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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis. Browse all 77 storylines. Every entry names its source. See all 667 sources.

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NCpedia (including the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): The State Library of North Carolina's online encyclopedia; biographies are signed reference articles.Open the sourceAll sources

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199 dated events and 1 storyline
1740Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia come down the Great Wagon Road into the Haw and Eno country

    Migration or settlement · Orange County

    From the 1740s families moving south from Pennsylvania, Maryland and western Virginia along the Great Wagon Road took up land in the Piedmont backcountry that became Orange County in 1752. Quaker families reached the Cane Creek country by this route, and German and Scotch-Irish families entered the colony the same way.

  3. William Hooper, signer of the Declaration and a Hillsborough resident, was born

    Life event · Boston, Massachusetts; later Hillsborough connection

    William Hooper was born in Boston; he later lived in Hillsborough.

  4. The Granville District land office grants the land that became Orange County

    Property or economic transaction · Orange County

    The country on the Eno, Haw and Little River lay inside Earl Granville's one eighth share of Carolina, set off in 1742 and run from Edenton through agents including Francis Corbin and Thomas Child. Grants of unclaimed land were made from 1748 until Granville's death in 1763, and William Churton was the surveyor who mapped much of the district.

    People: William Churton

  5. The Great Trading Path across the Eno becomes the settlers' wagon road

    Construction or physical change · Orange County

    The Indian route that Virginia traders had used since the 1670s crossed the Flat and Little rivers, forded the Eno at the place where the county town was laid out, and crossed the Haw near Swepsonville. After colonists reached the Piedmont in the mid eighteenth century the path was widened into a wagon road, and it is drawn on the colonial maps of Moseley, Collet and Mouzon.

    Part of Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path · 51 events

  6. Orange County is created

    Founding or opening · Countywide

    The colonial assembly formed Orange County from portions of Bladen, Granville, and Johnston counties. Its original boundaries were far larger than those of present-day Orange County.

  7. Richard Caswell serves as the first clerk of the Orange County court

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Caswell, a deputy clerk in Johnston County, became the first clerk of the court of the newly formed Orange County. He held the post only briefly and resigned on being appointed high sheriff of Johnston.

  8. The town on the Eno is incorporated as Childsburg

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    The town William Churton had laid out in 1754 as Corbin Town or Corbinton was incorporated by act of assembly in 1759 as Childsburg, named for Thomas Child, the colony's attorney general. It was renamed Hillsborough in 1766.

    Part of Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766 · 33 events

    People: William Churton

  9. Abner Nash settles briefly in Hillsborough and builds the town's first mill on the Eno

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough

    The Virginia lawyer Abner Nash moved to Hillsborough, then called Childsburgh, in 1762 or early 1763 with his younger brother Francis. He bought town lots, dammed the Eno River and built the town's first mill before moving to Halifax by 1764.

    People: Francis Nash

  10. Francis Nash becomes clerk of the Orange County court

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    Having settled at Childsburgh (Hillsborough), where he kept a store and a law practice, Francis Nash became clerk of the Orange County court in 1763. A superior court clerkship at Hillsborough was possible only after the 1767-68 act made the town a district court seat, with its first term in March 1768.

  11. Henry Pattillo becomes pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches

    Orange County

    Henry Pattillo moved to Orange County as pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River Presbyterian churches and served them for nine years, becoming known as "Father Pattillo." He was the first regularly installed minister at Eno.

    Subject: Little River Presbyterian Church · Eno Presbyterian Church · Hawfields Presbyterian Church

  12. Henry Pattillo keeps a classical school in his Orange County home

    Orange County

    While pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches, Pattillo began a classical school for men in his home.

  13. Childsburgh is renamed Hillsborough

    Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough

    Childsburgh was renamed Hillsborough in honor of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.

    People: Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough

  14. William Few takes over management of a second family farm near Hillsborough

    Orange County

    In 1767 William Few Sr. bought another farm about seven miles from Hillsborough, and his son William, then nineteen, took over its management.

  15. Clerk Francis Nash is cleared of charging illegal fees

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    In the first Regulator complaints against Orange County officials in 1768, the clerk Francis Nash was accused of taking illegal fees. He was exonerated.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

  16. Deputy attorney general John Williams signs the order jailing Herman Husband and William Butler

    Hillsborough

    Appointed deputy attorney general for the Hillsborough district in 1768, Williams signed the order that sent the Regulator leaders Husband and Butler to jail after the April disturbance in Hillsborough. NCpedia suggests this is why the rioters beat him in 1770.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

    People: Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator)

    Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

  17. George Micklejohn carries messages between the Regulators and the authorities

    Hillsborough

    During the 1768 unrest the Hillsborough rector acted several times as a courier between the Regulators and the authorities, seeking a peaceful settlement. The Regulators called him "our Rector."

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

  18. Nathaniel Rochester goes to work for a Hillsborough merchant

    Life event · Hillsborough

    At sixteen Rochester took employment with James Monroe, a Scottish merchant in Hillsborough, the seat of Orange County. Within two years he was made clerk of the vestry of St. Matthew's Parish.

    Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

  19. Regulator William Butler serves as an Orange County tax collector and deputy sheriff

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    William Butler, a farmer living near Sandy Creek, was appointed a county tax collector in Orange County in 1768 and a deputy sheriff in 1770, in the same years he emerged as a principal leader of the Regulators.

  20. Thomas Hart begins a term as Orange County sheriff and is made militia captain and commissary

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Thomas Hart began his second term as sheriff of Orange County in 1768. The same year he was made a captain in the Orange County militia and commissary for the troops of Orange and Granville counties.

  21. George Micklejohn preaches to Tryon's militia at Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Before Governor Tryon and the troops raised against the Regulators, Micklejohn preached on the important duty of subjection to the civil powers. Tryon had the sermon printed and distributed, and it cost Micklejohn favour with opponents of royal authority.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

    People: William Tryon

  22. Lawyer John Kinchen moves from Halifax to Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Kinchen sold 1,300 acres in Northampton County and moved to Hillsborough to practise law in Orange County's growing courts. He kept his law office in town and bought a plantation called Tar Hill in the St. Mary's community, staying about ten years.

  23. Regulators name the Orange County sheriff one of two officials charging fair fees

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    John Butler of the Hawfields was sheriff of Orange County in 1770, at the height of the Regulator crisis, and testified to the General Assembly that the Regulators had obstructed him in carrying out his duties. A Regulator petition of October 1770 nonetheless named him as one of only two public officials charging fair fees for their services.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

  24. Governor Tryon's army buys supplies at Ralph McNair's Hillsborough store

    Hillsborough

    On his expedition against the Regulators, Governor William Tryon bought supplies at McNair's Hillsborough store, including Delft bowls and gilt tin cups.

    Part of Battle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County) · 15 events

    People: William Tryon

  25. Regulator leader Thomas Person is held in irons at Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    After the Battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon had Thomas Person seized and held in irons in Hillsborough for three weeks, during which he was marched to the gallows and back. He was released without trial.

