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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1750s
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Hawfields families move to New Hope Creek over doubts about their Granville titles
When word spread through the Hawfields that the land titles got through Earl Granville's agents were not genuine, William Craige, Gilbert Strayhorn and other families left and took up land on the waters of New Hope. Family tradition held that the settlers named the stream for the 'new hopes' they found there.
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Gilbert Strean takes the surname Strayhorn
About the time he got the deeds for his New Hope lands, Gilbert Strean, or Streaughan, changed his name to Strayhorn, saying he had put a 'horn' to it to make it sound. His nephews Alexander, John and James, who came south later to find him, kept the name Strain.
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William Craig and Richard Caswell take up land in the New Hope area
William Craig took Granville grants on New Hope Creek on September 6, 1754 (475 acres on Batts Creek) and March 13, 1755 (280 acres on Richland Fork), in the section of eastern Orange where Scotch-Irish families were settling. Richard Caswell held 640 acres at the forks of New Hope Creek by June 1756, when he sold them to William Blackwood.
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New Hope Presbyterian Church traces its beginning to
New Hope Presbyterian Church, south of Hillsborough on the road to Chapel Hill, counts 1756 as its founding year, when the Hawfields and Eno Presbyterians, with whom the New Hope families then worshiped, first asked Hanover Presbytery for preachers. Its early records burned in 1827; D. I. Craig judged it was formally organized later, most likely under Henry Pattillo after his 1765 call, and it first appears with its own minister in the 1795 Orange Presbytery minutes.
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James Craig buys back the Richland Fork tract on New Hope Creek
William Craige's Richland Fork tract, surveyed in December 1754 and deeded in September 1755, was sold to John Reaney in June 1756 and bought back from him by Craige's son James in June 1758. It was still in the family in 1891.
- 1760s
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New Hope congregation builds its first meetinghouse
Settlers still attached to the Hawfields congregation built a rough first meetinghouse about five miles south of Hillsborough and a quarter mile east of the road to Chapel Hill. An octagonal log church on higher ground replaced it, which the church dates to 1775.
- 1770s
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James Hunter's family takes refuge at Gilbert Strayhorn's house
John A. Freeland, grandson of Alexander Strain, told D. I. Craig that after James Hunter's house was burned and he was outlawed, the Hunter family took refuge at Gilbert Strayhorn's house near New Hope, and that Strayhorn's nephew Alexander Strain met and married Hunter's daughter there. Craig gives no date; the year assumes this was the Regulator James Hunter, outlawed in 1771.
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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John DeBow takes the Hawfields and Eno charge and preaches at New Hope
DeBow, a young minister, succeeded Pattillo at the Hawfields and Eno about 1775 and preached at New Hope as he could. Craig calls him probably the first preacher with anything like a regular appointment there.
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Methodists divide their North Carolina circuit and form the New Hope Circuit, taking in part of Orange
When the original North Carolina circuit was split in three in 1778, the new New Hope Circuit covered parts of Orange, Chatham, Cumberland and Wake counties. Hillsborough was served by its riders, beginning with James O'Kelly and Philip Adams in 1779.
- 1780s
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John DeBow, minister to the Hawfields, Eno and New Hope people, dies
DeBow died at 38 and was buried at Hawfields church. Craig was told he was the first person buried in the present Hawfields churchyard.
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David Craig's 1785 stone is the oldest dated marker in New Hope's old graveyard
The earliest date Craig could find in the old graveyard beside the first church site reads 'D. C. - N. 2. - 1785', which he took for David Craig, a son of William Craige, who died November 2, 1785. Earlier graves there were marked with rough, unlettered stones.
- 1790s
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Jacob Lake ends his ministry to New Hope
Lake followed DeBow and served New Hope with the Hawfields and Eno churches in the same way until about 1790. He left Orange Presbytery in 1794 after about ten years in it. Later pastor tablets give his years as 1784-1792 (Hawfields) and 1786-1794 (Eno).
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Gilbert Strayhorn deeds two hundred acres to New Hope church
Soon after Lake left, the aged Gilbert Strayhorn gave two hundred acres 'to the subscribers of the church and their successors.' Every New Hope church stood on this land, and seventy acres of it were still the congregation's in 1891.
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A school begins to be kept at New Hope church
Thompson urged the congregation to take up schooling, and after his time the church generally kept a school for many years. His successor James H. Bowman is said to have taught school there while supplying the pulpit.
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James Strayhorn, John Strain and John Freeland become ruling elders at New Hope
Three men were ordained and installed as elders about 1795, joining James Hart. The four made up the whole session when the church was reorganized in 1820.
