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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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3 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–3.Back to highlights

Entries

  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774

  2. Construction or physical change · William Reed's Ordinary (Seven Hearths), 157 East King Street, Hillsborough The house later called William Reed's Ordinary is built on East King Street

    The two-story main block of the house at 157 East King Street, on the lot first owned by town official and tavern keeper William Reed, was probably built around 1754, and early owners kept a tavern in its basement rooms. A one-story west wing was added around 1830.

  3. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

  4. Property or economic transaction · 157 East King Street (William Reed's Ordinary, Seven Hearths), Hillsborough Writer Peter Taylor buys the old Laws house on East King Street

    Short story writer Peter Taylor, then teaching English at the Woman's College in Greensboro, bought the Ed Laws house on East King Street. The paper reported the purchase when he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in April 1950.

  5. Migration or settlement · 157 East King Street (William Reed's Ordinary, Seven Hearths), Hillsborough Dr. Robert Murphy and his wife move into the Peter Taylor house on King Street

    Dr. and Mrs. Robert Murphy moved from Chapel Hill into the Peter Taylor house on King Street in Hillsborough, and Mrs. M. B. Roberts gave a tea to welcome them. The Murphys went on to restore the house, later known as Seven Hearths.

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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 1, 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