    Part of Regulator executions at Hillsborough, June 1771

    People: William Tryon

  26. James Thackston raises a company of Orange County militia against the Regulators

    Orange County

    Thackston enlisted sixty-two Orange County men into a militia company for the 1771 campaign against the Regulators.

    Part of Battle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County) · 15 events

  27. Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband.

    Part of Battle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County) · 15 events

    People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

  28. Battle of Alamance

    Violence or armed conflict · Present-day Alamance County; then Orange County

    Governor William Tryon's militia defeated the Regulators at Alamance. James Few, captured on the field, was hanged at Tryon's camp the next day.

    Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 116 events

    People: William Tryon · Herman Husband · Robert Palmer · James Few

  29. Francis Nash builds his house on West Tryon Street

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough

    Francis Nash built the house now called the Nash-Hooper House on West Tryon Street in Hillsborough in 1772, on land bought from Isaac Edwards. After his death in 1777 it passed through other hands to William Hooper in 1782.

    People: William Hooper · Isaac Edwards

    Subject: Nash-Hooper House

  30. Rochester becomes a partner in a Hillsborough store

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    Rochester joined James Monroe and John Hamilton as a partner in a Hillsborough store in 1773. The business prospered but was liquidated in 1775 as the Revolution approached.

    People: John Hamilton

  31. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
  32. James Hogg moves to Hillsborough and opens his company's office there

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    The merchant James Hogg, who had brought emigrants from Scotland to North Carolina in 1774, moved from Cross Creek to Hillsborough about 1775 to open his company's office, and lived at Old House on his land east of town.

  33. William Johnston produces gunpowder, lead and flints at Snow Hill

    Snow Hill

    During the Revolution Hillsborough merchant William Johnston apparently produced gunpowder, lead and rifle flints at his Snow Hill plantation northeast of the town.

  34. Richard Bennehan buys the land that began the Stagville plantation

    Orange County

    Bennehan bought land northeast of Snow Hill on the west side of the Flat River, the start of what became the Stagville-Fairntosh plantation complex.

    People: Tyree Harris

  35. Rochester is named to a commission to set up a gun factory near Hillsborough

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    The commission was to establish a gun factory near Hillsborough, and Rochester led a wagon train to Philadelphia to obtain iron for it. Illness later that year ended his military service.

  36. William Hooper signs the Declaration of Independence

    Law, policy or court · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; later Hillsborough connection

    William Hooper signed the Declaration in Philadelphia. He later became a Hillsborough resident.

    People: John Penn · Joseph Hewes

  37. A special Hillsborough District court fails to sit when John Penn does not appear

    Hillsborough

    Governor Richard Caswell named John Kinchen and John Penn judges of a special court of oyer and terminer for the Hillsborough District. Penn did not come, Kinchen would not sit alone, and no court was held.

    People: John Penn · Richard Caswell

  38. James Hogg sits on the Hillsborough board of commissioners

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    James Hogg, a member of the Hillsborough Committee of Safety during the Revolution, sat on the town's board of commissioners in 1777.

  39. Rochester serves as clerk of the Orange County court

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    Rochester resigned his seat in the first General Assembly of the state to become clerk of court. He was also commissioned to supervise the building of a new courthouse and to help establish an academy in the Hillsborough area, and he gave up the clerkship in 1778 because its fees did not cover the expenses of the office.

    Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

  40. Rochester opens a Hillsborough store with Thomas Hart and James Brown

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    The partnership was successful and Rochester began putting his earnings into real estate. The business was liquidated in 1780 when British occupation of Hillsborough became a probability, and Hart moved his family to Maryland.

    People: Thomas Hart · James Brown

  41. James Thackston gathers Continental recruits and returned deserters at Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    With the Southern army broken at Camden in August 1780, the Board of War sent Lieutenant Colonel Thackston to collect fresh recruits and returning deserters at Hillsborough. By the middle of November he had gathered just sixteen men.

  42. General Assembly at Hillsborough relieves Richard Caswell of command of the state militia

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    After commanding the North Carolina militia in the defeat at Camden, Caswell reported to the General Assembly sitting at Hillsborough. On September 12 the Assembly took his illness into account and relieved him temporarily of command of the state militia, leaving him the separate command of the North Carolina Partisan Rangers.

    Part of General Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–1784

  43. David Fanning raids Hillsborough and captures Governor Burke

    Violence or armed conflict · Hillsborough

    Fanning’s Loyalists captured Governor Thomas Burke during a surprise raid on Hillsborough.

    People: David Fanning · Thomas Burke

  44. Butler's militia ambushes Fanning's Loyalists at Lindley's Mill

    Violence or armed conflict · Lindley's Mill, Cane Creek

    The day after David Fanning's raid carried Governor Thomas Burke out of Hillsborough, John Butler rode with about four hundred militia to the ford where the Wilmington road crossed Cane Creek at Lindley's Mill and laid an ambush with Colonel Robert Mebane. The opening volley killed Colonel Hector McNeil, but Fanning organized a flanking attack that drove the militia from the field, and the prisoners went on to Wilmington.

    Part of David Fanning’s raid on Hillsborough, September 1781

    People: David Fanning · Thomas Burke

  45. Thomas Burke dies at Tyaquin

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Thomas Burke died at his farm near Hillsborough after serving as North Carolina’s governor.

    Subject: Thomas Burke’s grave (Tyaquin)

  46. Thomas Lloyd signs his lands and enslaved people over to his sons-in-law

    Slavery and freedom · Orange County

    To keep his property from confiscation as a Loyalist, Thomas Lloyd conveyed his lands and the people he enslaved to his sons-in-law Daniel and John Hogan for nominal sums and leased them straight back. His property was never confiscated.

    Part of Slavery in Orange County · 189 events

    People: Colonel John Hogan

  47. Richard Bennehan buys land from Judith Stagg and opens the Stagville Store

    Stagville

    After William Johnston's death in 1785 Bennehan opened his own store, on land he bought from Judith Stagg, which became the Stagville Store.

  48. Benjamin Smith serves as a trustee of the university

    Chapel Hill

    Benjamin Smith of Brunswick County, the university's first donor, sat on its board of trustees from the charter of 1789 until 1824, and was president of the board in 1810 while governor.

  49. Richard Stanford opens an academy in the Hawfields

    Hawfields

    Richard Stanford, who had come to the Hawfields district of Orange County from Maryland in 1789, opened an academy there. Thomas Hart Benton was among his early pupils.

  50. Richard Bennehan gives shells for mortar for Old East

    Chapel Hill

    Bennehan donated fifty bushels of shells for making mortar for the university's first building. In 1796 he gave an air pump and thirty-two books.

    Part of The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795 · 48 events

    Subject: Old East

  51. Charles Wilson Harris joins the new university as professor of mathematics

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Harris joined the faculty in March 1795, weeks after the university opened, as professor of mathematics. On June 3, 1795 he organized the students into the debating club that became the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.

    Part of The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795 · 48 events

    Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

  52. Charles Wilson Harris acts as presiding professor

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    After David Ker resigned under pressure from the trustees in the summer of 1796, Harris acted as presiding professor until his own resignation that December. He had persuaded Joseph Caldwell to join the faculty in October 1796.

