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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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11 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–11.Back to highlights

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11 dated events
1869Reconstruction and the New South
  1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  2. Governor Holden warns Orange County it may be declared in insurrection

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    Holden's proclamation of October 20, 1869, named Lenoir, Jones, Orange and Chatham counties and said that in Orange the jail had been forced, two Black prisoners taken out and shot, and three other Black men hanged. He warned that he would declare those counties in a state of insurrection and use the whole power of the state if the violence continued.

    People: William W. Holden

  3. Klansmen from Hillsborough ride to kill Senator T. M. Shoffner and turn back

    Violence or armed conflict · Hillsborough and Alamance County

    A Klan party coming from Orange County that included Hillsborough legislator Frederick N. Strudwick and A. Hedgepeth of Hillsborough gathered at a Bradshaw home in Alamance County to kill state senator T. M. Shoffner, author of the anti-Klan militia bill. Dr. John A. Moore, sent by James E. Boyd, told them Shoffner had gone to Greensboro, and they turned back.

    People: Frederick N. Strudwick

  4. Hillsborough men ask Governor Holden to commission Pride Jones against the Klan

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    On March 5, 1870 six Hillsborough men, among them J. W. Norwood, James Webb and Henry K. Nash, recommended to Governor Holden that Pride Jones be made a militia captain to put down night riding. Holden sent the commission on March 7 and Jones accepted on March 9. The raids soon stopped, and Jones resigned after four weeks.

    People: William W. Holden · Pride Jones

  5. Kirk's militia arrests Josiah Turner Jr. at Hillsborough

    Law, policy or court · Countywide

    On August 5, 1870, a detachment of Kirk's state militia seized Raleigh Sentinel editor Josiah Turner Jr. at or near Hillsborough, took him by rail to Company Shops and then held him with Kirk's other prisoners in the Caswell County courthouse at Yanceyville. U.S. District Judge George W. Brooks ordered him discharged on August 19, 1870, on his habeas corpus petition.

    Part of Kirk-Holden War connections, 1870 · 11 events

    People: William W. Holden · Josiah Turner Jr.

  6. Orange County representative Frederick N. Strudwick moves to impeach Governor Holden

    Law, policy or court · North Carolina House of Representatives, Raleigh

    Frederick N. Strudwick of Orange introduced the House resolution to impeach Governor William W. Holden, which the House adopted on December 14, 1870. On December 19 he chaired the Committee of the Whole that adopted the eight articles of impeachment and elected the seven House managers.

    People: William W. Holden · Frederick N. Strudwick

  7. 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 Kirk-Holden War connections, 1870 · 11 events

    People: William W. Holden

  8. William A. Graham of Hillsborough joins the prosecution of Governor Holden

    Law, policy or court · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    The House managers announced to the impeachment court that former governor William A. Graham of Hillsborough, with Thomas Bragg and Augustus S. Merrimon, would act as their counsel. Graham argued points of evidence for the prosecution through the trial.

    People: William A. Graham · Thomas Bragg · Thomas Sparrow

  9. Hillsborough constable describes Orange County Klan killings to a U.S. Senate committee

    Law, policy or court · U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

    W. G. Turrentine, a Hillsborough constable, told the Senate select committee in Washington that five Black men had been killed in Orange County and many people whipped, some for voting Republican. He described how, in August 1869, 75 to 100 disguised men forced the Hillsborough jail and shot a prisoner held on a barn-burning charge, who died.

    Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

  10. U.S. Senate committee hears Orange County testimony on Klan violence

    Law, policy or court · Countywide

    A Senate select committee created on January 19, 1871 took testimony in Washington on Klan violence in North Carolina. Orange County witnesses, including Hillsborough constable W. G. Turrentine, court clerk George Laws and editor Josiah Turner Jr., described the 1869 jail raid, hangings and whippings in the county. The committee reported on March 10, 1871.

    Part of Racial-terror lynchings in Orange County · 17 events

    Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

  11. Lucinda Morrow of Hillsborough testifies at Governor Holden's impeachment trial

    Law, policy or court · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    Called by Holden's defense, Lucinda Morrow, then living in Hillsborough, described disguised men breaking into her Cane Creek home in Orange County in the fall of 1869 and hanging her husband, Thomas Jefferson Morrow. Prosecution counsel William A. Graham objected to her evidence, and Augustus S. Merrimon argued it was irrelevant unless tied to Alamance County.

    People: William A. Graham · Jefferson Morrow

  12. Senate convicts Holden on the article charging Turner's arrest in Orange County

    Law, policy or court · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    The state Senate found Governor Holden guilty, 37 to 12, on Article III, which charged him with the unlawful arrest of Josiah Turner Jr. in Orange County on August 5, 1870, and also convicted him on Articles IV through VIII. Senator John W. Graham of Orange then offered the order of judgment removing Holden from office and barring him from state office, which the Senate adopted.

    People: William W. Holden · Josiah Turner Jr. · John W. Graham

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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