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Annie Sutton Cameron (comp.), A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919.Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–66.Back to highlights
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Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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Emilie Holmes starts Mayfair War Relief work in Chapel Hill
Emilie R. Holmes (Mrs. J. S. Holmes) organized Chapel Hill war relief work for the Mayfair War Relief of New York in October 1915 and directed it until September 1917. About a dozen workers sent 13 boxes holding 1,183 surgical dressings, 300 rolled bandages, 160 pads and 36 hospital shirts.
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Orange County in the First World War
Orange County organized for the war in 1917. A county Red Cross chapter under John W. Graham, with branches and auxiliaries in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, rural communities and Black churches, knitted for soldiers and shipped relief clothing; women's committees sold Liberty bonds; and the university's students drilled and in 1918 came under the Students' Army Training Corps. The county's war record lists 23 Orange County servicemen who died.
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Orange County mobilizes for World War I
Orange County organized a Council of Defense, Red Cross chapters in Chapel Hill (May 28, 1917) and Hillsborough (June 1, 1917), Liberty Loan and War Savings drives, and food conservation committees. On October 1, 1918, 650 UNC students were inducted into the Student Army Training Corps, and volunteers nursed the sick during the influenza epidemic.
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Paul C. Collins leads Orange County's First Liberty Loan, and the county's banks sell $51,650 in bonds
Hillsborough banker Paul C. Collins was county chairman of the men's committee for the First Liberty Loan. The four banks in the county sold $51,650 in bonds, $30,150 of them at his Bank of Orange; he went on to chair the second, third and fourth loans.
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The Chapel Hill Community Club offers its women to the government for war work
Early in the summer of 1917 the Community Club offered itself to the federal government, through the county Council of Defense, as an organized body of women for war service. Over the next year it handed out Food Administration pledge cards across Chapel Hill Township, pushed gardening and canning, and canvassed for Liberty Loans.
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A graduate nurse starts a first aid class for the Chapel Hill Community Club
Early in February 1917 Mrs. K. J. Brown, a graduate nurse, began a class in first aid and surgical dressings at the request of the Chapel Hill Community Club. It met twice a week through the spring, and when the United States declared war its members moved to form a Red Cross chapter.
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Laura Hutchins Benson of Chapel Hill joins the Army Nurse Corps
Laura Hutchins Benson enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps on May 2, 1917, and served first at Walter Reed hospital. During the pneumonia epidemic in the camps in the winter of 1918 she went to Base Hospital No. 1 at Fort Sam Houston, where she became head nurse.
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Orange County men register on the first draft registration day
On June 5, 1917, 1,503 Orange County men registered for the draft. In Chapel Hill a Red Cross committee decorated the town with flags, pinned khaki bands on the registrants, and led a parade of the new registrants through the main streets afterward.
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J. Cheshire Webb is appointed chairman of the Orange County Council of Defense
J. Cheshire Webb of Hillsborough was appointed chairman of the Orange County Council of Defense, with M. C. S. Noble, C. H. Robertson, Shepperd Strudwick, S. W. Andrews, John P. Hughes and P. C. Collins as members. He led the council through the war and the 1919 homecoming.
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The Orange County Red Cross chapter organizes permanently under John W. Graham
At a court house meeting on July 5, 1917, the chapter read its national authority to organize with jurisdiction over all of Orange County except Chapel Hill and elected Maj. John W. Graham chairman, with Henrietta P. Collins as secretary and Margaret Forrest as treasurer. The Red Cross Central Committee's recognition letter followed on July 17.
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The Council of Defense forms a committee to handle soldiers' business affairs
On July 9, 1917, the Orange County Council of Defense formed a Soldiers' Business Aid Committee, chaired by Frank Nash, to attend to any business a soldier wanted looked after. The Red Cross later cited it as the reason the county needed no separate civilian relief committee.
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Orange County women organize the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense
About fifty women representing every women's organization in the county met at the Hillsborough court house on August 1, 1917, and elected Mrs. J. Cheshire Webb chairman, Lula Cassidy secretary and Mrs. Isaac Manning treasurer. On Labor Day they replaced township units with one central committee of eleven departments.