    People: David Ker · Joseph Caldwell

  53. Pleasant Henderson is chosen steward of the university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Pleasant Henderson moved from Mt. Pleasant to Chapel Hill in 1797 and was chosen steward of the University of North Carolina, following John Taylor in the post. A UNC Libraries exhibit records that he owned nineteen enslaved people.

    Subject: Steward’s Hall

  54. Duncan Cameron sets up as a lawyer at Hillsborough

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    Cameron was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1798 and, after a brief practice at Martinsville in Guilford County, established himself as a successful attorney at Hillsborough. A rivalry with another young Hillsborough lawyer, William Duffy, followed.

  55. Archibald D. Murphey graduates from the university and joins its faculty

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    Archibald D. Murphey graduated with honors from the University at Chapel Hill in 1799 and was hired at once as a tutor. The next year he became professor of languages, one of three faculty members, and also served as librarian before resigning to study law in Hillsborough.

  56. Richard Bennehan builds the Stagville house

    Stagville

    Bennehan built the house he called Stagville. By then he owned about 4,000 acres, worked by 44 or more enslaved people. The same year he joined the university's board of trustees.

  57. Judge John Williams falls ill while holding court at Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Williams, on the superior court bench since 1779, became ill while presiding at Hillsborough. He died at Montpelier, his Granville County plantation, on October 10, 1799.

  58. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  59. Cameron becomes a trustee of the University of North Carolina

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Cameron joined the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina in 1802, while he was practicing law at Hillsborough.

  60. Pleasant Henderson gives up the stewardship and opens a store

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Henderson gave up the university stewardship in 1802 and declined the trusteeship he was elected to. About this time he went into business as Henderson and Searcy, and he kept his Chapel Hill residence while serving as clerk of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1830.

    Subject: Steward’s Hall

  61. William Gaston serves as a trustee of the university

    Chapel Hill

    William Gaston sat on the university's board of trustees from 1802 until his death in January 1844, some forty-two years.

  62. William Norwood gives $100 toward finishing South Building

    Chapel Hill

    William Norwood of Hillsborough contributed $100 toward finishing South Building at the university.

    Subject: South Building

  63. William Norwood represents the borough of Hillsborough in the House of Commons

    Hillsborough

    Hillsborough lawyer William Norwood was elected to the House of Commons for the borough of Hillsborough in 1806 and reelected in 1807.

  64. Frederick Nash is elected a trustee of the University of North Carolina

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Nash was elected a trustee of the University of North Carolina in 1807 and remained an active supporter of the university. It awarded him an LL.D. in 1853.

  65. Frederick Nash moves from New Bern to Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Nash and his wife left New Bern for Hillsborough in 1807 seeking a healthier climate. There he bought a small one-story house, an office and cabins for slave quarters from Duncan Cameron.

    People: Duncan Cameron

    Subject: Nash Law Office

  66. Dr. James Webb serves as Hillsborough agent of the Bank of Cape Fear

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough, West King Street

    In 1810 Dr. James Webb was appointed Hillsborough agent, or cashier, of the branch of the Bank of the Cape Fear, a post he held until 1846. The branch rented a small building on West King Street, and many of its stockholder lists, dividend records and at least one ledger survive.

  67. Polly Burke buys her house on East Queen Street

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough, Heartsease (East Queen Street)

    Mary Williams Burke, the only child of Governor Thomas Burke, bought a modest house on East Queen Street in Hillsborough for four hundred dollars on June 5, 1810, when she was twenty-eight. She added the east bay to the house, which was later enlarged and named Heartsease.

    Subject: Heartsease

  68. Frederick Nash represents Orange County in the House of Commons

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Nash sat for Orange County in the House of Commons in 1814, 1816 and 1817. He was speaker of the house in 1814.

  69. William Norwood becomes a trustee of Hillsborough Academy

    Hillsborough

    William Norwood was a trustee of Hillsborough Academy by 1816 and chaired its board in 1826.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy

  70. Witherspoon takes charge of the Hillsborough Academy

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough

    Returning to Hillsborough at twenty-five, Witherspoon took a double charge: the pastorate of the newly built Presbyterian church and the principalship of the closely allied Hillsborough Academy. He gave up the academy sometime after 1819.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy · Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

  71. Polly Burke helps organize the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough, Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

    In September 1816 Mary W. Burke joined eight other people and the Rev. John Knox Witherspoon to organize the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, which acquired the town's brick church built in 1810. She rented pew 13 on the first pew list and supported the church for the next eighteen years.

    People: John Knox Witherspoon

    Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

  72. Hillsborough physician James S. Smith serves in Congress

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    James Strudwick Smith, an Orange County-born physician who had studied medicine with Dr. James Webb of Hillsborough, represented the Hillsborough district in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1821. He was defeated when he sought a third term.

    People: James Webb

  73. Dr. James Webb deeds land for Polly Burke's log schoolhouse

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough, East Queen Street

    On November 6, 1817, Dr. James Webb deeded to his neighbor Mary W. Burke a strip of his lot on East Queen Street, where a log schoolhouse was built for her to teach the Webb children. Known as Miss Polly Burke's School, it took neighborhood children from about 1818 to 1834 and is cited as a forerunner of the Burwell School.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    People: James Webb

    Subject: Burwell School

  74. George E. Badger serves as a trustee of the university

    Chapel Hill

    George E. Badger sat on the university's board of trustees from 1818 to 1844. He was one of the first members of its executive committee in 1835, served on its land committee and as its counsel in the Tennessee land suits, and moved the creation of a chair of modern languages.

  75. William Woods Holden is born near Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    William Woods Holden, later editor of the North Carolina Standard and governor, was born near Hillsborough to Thomas Holden and Priscilla Woods. His grandfather had moved to Orange County to farm, and from age six he was raised by his stepmother, Sally Nichols Holden.

  76. Denison Olmsted begins teaching chemistry at Chapel Hill

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Appointed in November 1817 to the university's new professorship of chemistry, Olmsted spent a year studying with Benjamin Silliman at Yale and began teaching at Chapel Hill in the fall of 1819. He stayed until the end of 1825, when Elisha Mitchell succeeded him.

    People: Elisha Mitchell

  77. Josiah Turner Jr. is born in Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Josiah Turner Jr. was born in Hillsborough, the eldest son of Josiah and Eliza Evans Turner. His father was a longtime sheriff and large landowner in Orange County.

  78. Hugh Waddell begins practising law in Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Waddell, an 1818 graduate of the university, began to practise law in Hillsborough and Orange County in 1823 and kept his practice there until 1867, when he moved to Wilmington.

  79. Jonathan Worth comes to Hillsborough to read law under Archibald D. Murphey

    Hillsborough

    Worth moved to Hillsborough to study law with the judge Archibald DeBow Murphey, who became his mentor. In 1824 he married Murphey's niece, Martitia Daniel, and then settled in Asheboro to practice.

    People: Archibald D. Murphey

  80. William Norwood is elected first junior warden of the reorganized St. Matthew's Church

    Hillsborough

    When St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough was reorganized, William Norwood was elected its first junior warden.

    Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

  81. Fire destroys Witherspoon's farmhouse and the Orange Presbytery records

    Disaster or outbreak · Orange County

    The fire burned the Witherspoons' rural home a mile and a half south of Hillsborough and its contents, including all but one volume of the old records of Orange Presbytery, which Witherspoon held as stated clerk. Losses were put at about 3,000 dollars and the house was rebuilt.

    Subject: Tusculum (Witherspoon farm)

  82. Frederick Nash represents the town of Hillsborough in the House of Commons

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    Having earlier sat for Orange County, Nash represented the town of Hillsborough itself in the House of Commons in 1828 and 1829.

  83. Orange County sends Hugh Waddell to the House of Commons

    Orange County

    Waddell was elected to the House of Commons from Orange County for the 1828-29 session and again in 1835, and then served Orange in the state senate in five sessions between 1836 and 1848, as president of the senate in 1836.

  84. William W. Holden serves as an apprentice printer at the Hillsborough Recorder

    Life event · Hillsborough

    At about age ten Holden was apprenticed as a printer's devil to Dennis Heartt, editor of the Hillsborough Recorder, who was responsible for his early education and political views. He struck out on his own at about sixteen, working first for the Milton Chronicle.

    People: Dennis Heartt

    Subject: Hillsborough Recorder

  85. William A. Graham establishes a law practice in Hillsborough

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    Graham read law with Thomas Ruffin of Orange County and, having taken his county and superior court licences, had established a practice among the Hillsborough bar by March 1828. He kept a law practice until his death and in time owned three plantations worked by enslaved people.

    People: Thomas Ruffin

  86. George Moses Horton publishes The Hope of Liberty

    Publication, speech or performance · Raleigh; author associated with Chapel Hill

    George Moses Horton’s The Hope of Liberty was published in Raleigh, with supporters hoping sales could finance his freedom.

  87. Giles Mebane stays at Chapel Hill as a university tutor

    Appointment, election or service · UNC, Chapel Hill

    After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1831, Giles Mebane remained in Chapel Hill as a tutor before starting to practice law.

  88. Hentz leaves the university and Chapel Hill for Kentucky

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Hentz left the university in 1831. The local Presbyterian community had frowned on his Roman Catholic upbringing and suspected his politics, and after he left French was dropped from the curriculum.

    People: Caroline Lee Hentz

  89. John DeBerniere Hooper teaches at the university as tutor and professor

    Chapel Hill

    After graduating in 1831 Hooper stayed in Chapel Hill as a tutor in languages, became professor of modern languages in July 1836 and professor of Latin in 1838. He and his wife left Chapel Hill in 1848 to teach and farm near Littleton.

  90. Cadwallader Jones graduates from the University of North Carolina

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Jones, the son of Cadwallader and Rebecca Edwards Long Jones of West Hill near Hillsborough, took his degree at Chapel Hill in 1832.

  91. James Phillips is licensed to preach and later serves New Hope Presbyterian Church

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County, New Hope Presbyterian Church

    Mathematics professor James Phillips joined the Presbyterian church in 1832 and was licensed to preach by Orange Presbytery in 1833. He was later ordained and installed as minister of New Hope Presbyterian Church, about seven miles outside Chapel Hill, and shared the university chapel work with Elisha Mitchell.

    People: Elisha Mitchell

    Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

  92. Peter Dromgoole disappears from Chapel Hill

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Peter Pelham Dromgoole came to Chapel Hill in January 1833, failed the university's entrance examination and studied under a tutor. That spring, after bitter letters with his father, he vanished from his lodgings, leaving most of his belongings and a debt to a Chapel Hill merchant.

  93. William A. Graham represents Hillsborough and then Orange County in the House of Commons

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Graham was borough representative from Hillsborough in the legislatures of 1833, 1834 and 1835. After the constitutional reforms of 1835 he represented Orange County in the House of Commons in the 1836, 1838 and 1840 sessions, and he was speaker in the last two.

  94. Witherspoon ends seventeen years as pastor at Hillsborough

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    Witherspoon severed his connection with the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church and moved to Camden, South Carolina. His advocacy of religious education, Sunday schools and preaching for enslaved people had strained relations with his congregation.

    Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

  95. John Wall Norwood becomes treasurer and then a ruling elder of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

    Hillsborough

    In 1834 Norwood succeeded the silversmith William Huntington as treasurer of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. In 1835 he was confirmed a ruling elder, a post he held until his death.

    People: William Huntington

    Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

  96. Lemuel Lynch and William Huntington work as partners in Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Back in Hillsborough by March 1834, the silversmith Lemuel Lynch went into a two-year partnership with John Huntington; their notices in the Hillsborough Recorder are signed John Huntington and Lemuel Lynch. Lynch had trained in William Huntington's shop. Afterward he kept his shop alone, perhaps with help from his sons or apprentices.

    People: William Huntington

  97. Polly Burke leaves Hillsborough for Alabama

    Life event · Hillsborough

    In August 1834 Mary W. Burke sold most of her household goods and moved to Greensboro, Alabama, with her niece's family, part of a wider migration of Hillsborough people to Alabama. After her nephew-in-law died there she settled in Marion, where she taught again for many years.

    People: George Mulholland Johnston

  98. Dr. James Webb builds the Presbyterian Sessions House in the Old Town Cemetery

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough, Old Town Cemetery

    In 1835 Dr. James Webb took a ninety-nine-year lease on the southeast corner of Hillsborough's Old Town Cemetery lot and built a frame Sessions House with a bell tower there. It served as the Presbyterian Sunday school room and later as a public library until 1934.

    Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough · Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

  99. Jones begins practicing law at Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Jones began his legal career in Hillsborough in 1836 and practiced there until he moved his family to a cotton plantation near Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 1857. He sat in the House of Commons for the 1840, 1842, 1848 and 1850 sessions and became solicitor of the Fourth Judicial District in April 1843.

  100. Burwell School for young women operates

    Hillsborough

    Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell operated their Hillsborough school for girls from 1837 to 1857.

    People: Margaret Anna Burwell · Robert Armistead Burwell · Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly

    Subject: Burwell School

  101. The Burwell School and the Burwell household

    Storyline · 42 events · Hillsborough

    Anna Burwell opened a school for girls in Hillsborough in 1837 that ran until the family moved to Charlotte in 1857. In the same household Elizabeth Hobbs, later Elizabeth Keckly, was enslaved from 1835, beaten at Anna Burwell’s urging and subjected to years of sexual coercion before being sent back to Virginia in 1842; she bought her freedom in 1855.

    Subject: Burwell School

  102. Manuel Fetter is elected professor of ancient languages

    Chapel Hill

    The trustees chose Manuel Fetter of New York to succeed William Hooper as professor of ancient languages. President Swain had first favored Henry Tutwiler of Alabama, but when Tutwiler withdrew he named Fetter over William E. Anderson of Hillsborough.

    People: David L. Swain

  103. Jones serves as a trustee of the University of North Carolina

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Jones was a trustee of his own university from 1840 until 1857, the years he was practicing law at Hillsborough.

  104. Lemuel Lynch is appointed a justice of the peace

    Hillsborough

    Lynch was appointed a justice of the peace in 1841 and afterward held court in Hillsborough.

