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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–30.Back to highlights
Entries
Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1770s
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Tryon's army halts at Colonel Mebane's for Sunday worship on the march to Alamance
Leaving Hillsborough on May 11, Tryon stopped on Sunday at Colonel Mebane's for divine service, then marched to the Haw River, where 23 mounted men under Captain Bullock joined as his only cavalry. He ordered his troops not to take property and reached Alamance Creek on May 14.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1800s
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The Paisley-Rice log house is built near Mebane
A log dwelling now called the Paisley-Rice Log House went up in western Orange County near Mebane, probably for the Rev. William D. Paisley after he bought the 200-acre tract from James Davis on February 7, 1801. It is one of the few county log houses already on the National Register by 1993.
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William D. Paisley buys the farm where the Paisley-Rice log house stands
The Presbyterian minister William D. Paisley bought a 200-acre tract from James Davis in February 1801. Local tradition and the nomination hold that he built the dovetailed log house on this land in the early 1800s.
- 1810s
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William D. Paisley sells his Orange County farm to Elijah Pickard
Paisley left the Hawfields in 1818 to head the Greensborough Academy and in September 1819 sold the log house farm to Elijah Pickard. The chain of title is unclear for some years after the sale.
- 1830s
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John A. Pettigrew sells the former Paisley farm to Lemuel Pettigrew
By 1835 the log house tract had passed to John A. Pettigrew, who sold it that year to Lemuel Pettigrew. Lemuel later sold it to (John) Elkins Pettigrew, a small farmer whose farm the 1860 census valued at $500.
- 1850s
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A railroad depot is built at the Orange-Alamance line and Mebanesville grows up around it
The North Carolina Railroad put a depot on the county line in 1854, and the settlement of Mebanesville, later Mebane, soon formed there.
- 1860s
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Bingham School moves from the Oaks to Mebaneville
William Bingham and Robert Bingham, sons of William James Bingham, moved the school that December to a site east of Mebane's Station on the North Carolina Railroad, after the legislature incorporated it in 1864 as a military and classical academy. The highway marker's 1865 may be when classes began at the new site.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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Robert K. Rice buys the Pettigrew log house farm
Elkins Pettigrew sold the farm to his son-in-law Robert K. Rice, husband of his daughter Martha, for $375 in 1869. Rice improved the place, which the 1880 census valued at $1,500, and it stayed in the Rice family for more than a century.
- 1870s
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Robert Bingham takes charge of the Bingham School near Mebane
When his brother William died in 1873, Robert Bingham became headmaster of the Bingham School, which had moved from the Oaks to Mebane. In May 1879 he bought out his cousin William B. Lynch's interest and became sole proprietor.
- 1880s
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Mebaneville, the railroad village on the Orange-Alamance line, is incorporated
The settlement that grew along the North Carolina Railroad from 1854 was incorporated in 1881 and shortened its name to Mebane in 1883. Part of the town lies in Orange County.
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Charles White, merchant and postmaster at Bingham School, dies
Charles White, who kept the store and post office at Bingham School near Mebane, died on Thursday, May 24, 1883. The Observer called him successful in business; his widow, Mary E. White, qualified as executrix of his will.
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Foxes Knob School opens as a one-room log school near Mebane
Foxes Knob School opened in the mid-1880s in a single log room. It gained a frame addition about 1900 and was later turned into a house.
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A building of Mrs. Charles White's used by Bingham School cadets as a mess burns
Early on Tuesday morning, August 19, 1884, fire destroyed a building owned by Mrs. Charles White that some Bingham School cadets used as a messing club. Its insurance had lapsed and the loss was put at about $1,000.
- 1890s
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Bingham School leaves Orange County for Asheville
After fire destroyed the academic buildings and dormitories at the Mebane campus in December 1890, Robert Bingham moved the school to Asheville in 1891. Owen W. Bingham ran a separate school, the William Bingham School, at the Mebane site.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1900s
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The Foxes Knob schoolhouse is enlarged and becomes a house
Soon after 1900 the one-room log Foxes Knob School near Mebane is enlarged; after its school years it served as a residence.