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Black residents of Hillsborough organize a Red Cross auxiliary
The Orange County Red Cross heard at its August 1, 1917 meeting that Hillsborough's Black residents had organized an auxiliary, which was ready for instruction in surgical dressings and already knitting in cotton. J. Cheshire Webb lent separate Red Cross rooms for white and Black workers.
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Cedar Grove organizes a Red Cross branch
By August 1, 1917, a Red Cross branch had been organized at Cedar Grove and was making surgical dressings. In the fall the county chapter thanked Cedar Grove for giving it the premiums from the community fair.
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Hillsborough gives a Labor Day dinner for Orange County's first drafted men
On Labor Day, September 3, 1917, the county honored its drafted men with a dinner for white men at the warehouse and a separate dinner for Black men at the Black school house. Lily Hamilton's Comfort Bag Committee gave bags to the first seven men called from the county.
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J. Cheshire Webb is named Orange County's food administrator
On September 20, 1917, State Food Administrator Henry A. Page appointed J. Cheshire Webb of Hillsborough food administrator for Orange County, with R. A. Eubanks as administrator for Chapel Hill. The record says no mill in the county broke a Food Administration rule.
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Eugene C. Branson urges county teachers to back the food conservation drive
At a court house meeting of teachers and school committeemen called by J. C. Webb, Branson explained why food conservation mattered, and Mrs. Isaac Manning described her work in the south end of the county. Forty-two teachers attended, and the meeting laid the plan to register every woman at her school house on October 27.
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Hillsborough men enlist in a Home Guard detachment of the state militia
Answering Gov. Bickett's call, the Council of Defense chose 25 men on October 20, 1917, and they enlisted for the duration at the Hillsborough court house on October 22 and 24, electing Shepperd Strudwick first lieutenant. The county bought their uniforms, and they drilled twice a week until the influenza ban on meetings.
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A Liberty Bonfire on the court house square rallies Hillsborough for the Second Liberty Loan
On the night of Tuesday, October 23, young Billy Hayes lit a Liberty Bonfire at the corner of the court house square, and seven speakers gave three-minute talks. The county's four banks sold $132,550 in second-loan bonds, and a women's committee under Mrs. James H. Webb raised $79,800.
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Orange County women sign the food pledge at their school houses
On Saturday, October 27, 1917, committees at every school house in the county registered the women of the district and asked each to sign the Food Administration pledge. A house-to-house canvass of every housewife followed from October 29 to November 4.
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More than 200 Orange County women register for war service
In October 1917 the Woman's Committee held the Registration of Women for Service, and more than two hundred women filled out and signed service cards.
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Orange County raises about $2,000 in a Y.M.C.A. war fund drive
A Y.M.C.A. drive ran November 11-19, 1917, led by N. W. Brown, G. K. Collins and T. M. Grant. At a packed court house rally on November 18, with Maj. John W. Graham presiding, pledges reached $1,400, and the rest of the $2,000 was raised afterward.
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A Black county committee raises $525 for the United War Work drive
In the United War Work drive, a county committee of Black residents led by Prof. R. W. Malcom, with Rev. A. E. W. Wilson for Hillsborough and Rev. J. M. Hackney as secretary in Chapel Hill, raised $525 of the county's $7,485.
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Orange County women's committees sell $59,600 in Third Liberty Loan bonds
With Harriet M. Berry of Chapel Hill as county chairman, women organized in every township made $59,600 of the county's $99,150 in Third Liberty Loan sales, more than two-thirds of the allotment. Mrs. T. J. Wilson's Chapel Hill committee took 85 subscriptions for $18,500 and the Hillsborough committee raised $36,000.
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The Chapel Hill Red Cross moves its workrooms into the Zeta Psi fraternity hall
After its first home, a Main Street store lent by Mayor W. S. Roberson, was sold to the People's Bank, the chapter moved on January 1, 1918, into the lower floor of the Zeta Psi fraternity hall, offered by the university's Upsilon chapter.