  105. Moses Ashley Curtis becomes rector of St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough

    Appointment, election or service · St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Hillsborough

    Curtis, an Episcopal priest who had taught at the church school in Raleigh, accepted a call to St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough in June 1841. He did his botanical and fungus research from the town while serving the parish.

    Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

  106. Charles F. Deems joins the UNC faculty

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    President David L. Swain brought Deems, a young Methodist preacher, onto the faculty in 1842 as adjunct professor of rhetoric and logic, to have a Methodist among the professors. He resigned in 1848 for Randolph-Macon College.

    People: David L. Swain

  107. John Wall Norwood restores Poplar Hill

    Poplar Hill

    Following his father's death in 1842, Norwood restored Poplar Hill, the Hogg and Norwood family home on the Eno, from the house to its lawns and gardens. Old roses were brought from Wilmington and new beds and hedges laid out.

  108. Frederick Nash and Hugh Waddell open a law school in Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Frederick Nash and Hugh Waddell gave notice on November 1, 1841 that they would open a school at Hillsborough to prepare young men for the bar from January 1, 1842, if at least eight students enrolled.

  109. Dr. James Webb is declared bankrupt and his goods are auctioned

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough

    Dr. James Webb was declared bankrupt on November 1, 1842, and his possessions were sold at public auction on December 11. His friends and neighbors bought back nearly everything offered for him and his family.

  110. Giles Mebane represents Orange County in the House of Commons

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Giles Mebane sat for Orange County in the House of Commons from 1844 to 1849, until the western part of the county, where he was from, became Alamance County.

  111. David L. Swain organizes the Historical Society of the University of North Carolina

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    In January 1844 President David L. Swain announced the Historical Society of the University of North Carolina, with himself as president and the whole faculty as its executive committee. It set out to copy colonial records in British repositories and to collect North Carolina books, newspapers and papers at the university.

  112. Charles Phillips returns to Chapel Hill as a tutor of mathematics

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Phillips accepted a call from President David L. Swain in July 1844 to return to the University of North Carolina as his father's assistant. He held the post of tutor of mathematics until 1853.

    People: David L. Swain · James Phillips

  113. Hillsborough citizens pay to refit the academy building for the Caldwell Institute

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough

    Townspeople paid for the repair and enlargement of the Hillsborough Academy building so that the Caldwell Institute could move in from Greensboro. The older school was absorbed into the institute under Alexander Wilson.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy · Caldwell Institute

  114. Josiah Turner Jr. is admitted to the bar after studying law in Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    After schooling at the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro and a year at the University of North Carolina, Josiah Turner Jr. studied law for two years in Hillsborough and was admitted to the bar in about 1845. He soon built a large practice.

  115. Samuel F. Phillips opens a law practice in Chapel Hill

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Phillips, who had grown up in Chapel Hill after his family moved there in 1826, studied law under President David L. Swain and in the new university law school, then began practising in Chapel Hill when he came of age in 1845.

    People: David L. Swain

    Subject: UNC School of Law

  116. William Horn Battle becomes the university's professor of law

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    After teaching law from his office in Chapel Hill, Battle was professor of law at the university by 1845, and the university began offering the bachelor of law degree.

    Subject: UNC School of Law

  117. Samuel Wellwood Hughes opens a classical school for boys near Cedar Grove

    Founding or opening · Cedar Grove, Orange County

    Samuel Wellwood Hughes opened his own academy in northern Orange County in January 1845. First called Cedar Grove Academy and later Hughes' Academy, it offered classical and mathematical courses modeled on the Bingham School and ran until his death in 1884.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    Subject: Bingham School · Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)

  118. Witherspoon's farm Tusculum is sold at the courthouse door

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough

    Dr. Edmund Strudwick, who had long held the mortgages, bought the farm at public sale. Susan Witherspoon was allowed to stay on at Tusculum by Strudwick's provision.

    People: Edmund Strudwick

    Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Tusculum (Witherspoon farm)

  119. Builder John Berry enlarges a St. Mary's Road farmhouse into Sunny Side, his country home

    Construction or physical change · Sunny Side, St. Mary's Road (100 Baldwin Road), near Hillsborough

    John Berry, the Hillsborough brickmason and builder, enlarged and remodeled an older farmhouse on St. Mary's Road as a home for himself and named it Sunny Side. He kept his library there and lived there until his death in 1870.

    Subject: Sunnyside (John Berry farm)

  120. Caldwell Institute enrollment peaks at 100 in Hillsborough

    Statistic or record · Hillsborough

    Under Alexander Wilson the school reached a peak enrollment of 100 students in 1848. Attendance fell back to 68 the next year, and in 1850 the trustees voted to discontinue it.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    Subject: Caldwell Institute

  121. Solomon Pool studies at the university in Chapel Hill

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Solomon Pool entered the University of North Carolina in 1849 at the age of seventeen and graduated in 1853 as the second honor student in a class of fifty-nine. He was a member of the Philanthropic Society while in Chapel Hill.

  122. Giles Mebane introduces the bill to form Alamance County from western Orange

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    On January 1, 1849, Giles Mebane, a member for Orange County, introduced a bill to create a new county from part of Orange. It passed, and he named the county Alamance.

    Part of How Orange County’s boundaries changed, 1771–1881 · 35 events

  123. Samuel W. Hughes is named to Orange County's first board for examining teachers

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    On March 12, 1850, Samuel Wellwood Hughes was appointed to the first Orange County board to examine teachers for the common schools. In February 1852 he was also appointed to the county Board of Superintendents of Common Schools.

  124. Fordyce M. Hubbard serves as rector of the Chapel of the Cross

    Chapel Hill

    While teaching Latin at the university, the Rev. Fordyce M. Hubbard served as rector of the Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill's Episcopal church, from about 1851 until 1853. He took charge of the parish again after Francis W. Hilliard resigned in July 1865 and stayed until he left in late 1868.

    Subject: Chapel of the Cross

  125. Frederick Strudwick graduates and begins practising law in Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Frederick Nash Strudwick, born in Hillsborough on 27 June 1833 and schooled there, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1851 and then began a law practice in Hillsborough.

  126. Zebulon Vance studies law at Chapel Hill

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Vance entered the University of North Carolina early in 1851 and spent the rest of the year at Chapel Hill studying law under Judge William H. Battle and Samuel F. Phillips. He obtained his law licence in December 1851 and set up an office at Asheville early in 1852.

    People: William Horn Battle · Samuel Field Phillips

  127. Nancy Hilliard sells the Eagle Hotel, renamed the Union Hotel

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    In the early 1850s Miss Nancy Hilliard, long the students' and travelers' landlady, sold her hotel interest for $10,000 to Hugh B. Guthrie, who renamed the Eagle the Union Hotel. She went on to run the North Carolina Railroad eating house at Company Shops.

    People: Nancy Hilliard

    Subject: North Carolina Railroad · Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)

  128. James Strudwick Smith dies

    Life event · Orange County

    James Strudwick Smith died on December 7, 1852. His family lived out their lives at the Smith Level Road house outside Chapel Hill, and his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith later gave land to the University of North Carolina.

