Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. about 1806
   Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptists replace their first meeting-house with a larger building

   The church's history committee judges that the log meeting-house of 1789 was probably replaced by a larger and more lasting building around 1806, the year the Sandy Creek Baptist Association held its meeting at Cane Creek.

3. 1837
   Protest or organizing · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church joins the Beulah Association

   Cane Creek joined the Beulah Baptist Association in 1837. Its pastor Stephen Pleasant, put out of the County Line Association for supporting missions, had been one of the Beulah Association's founders.

4. 1852
   Property or economic transaction · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church buys ten acres from Thomas Brewer

   The congregation bought ten acres from Thomas Brewer; the deed calls it the Regular Missionary Baptist Church of Christ. The committee thinks a third church went up on this land near the old stage road.

5. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

6. 1867
   Statistic or record · Rock Spring neighborhood (later Orange Grove), possibly near Apple Mill on Toms Creek Rock Spring Academy advertises under principal H. M. Cates

   The Hillsboro Recorder in 1867 praised Rock Spring Academy, then headed by H. M. Cates, who was also Cane Creek's church clerk, and noted special terms for disabled Confederate veterans. The school did not last much longer.

7. November 1883 to late 1888
   Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptists build a new church after five years of setbacks

   In November 1883 the congregation chose to build instead of repairing its old church. Failed lumber orders, two refused calls to preachers, cost overruns and a building chairman's resignation held the work up until late 1888, and the old building was sold at auction for $58.50.

8. June 1897
   Founding or opening · Cane Creek Baptist Church grounds, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church gives part of its lot for an academy

   Under pastor J. F. MacDuffie the church voted to set aside church land for an academy and school, called Rock Spring in the motion. MacDuffie bought a house nearby and the school opened as Orange Grove Academy.

9. 1898
   Naming or commemoration · Orange Grove, southwest of Hillsborough The name Orange Grove first appears with the Cane Creek church school

   Through the 1800s the Hillsborough Recorder called the neighborhood around Cane Creek Church Rock Spring. The earliest use of the name Orange Grove the church historians found is the renaming of the church's academy as Orange Grove Academy.

10. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

11. 1907
    Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church grounds, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church votes a larger school building and sells the first one to the county

    The church voted to put up a much larger building for its Orange Grove School, south of the church, and to sell the original academy building to Orange County for use as a public school.

12. 1908
    Statistic or record · Orange Grove Academy, Cane Creek Baptist Church grounds, Orange Grove Orange Grove Academy's commencement program reports its music classes and ball team

    The academy's 1908 commencement program counted 86 enrollments in music under Prof. C. E. Redmon, among them 18 in the band and 12 in the orchestra, and told of a baseball team that played Wake Forest, Trinity Park, Elon and Bingham School.

13. 1920
    Property or economic transaction · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church buys its first organ

    A 1904 business meeting voted to buy an organ to replace the old piano; the money was not raised until 1919, and John Cheek bought the instrument in 1920.

14. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

15. 1949
    Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church grounds, Orange Grove The old Orange Grove Academy building is torn down

    After Orange Grove School closed, Cane Creek Church took over its 1907 building, holding Sunday school downstairs while the Grange met in the upstairs hall. The building was demolished in 1949.

16. September 18, 1949
    Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church breaks ground for a new church

    After committees appointed in May 1949 priced a remodeling of the old church against a new building, the congregation chose to build. Tommy Lloyd, chairman of the deacons, turned the first earth at the groundbreaking.

17. May 7, 1951
    Construction or physical change · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church holds its first service in its new church

    The congregation's fifth building was finished in 1951 and first used for worship on May 7. The 1888 church, already stripped of doors and windows, was torn down soon after.

18. 1953
    Appointment, election or service · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Harry Byrd becomes Cane Creek Baptist Church's first full-time pastor

    Until the late 1940s Cane Creek shared its preacher with another church and held services on two Sundays a month. Harry Byrd, a 1953 Wake Forest graduate, came that year as its first full-time pastor and stayed until 1957.

19. May 16, 1953
    Naming or commemoration · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church dedicates its new church

    I. G. Greer of Chapel Hill gave the dedication address for the church built in 1949 to 1951. Julius Andrews chaired the building committee, and the new pastor Harry Byrd took part.

20. 1962
    Naming or commemoration · Bradshaw Quarry Road near the Perry farm, Orange Grove Orange Grove residents put up a sign naming the community

    To make the Orange Grove name better known, residents set up a welcome sign beside the Perry farm on Bradshaw Quarry Road.

21. 1974 to 1976
    Naming or commemoration · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church holds an annual Old Timers' Day

    Pastor James Bouseman started an Old Timers' Day at which members dressed in the fashions of an earlier time; it was held each year from 1974 through 1976, the last one part of the national bicentennial.

22. 1974
    Construction or physical change · Orange Grove The Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Company builds its first station

    Started after neighbors waited a long time for an Eli Whitney fire truck at a house fire around 1970, the company built its first station in 1974 and received its first truck later that year.

23. Recent decades · 1976–2026

24. 1989
    Naming or commemoration · Cane Creek Baptist Church, 6901 Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove Cane Creek Baptist Church marks its two hundredth year

    The church celebrated its bicentennial with former pastor James Bouseman back as guest preacher. During the year Cecil Crawford led members on a walk to the site of the first meeting-house above Cane Creek.

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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 4, 2026.