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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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15 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–15.Back to highlights

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15 dated events
1791Revolution and early republic
  1. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
  2. Eagle Lodge is chartered at Hillsborough

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    Eagle Lodge No. 19 was chartered at Hillsborough in 1791, among the first lodges under the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, with George Doherty as its first secretary. It stayed active until 1799 and then lay dormant until the masons revived it in 1819 under a new charter and a new number.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  3. Eagle Lodge meets in Chapel Hill and initiates Joseph Caldwell

    Life event · Chapel Hill

    By special dispensation, Hillsborough's Eagle Lodge met in Chapel Hill and made Masons of Joseph Caldwell, then presiding professor of the university, and three other faculty members.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  4. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  5. Eagle Lodge is revived at Hillsborough after twenty dormant years

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    Eagle Lodge, silent since 1799, was revived under a new number, 71. The Grand Lodge restored its original number, 19, in 1932.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  6. Eagle Lodge votes money toward a male academy in Hillsborough

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough

    A year after its revival, Eagle Lodge voted to put money toward building a male academy in Hillsborough.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge · Hillsborough Academy

  7. Eagle Lodge runs a lottery to pay for its Masonic Hall

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough

    Eagle Lodge held a lottery over eleven years and used the proceeds to build the Masonic Hall in Hillsborough, still in use in 1953.

    People: James Strudwick Smith

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  8. James S. Smith's building commission starts Hillsborough's brick Masonic Hall

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough, Masonic Hall (Eagle Lodge)

    In July 1823 commissioners James S. Smith, Thomas Clancy and J. P. Sneed advertised in the Hillsborough Recorder for proposals to build a brick Masonic Hall in the town. The cornerstone was laid on November 23, 1823, for the Greek Revival hall designed by William Nichols and built by local brickmasons John Berry and Samuel Hancock.

    People: John Berry · William Nichols · Samuel Hancock

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  9. The cornerstone of Eagle Lodge's Masonic hall is laid on West King Street

    Construction or physical change · Eagle Lodge, 142 West King Street, Hillsborough

    The cornerstone of the brick Masonic hall at 142 West King Street, designed by state architect William Nichols and believed built by brickmasons John Berry and Samuel Hancock, was laid on November 23, 1823. The lot was deeded to the lodge in 1824 after the building went up.

    People: John Berry · William Nichols · Samuel Hancock

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  10. Eagle Lodge Masons lay the cornerstone of the new Orange County courthouse

    Construction or physical change · Orange County Courthouse, 104 East King Street, Hillsborough

    Masons of Eagle Lodge, with brethren from University Lodge, laid the cornerstone of the new courthouse in Hillsborough, with Dr. James S. Smith acting as deputy grand master. The Rev. William M. Green gave the oration in the old courthouse nearby.

    People: James Strudwick Smith · William Mercer Green

    Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Eagle Lodge

  11. Masons lay a cornerstone at the Hillsborough Military Academy

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough Military Academy

    A delegation from Eagle Lodge took part in a Masonic cornerstone ceremony at the Hillsborough Military Academy in 1859.

    Subject: Hillsborough Military Academy · Eagle Lodge

  12. Eagle Lodge's rooftop observatory is taken down and a hipped roof built

    Construction or physical change · Eagle Lodge, 142 West King Street, Hillsborough

    In 1862 the glassed-in observatory on the roof of the Masonic hall, said to have predated President Caldwell's 1831 observatory at the university, was removed and the present hipped roof built.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  13. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  14. Masons lay the cornerstone of Grimes Dormitory

    Construction or physical change · Grimes Dormitory

    Masons from Hillsborough's Eagle Lodge and Chapel Hill's University Lodge laid the cornerstone of Grimes Dormitory. Past Grand Master Samuel M. Gattis of Eagle Lodge ran the ceremony and gave the address.

    People: Samuel Mallett Gattis

    Subject: Eagle Lodge · University Lodge

  15. Eagle Lodge gets back its original number, 19

    Naming or commemoration · Eagle Lodge, 142 West King Street, Hillsborough

    In 1932 the Hillsborough Masonic lodge, chartered as No. 19 in 1791 and revived in 1819 as No. 71, had its original number 19 reinstated. The lodge still owns and meets in its 1823 hall.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  16. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  17. Masons lay the cornerstone of the new Orange County courthouse at the county bicentennial

    Construction or physical change · Orange County Courthouse, 106 East Margaret Lane, Hillsborough

    On the opening day of the county's bicentennial week, Grand Master Edwin T. Howard and Eagle Lodge No. 19 laid the cornerstone in the half-finished courthouse. Chief Justice William A. Devin gave the address.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  18. Eagle Lodge is listed in the National Register

    Naming or commemoration · Eagle Lodge, Hillsborough

    On April 16, 1971 the National Park Service listed Eagle Lodge in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

  19. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  20. Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman play the Hillsborough Arts Council's Traditional Music Series

    Publication, speech or performance · Masonic Lodge, Hillsborough

    The Hillsborough Arts Council's 2007 Traditional Music Series presented Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2007, at the Masonic Lodge, 142 West King Street, in downtown Hillsborough.

    Subject: Eagle Lodge

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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 2, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026