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Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963).Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–79.Back to highlights
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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1750s
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The burying ground beside the town church lot is laid out
The cemetery next to the site of the present Presbyterian church, later called the Old Town Cemetery, was laid out in 1754, the year the town itself was laid off.
- 1760s
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Episcopalians build Hillsborough's first church
Members of the Church of England put up the town's first church at the corner of Churton and Tryon streets, under George Micklejohn, the parish minister Governor Tryon had appointed. It later held the 1788 convention and its lot passed to the Presbyterians.
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
- 1770s
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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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Francis Asbury preaches to about 200 people at a Hillsborough tavern
On a tour of the state the Methodist leader Francis Asbury rode into Hillsborough and preached in the tavern of a Mr. Cortney (Courtney) to a crowd of about 200, whom he found orderly.
- 1790s
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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.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1820s
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A Methodist camp meeting at Hillsborough adds about 38 members and starts a fund for a meeting house
A camp meeting held at Hillsborough in 1821 brought about thirty-eight people into the Methodist fold, and the converts opened a subscription to pay for a house of worship. Two years later the church bought a lot with a house on it.
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Dr. James Webb deeds Hillsborough's Methodists a lot and house on Tryon Street
For ten shillings Dr. James Webb conveyed a 44-foot-square part of town lot 102 on Tryon (then Church) Street to trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on condition that a meeting house be kept there. A house already standing on the lot became the congregation's first church.
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Francis L. Hawks is elected the first senior warden of St. Matthew's Church
When Hillsborough's Episcopalians organized St. Matthew's parish in 1824, they elected Francis L. Hawks senior warden and William Norwood junior warden. Hawks and Emily Hawks are on the parish's first membership roll.
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Hillsborough Episcopalians organize St. Matthew's Church
After decades without a resident minister, Hillsborough's Episcopalians organized a parish again and founded the present St. Matthew's on Thomas Ruffin's gift of land, with William Mercer Green as first rector.
- 1830s
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Robert Burwell becomes pastor of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church
Burwell began a thirteen-year pastorate, and he and his wife opened a school for young women whose income let him serve the church on a small salary. He returned for a second term in the 1850s.
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John Norwood begins forty-eight years as clerk of the Hillsborough Presbyterian session
John Norwood kept the session records from 1836 to 1884, one of the two longest terms in the church's history.
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Henry H. Prout becomes minister at St. Matthew's
Henry H. Prout took charge at St. Matthew's after William Mercer Green left for Chapel Hill. The parish's unbroken run of vestry records begins the same year.
- 1840s
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Elias Dodson holds Hillsborough's first known Baptist services in the courthouse
Elias Dodson, a Virginia-born graduate of William and Mary, preached in the courthouse and is the first Baptist minister the authors could find holding services in town. When the county built a new courthouse he bought the old one for the Baptists.
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Moses Ashley Curtis leaves St. Matthew's for Society Hill, South Carolina
Rector and botanist Moses Ashley Curtis moved from Hillsborough to Society Hill, South Carolina, ending his first period at St. Matthew's.
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James B. Donnelly serves as rector of St. Matthew's
James B. Donnelly took charge of the parish in 1848 and served until his death late in 1855.
- 1850s
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The new Hillsborough Baptist church joins the Beulah Association
On organizing, the Baptist congregation in Hillsborough entered the Beulah Association. It later moved to the Mount Zion Association, formed at Mount Moriah Church.
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The Baptists buy W. J. Freeland's lot for a new church
The congregation bought a two-acre lot from W. J. Freeland running from Margaret Lane along Wake Street to King Street, where its present church stands.
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Hillsborough Baptists call their first pastor
Three months after organizing, the congregation called Rev. A. Jones Jr. as its first pastor, and he accepted. The church counted 29 pastors in its first hundred years.
- 1860s
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F. M. Jordan preaches to enslaved people in the Baptist church basement
Rev. F. M. Jordan held services for enslaved people of Hillsborough in the basement of the Baptist church and married and baptized many Black members. One night his hearers gave him so much Confederate money that he carried it home in a handkerchief.
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Hillsborough Methodists refuse to give their church bell to be cast into Confederate cannon
When Confederate authorities, short of cannon, asked the Hillsborough Methodist Church for its bell to melt down, the congregation turned them down.
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Presiding elder William Barringer dedicates the new Methodist church in Hillsborough
The brick church that Capt. John Berry built on the Tryon Street lot bought in 1859 was dedicated by William Barringer, presiding elder of the Raleigh District. The first sermon in it was preached by Jesse A. Cunninggim.
