Chronology

Farmers of Orange, Chatham and Guilford meet to talk about a railroad

On August 1, 1828, citizens of Orange, Chatham and Guilford met at William Albright's store in Chatham County, with James Mebane of Orange in the chair, to urge a central railroad through North Carolina, the first such meeting in the state. The Rev. Joseph Caldwell gave the address, which was to be printed as a pamphlet, and Caldwell, Duncan Cameron and Michael Holt were named the Orange members of a committee of correspondence. Public meetings on a line through the county went on into the early 1850s.

Orange County railroad meeting backs a central route through Orange and Guilford

A county meeting at the Hillsborough court house, chaired by Dr. Edmund Strudwick, adopted William A. Graham's resolutions that the central railroad should run through Orange and Guilford, pledged enough subscriptions to grade the road through the county, and named ten delegates to the Salisbury railroad convention in June. Graham and Giles Mebane spoke.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: William A. Graham · Edmund Strudwick · Giles Mebane · Dennis Heartt · David L. Swain · Cadwallader Jones · John Wall Norwood · John U. Kirkland · James Patterson

North Carolina Railroad stock books open at Hillsborough

The commissioners opened the North Carolina Railroad subscription books at the Hillsborough court house, where John M. Morehead, David L. Swain and William A. Graham addressed the people; the editor called the first day's subscriptions respectable, and the books stayed open thirty days.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Cadwallader Jones · Edmund Strudwick · John Motley Morehead · David L. Swain · William A. Graham

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Orange County residents put up $100,000 for the North Carolina Railroad

Orange County people pledged $100,000 in 1850 toward building the North Carolina Railroad, planned to cross the state from Goldsboro through Hillsborough to Charlotte. Its first rails went down at Greensboro in 1851.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Orange railroad meeting names a committee to raise subscriptions

A meeting of Orange County citizens at the court house in Hillsborough appointed a committee, among them Dr. W. A. Norwood, D. C. Parrish, John Berry, J. U. Kirkland, W. N. Pratt, C. W. Johnston and Josiah Turner Jr., to solicit subscriptions to the North Carolina Railroad and report at the February county court.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Walter A. Norwood · John Berry · John U. Kirkland · Josiah Turner Jr.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad convention at Hillsborough pledges the remaining North Carolina Railroad stock

A railroad convention at Hillsborough, called to complete the list of one hundred men pledged to take the unsubscribed stock, agreed that the whole amount still needed under the charter would be taken. When the general commissioners met at Greensborough on March 30 they found $76,000 to $78,000 still lacking, mainly because the Petersburg Railroad found it could not take its $40,000, and reopened the books, at Hillsborough until May 1.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad commissioners at Chapel Hill declare the North Carolina Railroad Company formed

Meeting at Chapel Hill, the general commissioners of the North Carolina Railroad found that the $1,000,000 in private stock required by the charter had been subscribed and the first five per cent, $50,000, paid in. They declared the company formed as of June 6, 1850, and called the stockholders to meet at Salisbury on July 11 to organize.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: John Motley Morehead · William A. Graham

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad engineers survey the North Carolina Railroad routes near Hillsborough

Corps of engineers for the North Carolina Railroad were surveying alternative routes in the Hillsborough neighborhood in late October, after chief engineer Walter Gwynn passed through town in September with word that $3 million would build the road. At about the same time the directors, meeting at Greensborough, chose William A. Norwood of Hillsborough to replace William A. Graham on the board.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: William A. Graham

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough citizens meet to bring the railroad through town on the north side of the river

A meeting at the court house, chaired by Magistrate of Police O. F. Long with E. A. Heartt as secretary, heard John U. Kirkland and others argue that the North Carolina Railroad should pass through the town on the north side of the river, and named a committee including Dr. Edmund Strudwick, Dr. W. A. Norwood, Dr. Pride Jones, George Laws and W. H. Brown to report how to secure that location.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: John U. Kirkland · Edmund Strudwick · Pride Jones · George Laws · William H. Brown

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad directors adopt the line through Hillsborough and order the road put under contract

Meeting in Raleigh, the North Carolina Railroad directors received the engineers' reports, fixed the 223-mile line by Raleigh, Hillsborough, Graham, Greensborough, Jamestown, Lexington, Salisbury and Concord to Charlotte, and ordered the whole road put under contract that summer, with contractors paid half in cash and half in stock and the work to be finished three years from January 1, 1852.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad grading contracts are let for the line through eastern Orange to Pratt's store

At the North Carolina Railroad's letting in Raleigh, contractors took the grading of the line from the Neuse River west to Pratt's store in eastern Orange County (now Durham County), completing the contracts from Goldsborough to Pratt's store except for about ten miles in Johnston County; bids for the section from Pratt's store to the Alamance line were taken at Hillsborough two days later.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: John Motley Morehead