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Mebane School District becomes the first to tax itself for a longer school term
After a district election, the commissioners gave the sheriff a tax list for the Mebane district at 30 cents per $100 and 90 cents a poll. By 1910 special school taxes were collected in six districts.
- 1910s
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Abe and Annie B. Mebane sell a lot in west Hillsborough to the trustees of Mebane Chapel
For $25 the Mebanes sold a 30-by-40-foot lot at the corner of Union Street, opposite the later Central High School, to trustees Elisha Williams and Arthur Hood. The chapel was named in their memory.
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Mebane Chapel builds its church in Hillsborough under its first pastor, B. F. Alston
A year after the United Holy Church congregation organized, it put up its chapel, seating about 200, with thirty-five members and Rev. B. F. Alston as first pastor.
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A Christian Church congregation is organized near Mebane
The congregation later called Mebane Congregational Christian Church was organized on May 16, 1915, with W. C. Clements, pastor of the Christian church in Chapel Hill, as first pastor. Its building was finished in 1931.
- 1920s
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The Rice farm is divided in the settlement of Robert Rice's estate
In 1927 the 130-acre farm long tied to the log house was split in settling Robert Rice's estate. The house kept a 65-acre share, later owned by his grandson Joseph A. Rice.
- 1930s
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The Christian church congregation near Mebane builds a brick church
The congregation now known as Mebane United Church of Christ builds a cross-gable brick church near Mebane in 1931.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
- 1940s
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County commissioners refuse to relicense beer sales at the Log Cabin filling station
The Orange County commissioners voted unanimously to keep refusing J. A. Thompson a license to sell beer at his filling station, the Log Cabin, on the Mebane road. Thompson and his wife called it a "Dirty Deal" and their lawyer pleaded for another chance without success.
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Charlie McAdams and George Crawford Amick open the A & M Grill in Mebane
Charlie McAdams Sr., who had sold barbecue from a service station kitchen since 1947, opened the A & M Grill with building owner George Crawford Amick. The name joined their two initials.
- 1970s
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Orange and Alamance agree on Orange children attending Alamance schools
Worried that growing numbers of western Orange children rode Alamance buses to Mebane schools, the board released to Alamance all children living within a mile of the county line and let those farther out stay if they chose. It also allowed out-of-county attendance if families paid tuition and provided transportation.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
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The Paisley-Rice log house joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Paisley-Rice log house near Mebane on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
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The Paisley-Rice Log House is listed in the National Register
The Paisley-Rice Log House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, one of six rural Orange County properties on the Register by July 1993.
- 1980s
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The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association holds its first annual August powwow
A year after it formed, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association held its first annual powwow in August 1985, bringing Indian people from many tribes to visit the community. The fifth, at Mebane on August 11 and 12, 1989, had a printed program.
- 2010s
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The A & M Grill in Mebane closes after 63 years
The A & M Grill, run by three generations of the McAdams family, served its last meals at 401 East Center Street. Co-founder George Crawford Amick died three weeks later.
- 2020s
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The News of Orange merges with the Mebane Enterprise
Womack Publishing announced on January 3, 2024, that its weeklies The News of Orange County and the Mebane Enterprise would merge at the end of January. The combined paper, with a section for Mebane, covers Mebane, Hillsborough and Efland from the News of Orange office in Hillsborough, and the Mebane office closed.
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Buckhorn Flea Market closes on Buckhorn Road
The Buckhorn Flea Market on Buckhorn Road in western Orange County, known to many Spanish speakers as La Pulga de Mebane, closed after about four decades when a trucking company bought the land. Its 300 to 500 weekend vendors were largely Latino immigrants, and the Mebane City Council voted on July 1 to annex and rezone the property for a truck terminal.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.