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The Baptists sell their old courthouse church to George Bishop of New Bern
Trustees H. C. Strowd, John Cheek and William Ward sold the old Baptist church lot at Churton and Queen streets, part of town lot 80, to George Bishop of New Bern for $750. Bishop later resold it to Philadelphia Friends working for freedpeople, and it became the home of Dickerson's Chapel.
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Pastor Henry B. Pratt tells the Presbyterian session he will serve the army as a chaplain
Pratt informed the Hillsborough church that he expected to go into Confederate service for the rest of the war once he obtained a chaplain's commission. He returned as pastor in 1867-68.
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Hillsborough Baptists begin worshipping in the basement of their unfinished church
With its building money lost in the war, the congregation appears to have moved into the basement of the new Wake Street church around 1864 and met there for some years. The builder John Berry finished the building later.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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George Laws chairs the stewards of the Hillsborough Methodist church
In 1866, when Hillsborough Station took in Hillsborough, Cedar Grove, Walnut Grove, Lebanon and New Sharon, Laws was chairman of its Board of Stewards. As treasurer in 1867 he told members that if they wanted preaching they must pay for it.
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The Methodist conference forms a Hillsborough District, with Hillsborough heading a station of five churches
In 1866 the Methodists created a Hillsborough District, under presiding elder W. H. Bobbitt, and made Hillsborough a station that also took in Cedar Grove, Walnut Grove, Lebanon and New Sharon. W. C. Wilson was pastor.
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Hillsborough Methodist Church opens a lending library for its members
Around 1868 the church began a library of religious and general books, many donated by members and townspeople and some bought by Sunday school classes. Books went out on Sunday mornings, and the record book later counted 937 volumes.
- 1870s
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The Hillsborough Presbyterian session asks that members be allowed to withdraw without church trial
The session resolved to ask presbytery to propose to the General Assembly a change in discipline, so that a member living outside the church's standards could leave its communion without a formal trial. After this, discipline cases disappear from the minutes.
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St. Matthew's rector Moses Ashley Curtis dies
Moses Ashley Curtis, rector of St. Matthew's for twenty-one years and a botanist of international standing, died at 64. The font and a south window in the church are his memorials.
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Joseph Blount Cheshire marries Annie Huske Webb at St. Matthew's
Joseph Blount Cheshire Jr., later Episcopal bishop of North Carolina, married Annie Huske Webb of Hillsborough at St. Matthew's Church.
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Hillsborough's Black Presbyterians build their church on Orange Street
The congregation built its church about 1878 with some help from white residents. Leading families were the Ellisons, Boldens, Morrows, Richmonds and Webbs; Bill Bolden played the organ and a Rev. White was pastor.
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The wife of pastor J. H. Wheeler is buried in front of the Hillsborough Methodist Church
During J. H. Wheeler's four-year pastorate his wife died and was buried in the church's front yard, a grave the church still showed in 1962.
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St. Matthew's rings its new bell, a memorial to Confederate dead
A steeple bell given by Mrs. Mary Curtis was rung for the first time for the Easter service. Its inscription remembers John Henry Curtis and the other men of the Orange Light Artillery who died in Confederate service.
- 1880s
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St. Matthew's vestry asks Joseph Blount Cheshire to be its rector
The vestries of St. Matthew's and the Burlington church asked Joseph Blount Cheshire to take charge of their parishes. He would have come to his wife's home town, but Bishop Lyman wanted him to stay in Chapel Hill.
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Joseph W. Murphy serves as rector of St. Matthew's
Joseph W. Murphy of Maryland took charge of the parish in July 1881, preaching his first sermon on July 10, and was rector for eleven years. His family later gave the brass alms basin in his memory.
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Hillsborough Presbyterians decline to share a pastor with the Chapel Hill church
J. L. Williamson's short pastorate at Hillsborough ended with his resignation in July 1883, when the Chapel Hill pastor, J. L. Currie, resigned as well. A congregational meeting on July 29 named a committee to confer with Chapel Hill about combining the two churches under one pastor, but in September the Hillsborough church refused to connect with Chapel Hill and chose to stand alone. A later church history groups the two churches during Williamson's 1882-83 pastorate.
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Hillsborough Methodists report their Sunday school's hundredth anniversary
In 1884 H. N. Brown reported that the Hillsborough Methodist Sunday school had celebrated its centennial; it then had thirty-five pupils and seven teachers and a library of church literature.