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Chapel Hill school children organize a Junior Red Cross auxiliary
The Chapel Hill School Auxiliary to the Red Cross was organized in January 1918 with 132 members. The girls sewed refugee garments and hospital supplies, 130 children planted home gardens, and the boys built shipping boxes for the Red Cross in the school basement.
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W. S. Roberson joins the county's legal advisory board for draft questionnaires
A legal advisory board was formed to help Orange County men fill out the government's draft questionnaires, with Major John W. Graham, Frank Nash and W. S. Roberson as members.
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Farmers' Union delegates at Schley ask that no wheat be threshed before July 15
At J. Cheshire Webb's request, the county's Farmers' Union, in convention at Schley on March 30, 1918, resolved to favor a Food Administration rule that no threshing machine start before July 15, to protect crop cultivation. Webb issued the order, and only two farmers broke it; both paid to the Red Cross.
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Orange County raises its Third Liberty Loan honor flag at the court house
The county subscribed $99,150 to the Third Liberty Loan against a $75,000 allotment, and on May 9, 1918, raised its Honor Flag at the court house, with Judge Bond of Edenton speaking. Hillsborough had raised its own town Honor Flag at the cross streets on May 2.
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The Orange County Red Cross accepts a branch at Oaks
On May 11, 1918, the chapter's executive committee read and accepted the Oaks community's petition to join as a branch. Oaks joined Cedar Grove and New Hope as branches of the Hillsborough chapter.
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The Orange County Red Cross raises $4,294 in its second War Fund drive
A drive led by F. A. McNeer ran May 20-27, 1918, after ministers across the county preached on Red Cross Sunday, May 19. It raised $4,294.38, and the chapter sent $3,300 to national headquarters and kept about a quarter for local work.
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Jean Blue enlists as a Red Cross nurse and goes to France
Jean Blue enlisted in Unit 65 from Watts Hospital on May 27, 1918, trained at Camp Lee and in New York, and sailed for France at the start of September. At Brest she nursed soldiers with influenza and wounded men on their way home.
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Chapel Hill more than doubles its Red Cross War Fund quota
Assessed $500 in the Red Cross War Fund drive of May 1918, the Chapel Hill chapter raised it within a few days and turned in $1,156.60 by the drive's close, under Dr. J. M. Bell with J. S. Holmes.
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The Council of Defense extends into township community councils
At a court house meeting on June 15, 1918, J. Cheshire Webb organized community councils of defense for each of the seven townships, choosing the township over the school district as the unit. Their charge was to support every war activity without forming new organizations.
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Marine Samuel Maris Wilkerson of Cedar Grove dies of wounds in France
Samuel Maris Wilkerson of Cedar Grove enlisted in the Marine Corps on December 8, 1917, and served with the 5th Marines in France. Reported wounded on June 15, 1918, he died of his wounds on June 17.
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Orange County pledges three-quarters of its War Savings quota in a June drive
The county's War Savings Stamps quota was $331,400, about $20 a person. A drive June 23-28, 1918, pledged 75 percent of it, and a second drive September 9-14 sought the rest; the county finished with $272,956 pledged and $264,370 sold.
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Orange County holds a Fourth of July war rally on the UNC campus
At the Governor's request the UNC Summer School invited the county to its July 4, 1918 celebration, and at least 3,000 people came for a parade, a flag raising and S. M. Gattis's address in Memorial Hall. The county Council of Defense met in Gerrard Hall, and Adolph Vermont's pageant on French-American friendship played in Battle's Park.
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Eight Orange County women enroll in the U.S. Student Nurse Reserve
A canvass of the county by the Woman's Committee in July 1918 for the U.S. Student Nurse Reserve enrolled eight young women, six white and two Black.
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The Orange County Red Cross grants a branch to Carr precinct
At its August 12, 1918 meeting the chapter granted Carr precinct's petition to become a branch, its fourth after Cedar Grove, New Hope and Oaks. The same meeting heard headquarters' advice to stop giving comfort kits to men leaving for camp.
