Chronology

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1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

2. March 6, 1895
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill The legislature has Chapel Hill's voters elect their mayor directly

   A charter amendment ratified by the General Assembly ended the commissioners' choice of a mayor and called for a yearly town election of the mayor and the board of commissioners, starting on the first Monday in May 1895.

3. November 1895 to 1896
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Algernon S. Barbee serves as mayor of Chapel Hill

   The Chapel Hill commissioners chose Algernon S. Barbee mayor in November 1895, after the death of Mayor John H. Watson, and he was holding mayor's court by November 23. The voters elected him by a wide majority at the town election in May 1896. The town directory printed with the 1896 ordinances lists Barbee as mayor, with J. A. Holmes, J. A. London, W. N. Pritchard, H. H. Patterson and Thomas F. Lloyd as commissioners and A. J. McDade as clerk and treasurer.

4. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill bans bicycle riding on the Franklin Street sidewalks

   The 1896 code set a one-dollar fine for riding a bicycle on the Franklin Street sidewalks between Columbia Street and the Episcopal church lot.

5. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill orders shops and stores closed on Sunday

   The 1896 code forbade opening any shop or store on Sunday under a five-dollar fine. Drugstores were exempt but could sell only what was needed for medical purposes, and a companion section fined anyone who unloaded wagonloads of goods in town on the Sabbath.

6. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill outlaws street soliciting and houses of ill fame

   The 1896 code fined women found soliciting on the streets five dollars and fined the keeper of a disorderly house ten dollars for every day it was kept. The same penalty reached anyone who knowingly rented a house for that use and every adult living there.

7. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill outlaws the sale of fireworks in town

   Along with a one-dollar fine for firing guns or setting off fireworks in the streets, the 1896 code fined anyone who sold rockets, Roman candles or firecrackers inside the town limits after July 4, 1896 twenty-five dollars for each offense.

8. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill requires draymen and passenger carriers to buy a town license

   Under the 1896 code no one could haul passengers, baggage or freight for pay inside the town without a license from the mayor and a tax of $1.50 on each horse or mule in the work. Licenses ran from May 1 to May 1 and could not be transferred except with a sale of the business.

9. February 15, 1896
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill sets up a health committee and rules for privies and hog pens

   The 1896 code had the board name a health committee each year to look after the town's sanitary condition and sent the constable to inspect privies and back yards. Privies had to stand thirty feet from any street and be kept clean and closed to hogs, and hog pens had to be ten yards back.

10. February 15, 1896
    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill's commissioners ratify a revised code of 72 ordinances

    Acting on a board resolution of December 2, 1895, Mayor Algernon S. Barbee and Alphonso J. McDade rewrote the town's rules in 72 sections, which the commissioners ratified and printed with the charter and its amendments. The new code repealed any earlier ordinance that conflicted with it.

11. February 15, 1896
    Law, policy or court · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill's ordinances put the town cemetery in the constable's care

    The 1896 code made the town constable custodian of the cemetery and superintendent of its upkeep. It set fines for damaging the cemetery's trees, plants or grave enclosures, dumping filth there, or leaving a dug grave unfilled.

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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.