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Contracts for grading the North Carolina Railroad through Orange are let at Hillsborough

At a letting in Hillsborough on Wednesday, June 25, 1851, contractors took the grading and other work on the North Carolina Railroad from Pratt's Store to the Alamance line, except for one short section about five miles west of town, which was let within the following days. Contracts for the Alamance part of the line were taken at Graham two days later.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

North Carolina Railroad directors meet in Hillsborough and order iron and locomotives

The directors of the North Carolina Railroad met in Hillsborough on January 8 and 9, heard that the whole line was now under contract, and authorized the president to contract for rails for the track and the chief engineer to buy two twenty-ton locomotives and cars. They also shifted the eastern end of the line to run through Waynesborough, a change New Bern stockholders soon protested.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A blast injures two enslaved men building the railroad near Hillsborough

Two enslaved men held by Turner and Jones, contractors building the North Carolina Railroad near Hillsborough, were hurt when a blasting charge they thought had been drawn went off as they redrilled the hole; one was feared to have lost an eye and the other lost a finger. The account shows enslaved labor at work on the railroad's rock cuts in Orange.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The county court names commissioners to value railroad land in Orange

Most Orange landowners on the route gave the North Carolina Railroad its right of way without charge, but four or five refused, so the company went to the county court to have their land valued under its charter. The court appointed William Lipscomb, Hezekiah Terry, Stephen S. Forrest, John W. Garrard and John McCown as the commissioners.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough offers the North Carolina Railroad town land for its principal shops

At a public meeting on August 29, 1853, the citizens of Hillsborough authorized the town commissioners to offer the North Carolina Railroad part of the land around the depot site at Hillsborough, free of cost, for the company's principal workshops, two days before the directors met in Raleigh to settle where the shops would go. The Recorder pressed the town's case in September, calling the site very eligible and easily graded.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Contractors finish their grading on the railroad's second division toward Hillsborough

By mid-November 1853 several contractors on the second division of the North Carolina Railroad, the division running west from near Raleigh, had finished their grading, among them men named Trollinger, Mebane and Faucett; others were nearly done, and the Recorder expected the whole grading to be ready before the company could lay the track.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A railroad depot is built at the Orange-Alamance line and Mebanesville grows up around it

The North Carolina Railroad put a depot on the county line in 1854, and the settlement of Mebanesville, later Mebane, soon formed there.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough lays off its common in lots and names Hillsborough Avenue and Calvin Street

The Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town common south of King Street laid off in lots, Margaret Lane extended to the western town line and a 99-foot street run from King Street to the railroad. They named the wide street Hillsborough Avenue and the street parallel with the depot Calvin Street, for Calvin Graves, whose casting vote as Speaker of the Senate had carried the North Carolina Railroad bill.

People: Calvin Graves · Thomas Webb · William Nelson · George Laws

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough offers the North Carolina Railroad a depot site on the town common

The Hillsborough commissioners tendered to the North Carolina Railroad Company, for its depot, the part of the town common south of Calvin Street between Occoneechee and Nash streets, and ordered the newly laid-off town lots sold on October 10.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

North Carolina Railroad stockholders meet at Hillsborough and vote to raise a million dollars

The stockholders of the North Carolina Railroad, with more than 8,000 shares represented, met at Hillsborough with Calvin Graves in the chair. They accepted the amendments to the company's charter by a stock vote, elected directors including John M. Morehead and Francis Fries, and authorized the president and directors to raise $1,000,000 to complete and equip the road.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Calvin Graves · Thomas Webb · John Motley Morehead

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough sells town lots beside the railroad station

The town of Hillsborough sold at auction the lots its commissioners had laid off near the coming North Carolina Railroad station. Ten lots of less than an acre each by the station brought $3,819 in all, and five one-acre lots in the northwest part of town sold for much less; the buyers were townspeople.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Paul Cameron tells the county agricultural society the railroad will wake Orange up

Speaking for two hours at the county's first agricultural fair at Hillsborough to the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, and Manufactures, Cameron predicted the coming railroad would shake local farmers and businesses out of their old habits.

North Carolina Railroad finished to Durham's Station

On December 20, 1854 the Recorder reported trains running daily from Raleigh to within a mile and a half of Durham's Station, whose warehouse was finished. The railroad was completed to Durham's Station, then a single house on Dr. Bartlett Durham's plantation in Orange County, and the company gave legislators a free ride there. From then until 1882 a two-horse hack line between Chapel Hill and Durham replaced the four-horse stage to Raleigh.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips · Samuel Field Phillips

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Orange flour starts going to Wilmington by rail from Durham's Station

After the first Wilmington merchant known to visit the section came through, several loads of flour were hauled to Durham's Station (now Durham County) to be sent to Wilmington. Until then produce carried on the North Carolina Railroad had gone to Norfolk and Portsmouth.

