. S. Miller for sheriff, S. E. Cole for treasurer and C. R. Phipps for register of deeds, put Joseph W. Terry on its ticket for county commissioner, and chose delegates to the state and senatorial conventions.
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Orange County Democrats nominate S. M. Gattis and the 1908 county ticket
The Democratic county convention at the Hillsborough court house nominated Samuel M. Gattis for the House over Thomas M. Cheek, named Sheriff S. W. Andrews, Register John Laws and Treasurer H. L. Parish again, and chose Joseph W. Pickett, J. D. Webb and Charles E. Wilson for county commissioner. U.S. Senator Overman and congressional nominee A. L. Brooks addressed the convention.
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Heavy rains flood Orange County, wrecking bridges and damaging the Eno Cotton Mills
A week of heavy rains raised the county's rivers and creeks higher than in many years, ruined bottomland crops and tobacco, and carried away county bridges over New Hope Creek, the Eno above Dimock's mill and Little River, at a loss to the county of at least $2,000. In Hillsborough nearly every town bridge washed out and the county bridge was shifted on its base, while at the Eno Cotton Mills the railroad trestle was lost and floodwater did about $2,000 in damage.
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Maj. Daniel Heyward Hamilton, clerk of Orange Superior Court, dies
Daniel Heyward Hamilton, clerk of the Orange County Superior Court for the past ten years, died at his house on West Tryon Street eight days after a stroke and was buried in St. Matthew's churchyard. He had come to Hillsborough about fifty years earlier with Col. Charles C. Tew when the Hillsborough Military Academy was organized, served as a Confederate major, and for many years chaired the county commissioners.
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Charles Strayhorn takes office as clerk of Orange Superior Court
Charles Strayhorn took charge of the clerk's office after the Democratic county executive committee chose him to succeed the late D. H. Hamilton and asked Judge Biggs to appoint him, and the county commissioners accepted his $10,000 bond. Voters elected him to the office in November over J. L. Cheek.
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Preston Lewis Gray buys the Bingham School property near Mebane
Superintendent Preston Lewis Gray and his wife bought the Bingham School property near Mebane, a purchase that added a large farm to supply the boarding department and the building known as Midlawn to the school.
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The Hillsboro Democratic Club is organized
Hillsborough Democrats organized the Hillsboro Democratic Club with more than a hundred members, electing Charles H. Robertson, superintendent of the Eno Cotton Mills, president and E. Marvin Lockhart secretary-treasurer. The club held campaign meetings through October, one of them in the hall at the Eno Cotton Mills.
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Taft and Republican Thomas E. Sparrow carry Orange County as Democrats keep most county offices
In the general election Orange County gave William H. Taft 1,072 votes to William J. Bryan's 1,017 and sent Republican Thomas E. Sparrow to the state House over S. M. Gattis, 1,064 to 1,010. Democrats carried the county for governor and kept the offices of sheriff, clerk, register and treasurer, but Republican William R. Lloyd won one of the three seats on the board of commissioners.
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Venable reports university enrollment near 800, with Orange sending the most students
President Venable's report to the university trustees put enrollment at nearly 800, about 92 percent from North Carolina, with Orange County sending 33 students, the most of any county. The trustees were told resources for the year came to $150,623.74 against $147,190.46 spent, and an increase of $30,000 in the annual appropriation was asked.
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The Orange County Farmers' Alliance is reorganized at the Barracks
With enough sub-alliances formed through the work of State Lecturer H. M. Cates of Alamance County, the Orange County Alliance was reorganized at the Barracks, the Alliance headquarters near Hillsboro, and elected R. D. Bain president, Haywood H. Thompson vice president and P. M. Cates secretary-treasurer.
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C. Alphonso Smith leaves the university's English department for the University of Virginia
Dr. Charles Alphonso Smith of the university's English department accepted a call to the University of Virginia, saying that Virginia offered him a wider field of service.
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County commissioners pay for a new steel bridge over Stroud's Creek
At their regular May meeting the Orange County commissioners allowed the Carolina Engineering Company's bill for a steel bridge over Stroud's Creek, with bills for hauling the bridge, flooring it and interest on it, and a part payment to B. F. Smith for a bridge at Hughes' mill.
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Southern Railway president W. W. Finley speaks at Chapel Hill after a stop at Hillsboro
W. W. Finley, president of the Southern Railway, spoke at Chapel Hill on railway transportation and the South. On the way he and other railway officials stopped at Hillsboro, where Mayor Frank Nash and others drove them through town and showed them the court house and town clock before they boarded his private car at Julian S. Carr's Occoneechee Farm.
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The county school board asks for a four-month school tax and a state high school at Andrews school house
The Orange County Board of Education asked the county commissioners to levy a special tax of 5 cents on each $100 of property and 15 cents on each poll so that every school district could have a four-month term, and applied to the State Board of Education for a state high school at the Andrews school house in Chapel Hill Township.
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Seven Black converts are baptized in the Eno below the town bridge
Two Black women and five Black men were baptized in the Eno River just below the Hillsborough town bridge on Sunday afternoon.
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M. C. Arrowood resigns as pastor of Little River and other Presbyterian churches
Rev. M. C. Arrowood tendered his resignation as pastor of Little River Presbyterian Church and the other Presbyterian churches he served in Orange County.
- 1910s
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Hillsboro citizens meet to organize a library association
Townspeople met at the Club House to plan a Library Association, with Maj. John W. Graham in the chair and E. Marvin Lockhart as secretary. A committee was named to raise funds and a second meeting was called for February 2.
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The Noxall Bottling Works buys a lot near the Hillsborough depot for its plant
The Noxall Bottling Works, newly chartered under state law with its headquarters at Hillsborough, bought a lot near the Southern Railway station and planned to run its plant there.
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