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Mrs. William L. DeRosset and others give St. Matthew's a Bible
Mrs. William L. DeRosset, with family and friends, presented the church's Bible as an Easter offering.
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A rector's chair is given to St. Matthew's in memory of Sarah Mary Matthews Murphy
Her husband and children gave the rector's chair on the south side of the altar in memory of Sarah Mary Matthews Murphy.
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Dickerson's Chapel trustees buy the old courthouse from the Philadelphia Friends
Trustees of the Philadelphia Friends' association for the relief of freedmen sold the old Baptist church lot, with the former courthouse on it, to the trustees of Hillsborough's African Methodist Episcopal church for $800. The congregation had worshipped and kept school there for twenty years.
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Haywood Craig, a Black man, is received into the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church
The session received Haywood Craig on profession of faith; the book records him under a heading for the church's Black members.
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C. M. Parks gives the Hillsboro Circuit its first parsonage
C. M. Parks bought the James Y. Whitted house on Churton Street in January 1889 and fitted it up as a parsonage for the Methodists' Hillsboro Circuit, and the pastor moved in that February. Parks then gave the house, on about nine-tenths of an acre at Union and Churton streets and valued at $1,800 to $2,000, to the circuit as its first parsonage; the gift was announced in November 1890 and the deed to the church trustees is dated April 13, 1891.
- 1890s
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James Webb Jr. and Joseph C. Webb buy town lot 94 in Hillsborough
George C. Corbin, who had bought the property in 1878, sold the land and house on Hillsborough's lot 94 to James Webb Jr. and Joseph C. Webb. James Webb sold the lot to the Methodist church for a parsonage in 1903.
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Dickerson's Chapel remodels the old courthouse church
The AME congregation remodeled its building, the county's former courthouse, five years after buying it.
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Mildred C. Cameron gives St. Matthew's a new altar and reredos
Miss Mildred C. Cameron gave the altar and reredos in memory of Paul C. Cameron, Rebecca Graham and Pauline Sheppard.
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A brass altar rail is given to St. Matthew's in memory of Mildred Cameron
At Christmas Miss Margaret Mordecai gave a brass altar rail in memory of Miss Mildred Cameron.
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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.
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Anne Roulhac gives St. Matthew's an oak litany desk
Miss Anne Roulhac gave an oak litany desk in memory of her niece Katherine R. Hamilton.
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Samuel Paxson Watters serves nearly fifteen years as rector of St. Matthew's
Samuel Paxson Watters took charge of the parish on December 15, 1896, preached his first sermon as rector on December 20, and led it until he resigned in October 1911. His wife, an invalid through most of those years, was counted among the most useful women in the diocese.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1900s
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St. Matthew's receives a brass alms basin in memory of Rev. Joseph W. Murphy
Dr. Samuel W. Murphy and Mrs. Walter E. Stumph, the former rector's brother and daughter, gave a brass alms basin in his memory.
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Hillsborough Baptist Church ordains Robert P. Walker
The church ordained one of its own, Robert P. Walker, to the Baptist ministry, the first of the ordinations the book lists for the congregation.
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Hillsborough Methodist Church buys town lot 94 and its house for a new parsonage
The church bought lot 94, with a one-story five-room house, from James Webb, son of Dr. James Webb, and used it as the parsonage. The lot later held the 1958 parsonage.
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H. S. Bradshaw returns to the Hillsborough Presbyterian pulpit for a 33-year second pastorate
Bradshaw, pastor from 1894 to 1900, came back in 1905 and stayed until 1938, giving him thirty-nine years in all, the longest service in the church's history. He is buried in the churchyard.
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Charles E. Maddry marries Emma Parker at Hillsborough Baptist Church
The former pastor Charles E. Maddry married Emma Parker, daughter of church members T. B. and Penelope Parker, in the Hillsborough Baptist church. Hight C. Moore and the pastor A. C. Hamby performed the ceremony.
- 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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William D. Benton serves sixteen years as rector of St. Matthew's
William D. Benton was rector for sixteen years, the longest single tenure the book records after Moses Ashley Curtis. His wife directed the choir at the 1924 centennial.
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Baptist pastor S. W. Oldham and his wife nurse the sick in the flu epidemic
During the influenza epidemic the Baptist pastor S. W. Oldham and his wife cared for the sick of Hillsborough, a neighbor recalled in the Baptist paper Charity and Children.