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A four-church committee raises $504 for Jewish war relief
About the middle of August 1918 a campaign for the Jewish Relief Fund, run by men from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, raised $504.
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The Chapel Hill Red Cross starts a conservation committee that ships nut shells for gas masks
The chapter appointed a Committee on Conservation under Mrs. M. H. Stacy on September 1, 1918. On November 20 it shipped four barrels of nut shells for gas masks and seventeen pounds of tin foil.
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The Hillsborough Community Chorus formally organizes
Already singing at patriotic gatherings, the chorus organized at the Hillsborough Library on September 2, 1918, with Mrs. W. D. Benton as director, and gave the Red Cross $73 from an August concert. It later planned four concerts a year to help the Daughters of the Confederacy build a public library as a memorial to the county's Confederate soldiers.
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A War Savings rally in Hillsborough welcomes home wounded volunteer Jim Cheshire
On the night of Registration Day, September 12, 1918, a crowd packed the court house for a War Savings rally to hear two of Pershing's soldiers. One was Jim Cheshire, the first man to volunteer from the town and the first to come home, sent back wounded to train troops. That day 1,727 county men registered for the draft.
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Orange County organizes for the United War Work drive
A court house meeting on September 19, 1918, elected N. W. Brown county chairman for the United War Work drive. The county raised $7,485; Carrboro gave $1,240 on a $500 quota, and Hillsborough Township, under Elizabeth Cornelius, gave $2,300.
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Lt. Joseph Henry Johnston of Chapel Hill is killed in France
Joseph Henry Johnston of Chapel Hill Route 2 volunteered in May 1917, trained at Fort Oglethorpe and became a first lieutenant in the 322nd Infantry, 81st Division. He was killed in France on October 15, 1918.
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The Orange County Red Cross organizes volunteer nursing for the epidemic
Meeting on October 26, 1918, with the county influenza relief committee, the chapter named T. N. Webb and Nellie Russell to take requests for nurses in the West Hill and Hillsborough school districts and canvassed the town for volunteers. Chester Turner and Ross Turner, a Black man, served as volunteer nurses wherever needed.
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A Black committee of the women's Liberty Loan organization raises $1,350 in Hillsborough Township
In the Fourth Liberty Loan the Hillsborough Township women's committee included a committee of Black residents, among them Annie Renshaw, Fannie Benton and Christianna Ferribow, who raised $1,350 from 27 Black subscribers.
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Carrboro opens an influenza diet kitchen in the mill club rooms
When influenza spread from the university to Carrboro, a volunteer nursing committee worked night and day, and J. S. Carr gave the club rooms for a diet kitchen and paid its costs. For two weeks Mrs. R. B. Lawson and Mrs. Arthur Blackwood served at least seven gallons of soup a day, and orderlies checked homes each morning.
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Cedar Grove Township counts about 375 influenza cases and four deaths
Cedar Grove Township had about 375 cases of Spanish influenza and only four deaths, and the epidemic there lasted until the second week of December 1918.
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Eno Mill opens an influenza diet kitchen at West Hill school
When influenza reached the Eno Mill district, the mill opened and paid for a diet kitchen at the West Hill school for about seven weeks, run by home demonstration agent Elizabeth Cornelius. It fed as many as 150 people a day, and the mill hired nurses for the sick.
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Nurse Bessie Roper dies after nursing UNC students through influenza
Miss Roper left a paid nursing job to care for university students with influenza and stayed at her post while ill herself until doctors made her stop. She developed pneumonia and died within days.
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Orange County subscribes $331,700 to the Fourth Liberty Loan despite the influenza ban
The county meeting planned for Liberty Day, October 12, 1918, was called off when the epidemic closed public gatherings, but Orange subscribed $331,700 against a $300,000 allotment. Hillsborough Township gave about $175,000 on a $55,000 allotment, and the women's committees raised $227,300.