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New Hope builds a parsonage with a farm on the church tract
At William F. Thompson's urging the congregation built a parsonage where William C. Claytor later lived and laid off much of Gilbert Strayhorn's two-hundred-acre gift as a farm to go with it.
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Orange Presbytery holds its earliest recorded meeting at New Hope
The oldest surviving Orange Presbytery minutes record a meeting at New Hope church, the first after Concord Presbytery was set off. James Bowman was moderator, William McGee was ordained with William F. Thompson, John Gillispie was licensed, and two candidates, Robert Foster and Robert Tate, sat part of their trials.
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William F. Thompson is ordained at New Hope as its first pastor
Thompson, said to be a native of Connecticut, was ordained at New Hope and apparently installed as its pastor at the same meeting, the first pastor the church had. Earlier ministers had served it as supplies alongside the Hawfields and Eno.
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The Haw River Circuit takes the place of the New Hope Circuit in serving Hillsborough Methodists
In 1797 the Methodists replaced the New Hope Circuit with the Haw River Circuit, whose preachers then served the Hillsborough community. The Hillsborough church organized about 1807 belonged to this circuit.
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William F. Thompson deeds a hundred acres of New Hope church land to John Strayhorn
As he was leaving, Thompson sold about a hundred acres of the church tract to Gilbert Strayhorn's son John, stating that Gilbert had conveyed the land to him. No such conveyance was ever seen or recorded, and Craig judged the deed a forgery; the land left the church's hands.
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William F. Thompson resigns as pastor of New Hope
Thompson gave up the charge at a called meeting of Orange Presbytery at Cross Roads church and left the presbytery's bounds. In April 1802 the presbytery suspended him from the ministry for false charges he had made against it.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1800s
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A great camp-meeting revival is held at New Hope
People came from long distances and camped on the church grounds for days, and the revival spread into other neighborhoods. Craig thought it did much to prompt the building of a third church.
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James H. Bowman becomes stated supply at New Hope
Bowman, whose charge in 1799 was Eno and Little River, went west as a missionary in 1800, returned in the fall of 1801 and probably came to New Hope in 1802. He preached and taught school there until he left the presbytery in 1815, and was perhaps the first to preach in the third church.
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Gilbert Strayhorn, a founder and first elder of New Hope church, dies
Strayhorn died at 88 and was buried in the old New Hope graveyard, next to the church he had helped found on his own land.
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New Hope builds its third church
The third house of worship went up about two hundred yards southeast of the second, beside a spring that rises from rock. It had a high pulpit at the west end and a gallery at the east end for Black worshippers, and it stood until fire destroyed it in 1862.
- 1810s
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A log house said to date from 1811 is built for the Craig family near New Hope
Local tradition puts the building of this story-and-a-half log house on New Hope Church Road in 1811, for the Craigs; the Blackwoods owned it for many years and added to it around 1900. If the date holds it is the oldest log house in the survey.
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Robert H. Chapman serves New Hope as stated supply
After James H. Bowman left, Chapman supplied the New Hope pulpit about 1815.
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John Craig, a founder and first elder of New Hope church, dies
John Craig, eldest son of William Craige, died at about 90. Craig names him with Gilbert Strayhorn as the church's original founders and first elders.
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New Hope's elders sell seventeen acres of church land for repairs
After what the deed calls mature deliberation, the elders and subscribers sold seventeen acres at the southwest corner of the church tract to Samuel Strayhorn to pay for church repairs. Seventy acres of Gilbert Strayhorn's gift remained.
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Elijah Graves preaches at New Hope as stated supply
Graves, who was teaching at Hillsborough, preached at New Hope from November 1818 until April 1820. A temperance reformer, he persuaded many hearers to sign a pledge.
- 1820s
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New Hope church is reorganized under Shepherd K. Kollock
On April 22, 1820, Kollock laid before the session Orange Presbytery's call for long-vacant churches to be reorganized; finding no roll of members and little discipline, the session resolved to reorganize the next day. On April 23 four elders and ten members publicly assented to the articles of faith and covenant.
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Alexander Gattis, Samuel Faucett and Gilbert Strayhorn are ordained elders at New Hope
The session added three ruling elders; Gilbert Strayhorn was a grandson of the founding elder and a son of William Strayhorn.
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Shepherd K. Kollock's connection with New Hope is dissolved
Kollock, who had preached at New Hope with the Hillsborough church since 1820, ended his connection in May 1825. Elijah Graves came back as stated supply that November and stayed until May 1831.
- 1830s
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A year-long revival at New Hope adds at least seventy communicants
Under the evangelists Daniel L. Russell, John S. McCutcheon and Philip Pearson, families built tents on the church grounds and lived in them for weeks to attend the meetings. The session record shows at least seventy people admitted to communion.