Part of Durham’s rise while part of Orange, 1850s–1881 · 40 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough lets the contract for a culvert and graded street to the depot

The town commissioners contracted with Josiah Turner (of James) to build a culvert where King and Occoneechee streets meet and to grade the streets from there to the railroad station, with macadam to follow if the money held out. The board also adopted an ordinance taxing everyone licensed to retail liquor in town, the constable to collect the tax when the license issued.

The railroad bridge frame over the Eno collapses with nine men on it

While hands were raising the North Carolina Railroad bridge near Brown's mills, two miles west of Hillsborough, a support standing on poor footing in midstream gave way and the frame fell about sixty feet into the river. The superintendent, Mr. Wells, and eight hands, five white and three Black, were on it; all survived, but Wells broke a thigh and several others were badly cut and bruised.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough station opens its freight warehouse under agent Dr. Hooker

The North Carolina Railroad's freight warehouse at Hillsborough was ready for use, and Dr. Hooker, newly appointed the company's agent at the Hillsborough station, took up his duties. The road had also dropped a rule that charged more per barrel to farmers shipping fewer than five barrels of flour at a time.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The first through trains run on the finished North Carolina Railroad, with mail trains at Hillsborough

The North Carolina Railroad was finished on January 29, 1856, when the last rail was laid about four and a half miles west of Greensboro. Two days later the regular mail and passenger trains made their first through run from Charlotte to Goldsboro, with a westbound train due at Hillsborough each morning and an eastbound one before dawn, replacing the coach connection that had carried the Burwells' letters to their daughter Fanny in New York.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Fire destroys the railroad bridge over Cates Creek below Hillsborough

The North Carolina Railroad's bridge over Cates's Creek, just below Hillsborough, burned on the morning of Wednesday, March 12, soon after the down train had passed. Thomas Webb walked about a mile down the track with a red blanket and stopped the up train before it reached the gap, and a new bridge was ready for the cars by Saturday night, March 15.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Thomas Webb

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A fire set on the railroad bridge over the Eno is caught in time

Between two and three o'clock on the morning of Sunday, March 16, the passing train found the North Carolina Railroad bridge over the Eno above Hillsborough on fire, and the fire was put out. The editor judged it the work of an incendiary, suspected the same of the Cates Creek fire four days earlier, and reported that a watch would be kept at each bridge on the road.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Logs laid across the railroad west of Hillsborough strike the passenger train

On Wednesday, April 23, the engineer of the eastbound passenger train found logs laid across the North Carolina Railroad about six miles west of Hillsborough and struck them before he could stop, though little damage was done. Two men named Turner who were seen nearby ran, were caught and were jailed in Raleigh, but on May 2 they were brought to Hillsborough on a writ of habeas corpus and discharged for want of evidence.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Frederick Nash · John Wall Norwood

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The Hillsborough depot reports its first year's shipments

In its first year of operation, from May 1, 1855, to April 30, 1856, the North Carolina Railroad depot at Hillsborough shipped 3,864 barrels of flour, 137,845 pounds of tobacco, 6,869 pounds of bacon and 17,373 pounds of dried fruit, along with cotton goods, rags and wheat, according to the railroad's agent there.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A permanent depot at University Station brings a plan for a town there

By May 10 the North Carolina Railroad had made University Station, on Stone's Creek, a permanent depot through which the trade of Chapel Hill and that part of Orange would pass. The court of equity ordered twenty half-acre lots there sold on June 7 for Calvin G. Strayhorn and others, and the sale notice said a town would be laid off.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: University Station · North Carolina Railroad

A post office opens at University Station with A. C. Hunter as postmaster

A new post office opened at University Station, the railroad stop five miles from Hillsborough, with A. C. Hunter appointed postmaster.

Subject: University Station

North Carolina Railroad stockholders hold their ninth annual meeting in the Masonic Hall at Hillsborough

The stockholders of the North Carolina Railroad Company met in the Masonic Hall at Hillsborough on July 8, 1858, with Thomas Webb of Hillsborough among the secretaries and Thomas Ruffin voting the state's stock as proxy. Before adjourning the next day they re-elected Charles F. Fisher president, chose the private directors and passed resolutions on the company's finances.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Thomas Webb · Thomas Ruffin · William A. Graham

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Durham's Station ships 1,733 barrels of flour in two months

Durham's Station sent out 1,733 barrels of flour and 1,013 bushels of corn in March and April, along with wheat and cotton. Nearly all the flour went to Rowland and Brothers in Norfolk, the corn west along the North Carolina Railroad, and the wheat and cotton to Petersburg.