    People: Mary Ruffin Smith

  129. Witherspoon dies at Tusculum and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery

    Life event · Hillsborough

    He died penniless at the Tusculum farmhouse on the thirty-seventh anniversary of the organization of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. His funeral was held in that church and he was buried nearby in the Nash-Strudwick plot of the Old Town Cemetery, where the congregation and townspeople paid for the obelisk over his grave.

    Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough · Hillsborough Presbyterian Church · Tusculum (Witherspoon farm)

  130. Solomon Pool becomes tutor of mathematics at the university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Pool was appointed tutor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina in December 1853, months after his own graduation. He received an honorary alumni master of arts degree in 1856.

  131. Richard H. Battle teaches at the university as a tutor

    Chapel Hill

    After graduating with first honors in 1854, Richard H. Battle stayed in Chapel Hill as a tutor of mathematics and Greek until 1858, reading law with his father, the law professor William H. Battle, and serving on the vestry of the Chapel of the Cross.

    People: William Horn Battle

  132. Samuel F. Phillips teaches in the university law school

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    From 1854 to 1859 Phillips taught in the university law school at Chapel Hill.

    People: William Horn Battle

    Subject: UNC School of Law

  133. Benjamin Hedrick is appointed the university's professor of analytical and agricultural chemistry

    Chapel Hill

    The university appointed Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick to its new chair of analytical and agricultural chemistry. He held it until the trustees' executive committee dismissed him in October 1856.

  134. Elizabeth Keckly purchases freedom for herself and her son

    Slavery and freedom · St. Louis, Missouri; earlier Hillsborough connection

    Elizabeth Keckly purchased freedom for herself and her son in St. Louis, after earlier enslavement in Hillsborough.

    People: George Kirkland · Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly

  135. Orange County elects John Wall Norwood to the General Assembly

    Orange County

    Norwood entered public life in 1856 when Orange County elected him a representative in the General Assembly, where he served until 1858.

  136. Samuel F. Phillips represents Orange County in the House of Commons

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    A Whig, Phillips was elected to the House of Commons in 1856 and 1858 and again in 1864 and 1865, representing Orange, and was chosen speaker in 1865. He moved to Raleigh in 1867.

  137. Dr. William P. Mallett moves his medical practice to Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill

    After about fifteen years of practice in Fayetteville, Mallett moved to Chapel Hill so his children could attend the university. He treated villagers and students there for more than thirty years.

  138. The university dismisses Benjamin S. Hedrick over his Free Soil views

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    In 1856 faculty member Benjamin S. Hedrick admitted and defended in the newspapers his preference for the Free Soil party. President David L. Swain disapproved of his speaking out, and on October 18, 1856 the trustees' executive committee, meeting in Raleigh, dismissed Hedrick and paid his salary to the end of the session; Swain objected only that the committee had taken authority belonging to the full board.

    People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

  139. John Kimberly is elected the university's professor of agricultural chemistry

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    The university elected John Kimberly, a Harvard-trained chemist then teaching in eastern North Carolina, to the chair of agricultural chemistry in place of the dismissed Benjamin Hedrick.

    People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick

  140. Robert Bingham becomes a partner in his father's school at the Oaks

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County, the Oaks

    After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1857, Robert Bingham was admitted in July as junior partner in his father's school at the Oaks, which took the firm name W. J. Bingham and Sons. His brother William was also a partner.

    Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 189 events

    People: William Bingham (1835-1873) · William James Bingham

    Subject: Bingham School

  141. Adolphus W. Mangum serves as pastor of the Chapel Hill Methodist church

    Chapel Hill

    The Methodist minister Adolphus Williamson Mangum, born at Locust Grove on the Flat River in what was then Orange County, was pastor of the Methodist church in Chapel Hill in 1858 and 1859.

    Subject: University United Methodist Church

  142. New East and New West are built to William Percival's design

    Chapel Hill

    To house more students, the university built two dormitories with classrooms and debating society halls on either side of Old East and Old West, to designs by the English architect William Percival, with Thomas Coates as contractor. Work began in June 1858, and the faculty announced on July 31, 1861 that the buildings were ready to occupy.

    Subject: Old East · Old West · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

  143. Frederick Nash dies in Hillsborough and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Nash fell ill returning from a synod meeting at New Bern and died at his Hillsborough home on Saturday, December 4, 1858, in his seventy-eighth year, while serving as chief justice of the state supreme court. He was buried in the Hillsborough Old Town Cemetery.

    Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough

  144. John Kimberly expands laboratory teaching at the university

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    Back in Chapel Hill after a year of study abroad in 1859, John Kimberly expanded laboratory instruction in chemistry and introduced the university's first laboratory fee for supplies.

  145. William H. S. Burgwyn enters the University of North Carolina

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    Burgwyn entered the University of North Carolina as a freshman in 1860, after schooling near Baltimore and at Horner's School in Oxford. He left in 1861 because of illness.

  146. John Wall Norwood and Paul C. Cameron run relief for Orange County soldiers' families

    Hillsborough

    Through the Civil War, Norwood and Paul C. Cameron oversaw aid to the families of Orange County men in the army, working out of Norwood's law office. In August 1864 they reported that between 1,500 and 2,000 county men had served.

    Part of Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865 · 150 events

    People: Paul C. Cameron

  147. Solomon Pool is promoted to adjunct professor of mathematics

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Pool was promoted to adjunct professor of mathematics in 1861 and held the position for six years. In 1866 he took leave to become a United States deputy appraiser in North Carolina on the understanding that the university need not reemploy him until it had need of him.

  148. William H. S. Burgwyn enrolls as a cadet at the Hillsborough Military Academy

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Later in 1861 Burgwyn entered the Hillsborough Military Academy as a cadet. By the autumn he had been appointed drill master of the camp of instruction near Raleigh, and he was then elected a lieutenant in the Thirty-fifth North Carolina Regiment.

    Part of Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865 · 150 events

    Subject: Hillsborough Military Academy

  149. Young men enroll at Chapel Hill in the Orange Light Infantry

    Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill

    William F. Strowd and other young men of the area, who had begun organizing a volunteer company on April 6, 1861, met at Chapel Hill on April 22 and enrolled for six months. As the Orange Light Infantry they were mustered into state service at Raleigh on May 13.

    Part of Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865 · 150 events

  150. Orange County elects William A. Graham to the secession convention

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Graham had led Union men in defeating a February 1861 referendum to call a convention on disunion. After Fort Sumter he was elected by a large margin to represent Orange County in the Constitutional Convention of May 1861, where he stood unsuccessfully for the presidency of the convention before voting for secession.

  151. Robert Bingham goes to war with an Orange County militia company

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Robert Bingham, a member of an Orange County militia company, enlisted in state service with his fellow members on March 8, 1862, and on March 25 was elected captain of Company G, Forty-fourth North Carolina Infantry. He was captured in June 1863 and held in Union prisons until he was exchanged in 1864.

    Part of Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865 · 150 events

  152. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  153. Charles Phillips is ordained at New Hope Church in Orange County

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Phillips was ordained on 14 April 1866 at Orange County's New Hope Church, which had long been under the pastoral charge of his father James Phillips. Orange Presbytery had convened there on Wednesday, April 11, and ordained Phillips and Calvin H. Wiley during the meeting.