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Five elders are ordained at New Hope during the revival
William Brown, Alexander Strain, Samuel Hart, David Hart and Allen Petty were added to the session. The two Harts were grandsons of Gilbert Strayhorn, and Strain was a son of the earlier elder Alexander Strain.
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James Phillips is licensed to preach and later serves New Hope Presbyterian Church
Mathematics professor James Phillips joined the Presbyterian church in 1832 and was licensed to preach by Orange Presbytery in 1833. He was later ordained and installed as minister of New Hope Presbyterian Church, about seven miles outside Chapel Hill, and shared the university chapel work with Elisha Mitchell.
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New Hope elects George W. Ferrill as pastor
The congregation unanimously elected Ferrill pastor, and he was installed soon after. The pastoral relation was dissolved in July 1836.
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James Phillips begins nearly thirty years as stated supply at New Hope
The university professor began preaching at New Hope in August 1836 and served it until December 1865, longer than any other minister. Because Chapel Hill long had no Presbyterian church, New Hope heard him almost every Sunday for years.
- 1840s
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Four elders are ordained at New Hope
George A. Faucett, David Craig, William C. Blackwood and Joseph Kirkland were added to the session. All but Faucett were great-grandsons of William Craige; Kirkland was the father of the Rev. Alexander Kirkland.
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Charles Phillips joins New Hope church
James Phillips's son Charles, later a minister and teacher at the university, joined the church at New Hope. He often preached there with his father in later years.
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David L. Swain and Charles Phillips transfer from New Hope to the Chapel Hill church
University president David L. Swain, who first joined a church at New Hope, and Charles Phillips were released by letter to the Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill.
- 1850s
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Five elders are ordained at New Hope
Samuel S. Claytor, Alexander Dickson, William S. Kirkland, Bryant Strayhorn and George R. Long were ordained and installed. Craig traces each to the founding families except Dickson.
- 1860s
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Thirty-five men of the New Hope congregation die in Confederate service
Craig lists thirty-five men from within the bounds of the congregation who died in the Civil War, eight of them Strayhorns and three Craigs.
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New Hope's 1805 church burns
The church burned on a Saturday night, most people believing it was set on purpose. The next morning James Phillips preached to the congregation under the trees, and through the summer of 1862 they worshipped under a large arbor built on the grounds.
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New Hope Presbyterian Church builds its fourth church
In the middle of the Civil War, New Hope Presbyterian Church put up its fourth building, the one still in use in 1953.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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Thomas Lynch becomes stated supply at New Hope after James Phillips
Lynch took up the New Hope pulpit after Phillips stopped preaching there at the end of 1865 and served until the winter of 1867.
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Charles Phillips is ordained at New Hope Church in Orange County
Phillips was ordained on 14 April 1866 at Orange County's New Hope Church, which had long been under the pastoral charge of his father James Phillips. Orange Presbytery had convened there on Wednesday, April 11, and ordained Phillips and Calvin H. Wiley during the meeting.
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Calvin H. Wiley is ordained at New Hope
At the last meeting of Orange Presbytery held at New Hope, Calvin H. Wiley was ordained with Charles Phillips, both sine titulo, without a pastoral charge.
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Henry B. Pratt, a missionary to South America, supplies New Hope
Pratt preached at New Hope for six months with the Hillsborough church. On May 24, 1868, D. I. Craig, John T. Hogan and three women were received and baptized as members.
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Alexander Kirkland, a son of the congregation, supplies New Hope
The Rev. Alexander Kirkland, son of the New Hope elder Joseph Kirkland, supplied the church for part of 1869 and 1870 after Pratt.
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New Hope's present graveyard is begun
Because the old graveyard lay so low that winter graves filled with water, James Newton Craig and elder David Craig chose a dry site a little south of east of the church. His nine-month-old son Vernon, who died on December 31, 1868, was buried there on January 1, 1869 as its first grave.
- 1870s
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T. U. Faucett becomes stated supply at New Hope
Thomas U. Faucett served the church as stated supply from 1870 until the fall of 1872.
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John T. Hogan and Samuel D. Blackwood are ordained elders at New Hope
The two men were ordained and added to the session. Hogan descended from the early elder John Freeland, and Blackwood from John Craig.
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Pleasant H. Dalton becomes stated supply at New Hope
Dalton, who had joined New Hope as a university student in 1842, began supplying the church in August 1874. By his own count at least fifty members were added in his twelve years there.
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William C. Claytor, Nettleton G. Craig and Charles W. Johnston are ordained elders at New Hope
Three elders were added to the session. Claytor was a son of the 1859 elder Samuel Claytor; Johnston's grandmother was Mary Cabe, a daughter of Gilbert Strayhorn.
