Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1857
   Closing or ending · Burwell School, Hillsborough Burwell School closes as the Burwells move to Charlotte

   The Burwells closed their Hillsborough school in 1857, the same year they took charge of a girls' school in Charlotte.

3. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

4. 1872
   Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough John D. Cameron becomes editor and publisher of the Recorder

   John Donald Cameron took over the Recorder from the Evans family, who kept only their Milton Chronicle. His masthead in January 1879 read 'J. D. Cameron, Editor and Proprietor', New Series Vol. 7, Old Series Vol. 58.

5. 1879
   Closing or ending · Hillsborough John D. Cameron moves the Recorder from Hillsborough to Durham, ending fifty-nine years of publication in the county seat

   Cameron carried the paper fifteen miles east to the tobacco town, where it continued as the Durham Recorder, published every Wednesday. The last issue under the Hillsborough title in the digitized run is March 5, 1879; the first Durham issue there is July 2, 1879.

6. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

7. June 1942
   Founding or opening · Carrboro A wartime munitions plant opens in the former Mill No. 7

   National Munitions Corporation converted the empty Mill No. 7 on Roberson Street into a shell-loading plant that pressed tetryl pellets for Navy anti-aircraft ammunition, growing from about 126 workers to more than 500; an explosion hit its pellet houses on September 6, 1942.

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

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.