    People: James Phillips

    Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

  154. Charles Phillips is dismissed from the university faculty

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    When the state's Reconstruction government reorganized the University of North Carolina in 1868, Phillips was dismissed from the faculty. He took a professorship at Davidson College in February 1869.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

  155. William H. S. Burgwyn graduates from the university with first honors

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    After the Civil War Burgwyn re-entered the University of North Carolina as a sophomore and graduated in June 1868 with first honors, delivering the Latin salutatory address. He was a member of the Philanthropic Society.

  156. Alexander McIver joins the reorganized faculty as professor of mathematics

    Chapel Hill

    McIver, a Moore County native who had graduated first in the class of 1853 and taught briefly as a tutor, came from Davidson College to teach mathematics on the Republican faculty that reopened the university under Solomon Pool.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

    People: Solomon Pool

  157. Solomon Pool accepts the presidency of the university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Pool accepted the presidency of the University of North Carolina in 1869 at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars and was permitted to keep his federal appraiser post at the same time. Governor William W. Holden had taken charge of the board of trustees to secure a president with Republican affiliations.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

    People: William W. Holden

  158. Robert G. Fitzgerald marries Cornelia Smith of Chapel Hill

    Orange County

    Fitzgerald married Cornelia Smith, a niece of Mary Ruffin Smith, the Chapel Hill benefactor of the university. Their granddaughter Pauli Murray later told the family's story in Proud Shoes.

    People: Pauli Murray · Mary Ruffin Smith · Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald

  159. Builder John Berry dies at Sunny Side while starting the Berry Building

    Life event · Sunny Side, near Hillsborough

    John Berry, the self-taught builder of the Orange County Courthouse and a longtime state legislator, died of pneumonia at his home Sunny Side at 72. He had caught cold that winter while beginning his last project, a two-story brick store and ballroom downtown known as the Berry Building.

    Subject: Sunnyside (John Berry farm)

  160. Joseph E. Pogue clerks in his brother E. H. Pogue's Hillsborough store

    Life event · Hillsborough

    At 18, Joseph Ezekiel Pogue left East Tennessee for Hillsborough, where he clerked in the general store of his brother, E. H. Pogue, until September 1871. He then became a traveling salesman for a tobacco factory, the start of a tobacco career that took him to Henderson in 1875 and Raleigh in 1885.

    People: E. H. Pogue

  161. Frederick Strudwick takes an unexpired Orange County seat in the House

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    In February 1870 Strudwick, a Democrat, was chosen to fill the unexpired term of J. J. Allison in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He was elected to a full two-year term that August.

  162. Strudwick is kept off the impeachment managers because of his Klan reputation

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    After guiding the impeachment resolution through the house judiciary committee and the full house, Strudwick was not chosen as a manager for the senate trial. It was feared that his widely known association with the Ku Klux Klan would make the proceedings look like a Klan prosecution.

    Part of Governor Holden’s impeachment and trial, 1870–1871 · 20 events

    People: William W. Holden

  163. Joseph Blount Cheshire studies law under William K. Ruffin at Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Cheshire read law for several months under William K. Ruffin of Hillsborough, a son of Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin. He then worked three months in a Tarboro law office and was licensed in January 1872.

  164. Solomon Pool asks alumni and friends to pay the university's debts

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    In January 1871 Pool addressed alumni and friends of the university and pleaded for money to pay off its debts. The appeal came too late, and the trustees decided that the institution should close on 1 February 1871.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

  165. Orange County elects John Wall Norwood to the state Senate

    Orange County

    Norwood was elected state senator for Orange in 1872. His speech on the amnesty bill, given in the Senate on January 27, 1873, was printed as a pamphlet.

  166. Robert Bingham takes charge of the Bingham School near Mebane

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County, Bingham School near Mebane

    When his brother William died in 1873, Robert Bingham became headmaster of the Bingham School, which had moved from the Oaks to Mebane. In May 1879 he bought out his cousin William B. Lynch's interest and became sole proprietor.

    People: William Bingham (1835-1873) · W. B. (William Bingham) Lynch

    Subject: Bingham School

  167. John Manning serves on the university's Board of Trustees

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    John Manning became a trustee of the University of North Carolina in 1874 and held the post for two decades, through the university's 1875 reopening.

  168. Adolphus W. Mangum joins the faculty of the reopened university

    Chapel Hill

    When the university reopened in 1875 Mangum became professor of mental and moral science, history and English language and literature. He taught until he died in Chapel Hill in May 1890 and was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

    Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

  169. Charles Phillips returns to Chapel Hill and chairs the faculty

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    When the University of North Carolina reopened in 1875, Phillips was invited back as professor of mathematics and served as chairman of the faculty during his first year. Illness forced his retirement in 1879, when he became the first professor emeritus named by the trustees.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

    People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer

  170. John DeBerniere Hooper returns as professor of Greek and French when the university reopens

    Chapel Hill

    When the university reopened in 1875 Hooper was appointed professor of Greek and French. He resigned in October 1885 because of illness and died at his Chapel Hill home in January 1886.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

  171. Ralph Henry Graves joins the faculty of the reopened university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Ralph Henry Graves returned to Chapel Hill in 1875 as professor of engineering at the newly reopened University of North Carolina. He later taught mathematics and held his professorship until his death in 1889.

    Part of The university closes and reopens · 78 events

  172. William A. Graham dies and is buried at Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Graham died unexpectedly at Saratoga Springs, New York, on 11 August 1875, where he had gone for a meeting of the Virginia and Maryland arbitration commission. He was buried in the cemetery adjacent to the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. He had been elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875 but died before it assembled.

    Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church · Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough

  173. Joseph Blount Cheshire is assigned to the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Ordered deacon at Tarboro on 21 April 1878, Cheshire was assigned by Bishop Thomas Atkinson to the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill at the request of university president Kemp P. Battle. He served his diaconate there under Robert Sutton, rector of the Pittsboro parish.

    People: Kemp Plummer Battle

    Subject: Chapel of the Cross

  174. Locke Craig teaches at the university and at a Chapel Hill school

    Chapel Hill

    After graduating from the university at nineteen, Locke Craig taught chemistry there for a short time and taught at a private school in Chapel Hill. Kemp Battle listed him among graduates then teaching as "Craig at Chapel Hill."

  175. William George Randall walks from Burke County to Chapel Hill to enter the university

    Chapel Hill

    Randall walked to Chapel Hill in the fall of 1880, was interviewed by President Kemp Battle and was helped by the Deems Fund. The Dialectic Society paid him as its librarian, the first year the post carried a salary.

    People: Kemp Plummer Battle

    Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

  176. Joseph Blount Cheshire is ordained priest two years after coming to Chapel Hill

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Cheshire was ordained priest on 30 May 1880 by Bishop Theodore B. Lyman in St. Paul's Church, Winston, two years after going to Chapel Hill. While based at the Chapel of the Cross he also organized a mission at Durham and built a church there named for St. Philip the Deacon.