- 1920s
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The Hillsborough Methodist parsonage is remodeled and raised to two stories
Under pastor J. E. Blalock the one-story parsonage on lot 94 was remodeled with a second story added. It served until 1956.
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St. Matthew's Church celebrates the hundredth anniversary of its organization
The parish marked a century since its 1824 founding with an evening service. Speakers included Samuel S. Nash of Tarboro, and two great-great-granddaughters of Thomas Ruffin, who gave the site, attended.
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Former students place a memorial tablet to the Nash sisters and Sarah Kollock in the Presbyterian church
Students of the girls' school kept by Sally and Maria Nash and their relative Sarah Kollock put up a tablet in their memory on the wall of the Hillsborough Presbyterian sanctuary.
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Hillsborough's Black Presbyterian church closes
The small congregation had never been strong in numbers or money, and as its older members died there were too few younger ones to carry on. It closed about 1928.
- 1930s
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Lebanon Methodist Church loses its old building
The old church of the Lebanon congregation, one of the rural churches tied to the Hillsborough charge, was destroyed in 1936.
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Lebanon Methodist Church puts up a new building
A year after its old church was destroyed, the Lebanon congregation built a new one, seating 250.
- 1940s
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Pastor S. F. Nicks leads a $12,000 addition of rooms to the Hillsborough Methodist Church
Soon after returning to Hillsborough in 1940, Nicks proposed adding rooms to the church. Robert Forrest and A. A. Lloyd raised the money with a match of one dollar from the Duke Endowment for every three raised, and much of the work was volunteer labor, Nicks included.
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James Collins buys the closed Black Presbyterian church and its lot
About fourteen years after the congregation disbanded, James Collins bought the church building and land on Orange Street.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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Mr. and Mrs. W. V. Fryer give a Baldwin organ to the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church
During Irving Birdseye's pastorate the Fryers gave a new Baldwin organ in memory of R. H. Claytor Sr., and also carpeted the sanctuary's pulpit and aisles.
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Hillsborough Presbyterian Church begins its educational building
After gifts starting in 1943 and a December 1947 drive that reached half the cost, the church started work on its educational wing in May 1948 and finished it that November.
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Hillsborough Presbyterian Church dedicates its debt-free educational building
Once the debt on the 1948 educational wing was paid, the church dedicated it in October 1949, under pastor Irving E. Birdseye.
- 1950s
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Hillsborough Baptist Church ordains J. G. Goodwin Jr.
J. G. Goodwin Jr. was ordained in the Hillsborough church and later went as a missionary to Korea.
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Hillsborough Presbyterian Church adds Strudwick Hall, a fellowship hall named for Shepperd Strudwick
In C. H. Reckard's pastorate the church built a fellowship hall to his drawings and named it for Shepperd Strudwick, elder, Sunday school superintendent and clerk of session.
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First Baptist Church of Hillsborough celebrates its centennial
The congregation marked its hundredth year in November 1953 under Charles E. Maddry, with its new educational building finished for the occasion.
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Shepperd Strudwick carves the cross for the Hillsborough Methodist sanctuary
Shepperd Strudwick, a Presbyterian elder who took up wood carving late in life, made the cross for the Methodist sanctuary as well as one for his own church.
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Hillsborough Presbyterian Church builds and moves into a new manse
A new manse drawn by pastor C. H. Reckard was finished and occupied early in 1958.
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Mount Bright Baptist Church buys its first electronic organ and moves to full-time services
In Fred J. Boddie Jr.'s three-year pastorate the congregation bought its first electronic organ and moved to a full-time schedule of services.
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Hillsborough and New Sharon Methodists dedicate the parsonage they built together
The two churches put up a new parsonage on lot 94 in 1957-58 at a cost of about $22,000 and dedicated it on a Sunday afternoon in March 1958, with W. A. Seawell as pastor and Taylor Bivins chairing the building committee.
- 1960s
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Hillsborough and New Sharon Methodist churches each become a station church
Two years after they finished their shared parsonage, Hillsborough and New Sharon left the charge arrangement and each became a station church with its own pastor.
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Mount Bright Baptist Church buys the Ellison lot and builds its first parsonage
Under its pastor Fred J. Boddie Jr. the congregation bought the Ellison home lot and put up its first parsonage there.
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Charles E. Maddry's funeral is held at Hillsborough Baptist Church
Charles E. Maddry, pastor of the church at the start and end of his fifty-three-year ministry and former head of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, died on September 17 and was buried at Richmond after a funeral in the Hillsborough church.
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