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Samuel Kirkland and Leroy Craig are ordained elders at New Hope
The two were added to the session in what Craig in 1891 called the last ordination of elders at New Hope.
- 1880s
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Pleasant H. Dalton is installed as pastor of New Hope
After nearly ten years as stated supply, Dalton was installed as the church's pastor.
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Pleasant H. Dalton's pastorate at New Hope is dissolved amid a divided session
Dalton offered his resignation in February 1886, but most of the congregation would not accept it; the relation was dissolved that December after the session fell into disagreement. The church stood vacant about a year while a presbytery commission settled the trouble.
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James L. Currie is installed as pastor of New Hope
Currie, who had preached there briefly in 1874, was installed as pastor; the relation was dissolved in November 1889 after new troubles in the session.
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Orange Presbytery decides an estate dispute that had divided New Hope's session
A quarrel over a member's settlement of an estate, which Craig thought belonged in the civil courts, had been brought before the session. An adjourned meeting of the presbytery decided it, and the ruling deepened the split in the session.
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Orange Presbytery removes all six active elders of New Hope
Member David A. Claytor had carried a petition, which most of the members signed, calling on the active elders to resign; three agreed and three refused. Meeting at the church, the presbytery heard the parties, dissolved all six elders' relation to the church and ordered a new election.
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New Hope re-elects three of its removed elders
With the Rev. F. H. Johnston presiding, the congregation chose Charles W. Johnston, John T. Hogan and William C. Claytor again, and they were reinstalled before a large congregation.
- 1890s
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James E. Fogartie is installed as pastor of New Hope and Chapel Hill
Fogartie was called to New Hope jointly with the Chapel Hill church. About the same time the synod's evangelists W. D. Morton and a Mr. Maxwell held a meeting at New Hope that added a number of members.
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Albert Long, a Black man, joins the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church by letter from New Hope
Albert Long transferred his membership by certificate from New Hope Presbyterian Church, one of two Black members the book names as received after the Civil War.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1910s
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David K. Blackwood is moved from a family burying ground to New Hope churchyard
In 1912 the remains of David K. Blackwood, who had died in 1859, were taken from the family graveyard and reburied at New Hope Presbyterian Church. His marble headstone records the move.
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The Orange County Red Cross grants New Hope Church a branch
The chapter's executive committee read and granted New Hope Church's application to form a Red Cross branch on September 7, 1917, and filed Cedar Grove's certificate of organization at the same meeting. By December New Hope was sending surgical dressings to Hillsborough for shipment with Cedar Grove's.
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The Orange County Red Cross counts 850 knitted articles and 41,396 dressings for
During 1918 the chapter and its branches at Cedar Grove, New Hope and Oaks sent 850 knitted articles to Atlanta and fourteen boxes holding 41,396 bandages and surgical dressings. The history adds that the Black auxiliary did little sewing but drew in Black members.
- 1940s
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A memorial to local Revolutionary War soldiers is placed at New Hope
In 1942 a monument honoring Revolutionary War soldiers from the neighborhood was set in the grounds of New Hope Presbyterian Church, beside its cemetery.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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The New Hope community helps build Camp New Hope for Orange Presbytery
Beginning in 1947 the New Hope Grange community contributed a good deal toward building Camp New Hope, which belonged to Orange Presbytery. The camp was also open to other youth groups, among them 4-H clubs and Boy Scouts.
- 1960s
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The Army Corps of Engineers is buying land for the New Hope Reservoir southeast of Chapel Hill
Planners presenting options for the area south of Morgan Creek in October 1967 noted that the Corps was acquiring land for the New Hope Reservoir. The reservoir lands were to take in the Morgan Creek valley farther east, and the flood pool would reach University land around Finley Golf Course, so the planners treated the reservoir as the outer limit for any loop road south of town.
- 1970s
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New Hope Improvement Association sues to stop the Eubanks Road landfill
Opponents of the landfill formed the New Hope Improvement Association, which drew about 500 members, and filed a lawsuit in late September 1972. The suit was denied in early October.
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Seven Orange County Presbyterian churches form a cooperative in place of the Eno cluster
A four-church cluster of Eno, Efland, Fairfield and Bethlehem was dissolved in 1975 and replaced by a cooperative of seven: those four plus Hillsborough, Little River and New Hope. The churches worked together especially on youth programs.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
- 2010s
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New Hope Elementary starts a Spanish dual-language program in Orange County Schools
After a year and a half of planning, New Hope Elementary opened a 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language program for 48 kindergarten students at the start of the 2018-19 school year, taught on alternating days in English and Spanish. The principal described it as a way for Latino students to take pride in their heritage and keep the Spanish they use with their families.
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