    Subject: Chapel of the Cross

  177. John Manning teaches law at the university

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina

    Elected professor of law in 1881, John Manning taught at Chapel Hill while keeping a private practice, and law enrollment grew from seven students to eighty-seven by 1897-98.

    Subject: UNC School of Law

  178. Joseph Blount Cheshire leaves Chapel Hill to become rector at Charlotte

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    In the spring of 1881 Cheshire accepted a call to St. Peter's Church in Charlotte, ending about three years at the Chapel of the Cross. He was elected bishop of North Carolina in 1893.

    Subject: Chapel of the Cross

  179. William H. S. Burgwyn is appointed a trustee of the University of North Carolina

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Burgwyn was appointed a trustee of the University of North Carolina in 1883, the year after he returned to the state and settled at Henderson.

  180. Eben Alexander comes to Chapel Hill as professor of Greek

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Eben Alexander, who had taught ancient languages at East Tennessee University for thirteen years, accepted the professorship of Greek at the University of North Carolina in 1886 and moved to Chapel Hill.

  181. Frank Porter Graham was born

    Life event · Fayetteville; later Chapel Hill connection

    Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville; he later led UNC.

  182. Frederick Strudwick co-owns and edits the Hillsborough Recorder

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    On 10 August 1887 Strudwick and C. E. Parish became co-owners and editors of the Hillsborough Recorder. Their first issue promised a firm and conservative stand on matters of public welfare and a thoroughly Democratic line in politics. Strudwick left the paper after the issue of 8 March 1888.

    Part of The Hillsborough Recorder begins publication, 1820 · 27 events

    People: Calvin E. Parish

    Subject: Hillsborough Recorder

  183. Samuel M. Gattis becomes chairman of the Orange County Democratic executive committee

    Orange County

    In the year he began practicing law in Hillsborough, Gattis was elected chairman of the Orange County Democratic executive committee and a delegate to the party's national convention.

  184. Samuel M. Gattis becomes clerk of the Orange County superior court

    Hillsborough

    Judge Gilmer appointed the young Hillsborough lawyer clerk of the superior court after Dr. Pride Jones resigned. Gattis was elected to the office in 1889 and held it until 1894.

    People: Pride Jones

  185. Robert Worth Bingham wins the university's Representative Medal

    Chapel Hill

    As a University of North Carolina student, Robert Worth Bingham won the Representative Medal in 1890 for his oration "Manifest Destiny and Manifest Duty."

  186. Frederick Strudwick dies and Hillsborough holds a meeting in his honor

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Strudwick died on 29 July 1890 after an illness of several months and was buried in the Hillsborough Cemetery. A special town meeting led by C. E. Parish was convened in his honor. Between the legislature and his death he had served as solicitor for the Fifth District for eight years.

    People: Calvin E. Parish

  187. David G. Worth pays to refit Gerrard Hall with numbered chairs

    Gerrard Hall

    David G. Worth of Wilmington gave $500 toward remodeling the university chapel, Gerrard Hall, where chairs replaced the old benches. Each student was given a numbered seat so monitors could report absences from morning prayers.

    Subject: Gerrard Hall

  188. Charles Baskerville plays fullback for Carolina

    Chapel Hill

    Baskerville was fullback and manager of the Carolina football squads of 1892, 1893 and 1894.

  189. Collier Cobb joins the UNC faculty to teach geology

    Appointment, election or service · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

    Cobb returned to Chapel Hill as assistant professor of geology and later headed the geology department. He taught at the university for forty years.

  190. Frank Nash returns to Hillsborough to live and write

    Hillsborough

    After breakdowns in health ended most of his Tarboro law practice, Frank Nash moved back to Hillsborough, where he had grown up at the Nash-Kollock school. He stayed about twenty years and began writing historical romances and local history.

  191. Paul Green, playwright of The Lost Colony and an outspoken opponent of segregation, was born

    Life event · Harnett County; later Chapel Hill connection

    Paul Green was born in Harnett County and entered UNC in 1916.

  192. Ernest Graves plays fullback on the undefeated 1898 Carolina football team

    Chapel Hill

    Graves, a Chapel Hill native, played fullback for the university and was a member of its undefeated, untied team of 1898. He scored 131 points in his Carolina football career.

  193. M. C. S. Noble joins the university as professor of pedagogy

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble, superintendent of the Wilmington schools, was elected professor of pedagogy at the University of North Carolina by the trustees meeting at Raleigh on January 26, 1898. He also directed the university's summer school.

    Subject: University Summer School

  194. Robert Worth Bingham endows a debate prize at the university

    Chapel Hill

    Robert Worth Bingham, a UNC alumnus practicing law in Louisville, endowed the university's Robert Worth Bingham prize in debate.

  195. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  196. Charles Baskerville heads UNC's chemistry department

    Chapel Hill

    When Francis P. Venable became university president in 1900, Baskerville succeeded him as chairman of the chemistry department, Smith Professor and director of the chemical laboratory, posts he held until 1904.

    People: Francis Preston Venable

  197. Ernest Graves captains the Carolina baseball team

    Chapel Hill

    Graves, the team's catcher, captained the university baseball team in 1900, the year he graduated.

  198. Thomas Wolfe, who came to Chapel Hill as a student in 1916, was born

    Life event · Asheville; later Chapel Hill connection

    Thomas Wolfe was born in Asheville and entered UNC in 1916.

  199. Charles E. Maddry serves as superintendent of the Orange County schools

    Orange County

    While a student at the University of North Carolina, Charles Edward Maddry served as superintendent of the Orange County schools.

    Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

  200. Isaac Hall Manning joins the UNC medical faculty

    Chapel Hill

    Manning came to the School of Medicine in 1901 as professor of physiology and began teaching bacteriology in 1902.

    Subject: UNC School of Medicine

  201. Josephus Daniels serves on the University of North Carolina board of trustees

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Daniels became a member of the university board of trustees in 1901 and remained an active trustee until his death in 1948. During the 1920s he pressed for consolidating the state colleges at Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Greensboro into one university, and in 1930 he championed Frank P. Graham to succeed Harry Woodburn Chase as president.

    People: Harry Woodburn Chase · Frank Porter Graham

  202. Josiah Turner Jr. dies at his Hillsborough home

    Life event · Hillsborough (St. Matthew's Church)

    Josiah Turner Jr., former Confederate congressman and editor of the Raleigh Sentinel, died at his home in Hillsborough and was buried in the churchyard of St. Matthew's Church.

    Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

  203. Charles E. Maddry is pastor of First Baptist Church, Hillsborough

    Hillsborough

    Charles Edward Maddry was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Hillsborough while finishing his studies at the University of North Carolina.

  204. Shepperd Strudwick brings his family back to Hillsborough

    Life event · Hillsborough

    Shepperd Strudwick, a native of Hillsborough, returned to the town with his family when his son Clement, born in Tennessee in April 1900, was two.

    People: Clement Read Strudwick

  205. Charles E. Maddry is ordained at the Chapel Hill Baptist Church

    Chapel Hill

    Charles Edward Maddry was ordained to the Baptist ministry at the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, now University Baptist Church.

    Subject: University Baptist Church

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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.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026