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UNC's women students make masks and arm bands for the emergency hospitals
In the first days of the epidemic the Red Cross called on the co-eds to make face masks for doctors and nurses in the emergency hospitals. They made 286 masks and 170 arm bands for hospital attendants.
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Chandler J. Cates of Hillsborough dies of wounds after the armistice
Chandler J. Cates of Company F, 120th Infantry, 30th Division, was severely wounded on October 17, 1918, after distinguished service, and taken to hospitals in France and England. He died of his wounds on November 20, 1918.
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The university Woman's Association holds a Thanksgiving peace festival
To pay for layettes and other war relief, the Woman's Association planned a Thanksgiving Peace Celebration: a Gypsy Festival moved by rain into the Y.M.C.A., ending with a pageant in Gerrard Hall. It raised $350, $150 of it for the United War Fund.
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Sgt. Charles Battle Wills of Chapel Hill dies of pneumonia overseas
Charles Battle Wills of Chapel Hill enlisted June 19, 1917, and served as a sergeant in Battery C, 113th Field Artillery, 30th Division. He died of pneumonia overseas on Christmas Day 1918, and L. P. McLendon paid him tribute at the Chapel Hill homecoming.
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A second influenza wave strikes Cedar Grove, Efland and Hillsborough
After Christmas 1918 a second epidemic spread through the county and was very bad at Cedar Grove, Efland and Hillsborough. This time schools and churches stayed open, and the outbreak slowly died down.
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The county war record lists 23 Orange County servicemen who died in the war
Annie Sutton Cameron's record for the Council of Defense lists 23 Orange County soldiers killed in action or dead of wounds or disease, four of them Black. The list includes men from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Blackwood and Rougemont.
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The Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense is discharged
Gov. Bickett advised in February 1919 that the legislature would not fund the Council of Defense, and on February 15 the state chairman gave all members of the Woman's Committee an honorable discharge, ending the county organization.
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Orange County raises $2,075.84 for Armenian relief
An Armenian Relief campaign led by Dr. E. C. Branson ran from February 21 to March 6, 1919, and raised $2,075.84. Much of it came through the county's white and Black schools; Nellie Russell led Hillsborough Township.
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Chapel Hill welcomes home its World War soldiers alongside Confederate veterans
On Saturday, May 10, 1919, a parade of Confederate veterans, returned soldiers and sailors, former student soldiers and town groups filled Franklin and Columbia Streets. Over 2,000 people crowded Memorial Hall to hear Archibald Henderson, L. P. McLendon and Joseph Hyde Pratt, with William Cain presiding.
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Orange County raises $800 for the Salvation Army
In a Salvation Army campaign May 16-26, 1919, South Orange under W. S. Roberson raised $300 and North Orange under R. H. Claytor raised $500.01 on a $500 quota.
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Orange County subscribes $137,050 to the Victory Liberty Loan
In the fifth, or Victory, Liberty Loan the county subscribed $137,050 against a $112,500 allotment, from 202 men, 70 women and 4 corporations. The women's committee reported $67,300 obtained by direct solicitation.
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A thunderstorm halts Esther Wake at Cameron Park during the homecoming
University Summer School students staged Adolph Vermont's play Esther Wake, on the early history of Hillsborough and Orange County, at Cameron Park for more than 5,000 people. A heavy thunderstorm stopped it in the second act.
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Black women of Hillsborough serve the homecoming dinner for Black soldiers and sailors
For the July 16, 1919 homecoming, a committee of Black residents planned a separate welcome, with Minnie Berry Martin chairing the dinner and Annie Berry the serving. Black soldiers and sailors marched in the parade with Black Red Cross workers and were served dinner at the Black school house.
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Hillsborough holds the county homecoming celebration for returned soldiers
On July 16, 1919, about 15,000 people came to Hillsborough to welcome home Orange County's soldiers and sailors, with a parade, Gov. Bickett's address at the court house and a dinner for about a thousand guests in Cameron Park. J. Cheshire Webb chaired the celebration, and the county Red Cross voted $300 toward its cost, money the celebration fund turned out not to need.
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