Part of Durham’s rise while part of Orange, 1850s–1881 · 40 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The North Carolina Railroad stops carrying the mails and Hillsborough goes without

In a pay dispute with the Post Office Department, the North Carolina, Raleigh and Gaston, and Charlotte and South Carolina railroads stopped carrying the mails on May 1, and Hillsborough received no eastern mail. The roads resumed service within the week at the request of Congressman L. O'B. Branch, and the Recorder said the town was without mails from Monday to Saturday.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Lawrence O'B. Branch

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The legislature charters a University Railroad Company from Chapel Hill to the North Carolina Railroad

The 1860-61 General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the University Railroad Company, to run a line from Chapel Hill to the North Carolina Railroad.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A Confederate provost marshal takes charge of railroad passes at Hillsborough

Lt. P. L. Harwell of the Confederate infantry was appointed provost marshal at Hillsborough, and no citizen or soldier was allowed to travel on the railroad without a pass from him.

Court strikes down the act for a state-built railroad to Chapel Hill

An 1869 plan had the state build a line from the North Carolina Railroad to Chapel Hill through commissioners, paid for with $300,000 in state bonds. When the commissioners chose Henry C. Thompson as president over Governor Holden's choice, Holden refused to sign the bonds, and in the University Railroad Company's suit against him the court held the act unconstitutional over Judge Reade's dissent.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: William W. Holden

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Railroad stockholders at Hillsborough ask for lawyers to look into the sale of sinking-fund bonds to George W. Swepson

On Paul C. Cameron's motion the meeting unanimously asked the president and directors to hire Ralph Gorrell and William A. Graham, working with B. F. Moore, to look into how state bonds held by the commissioners of the company's sinking fund had been sold and passed to G. W. Swepson and others, and to sue if needed to protect the company.

People: Paul C. Cameron · William A. Graham · Bartholomew F. Moore

Railroad stockholders meeting at Hillsborough vote to ask the legislature for banking powers

Thomas Webb moved that the company's officers ask the General Assembly to amend the charter so the North Carolina Railroad could do banking business, with the private stockholders electing the bank's officers. Motions to table it (from Paul C. Cameron) and to send it to a committee both failed, and it carried by 5,006 shares to 2,271 with the state's proxy declining to vote.

People: Thomas Webb · Paul C. Cameron

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · North Carolina Railroad

Robert F. Hoke obtains a charter for the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad

While the university was closed, Robert F. Hoke, owner of an iron mine north of Chapel Hill, obtained a state charter for a railroad to carry ore from Iron Mountain to the North Carolina Railroad.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Robert F. Hoke

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

North Carolina Railroad stockholders meet at Hillsborough and accept the charter amendment

At their annual meeting at Hillsborough the North Carolina Railroad stockholders tabled W. R. Myers's motion to make Raleigh the permanent meeting place, then on the State's vote accepted the 1874 act amending the company charter so that it could issue bonds secured by a mortgage. Private stockholders including P. C. Cameron, Thomas Webb and William A. Graham opposed and entered a protest, and the new board elected W. A. Smith president.

People: Paul C. Cameron · Thomas Webb · William A. Graham

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Orange Superior Court refuses to send the suit against the North Carolina Railroad lease to federal court

At the fall term of Orange Superior Court, Judge Kerr heard arguments in Caldwell's suit against the Richmond and Danville and North Carolina railroad companies over the lease of the North Carolina Railroad and the change of gauge. He refused the Richmond and Danville's motion to move the case to federal court and continued it to the next term.

People: William A. Graham · William N. H. (William Nathan Harrell) Smith · Samuel A. Ashe

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The railroad agrees to build a depot at University Station to ship iron ore

Col. Buford of the railroad's lessees agreed, at General Hoke's request, to build a depot at University Station if neighbors supplied the ground and lumber. Its main business was to be shipping ore from Hoke's iron mine near Chapel Hill, which had sent 32 tons to Lincolnton for smelting and had 200 more tons ready.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Robert F. Hoke

Subject: University Station

The railroad's lessees change the North Carolina Railroad's gauge through Orange County

Gangs of laborers working at night relaid the North Carolina Railroad to the new gauge east of Greensboro, through Hillsborough and Durham, and by mid-June the change ran all the way to Goldsboro. The Recorder protested that the Virginia lessees had acted in defiance of a state law and a judge's order.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Hillsborough's town commissioners take up moving the railroad into town

At their meeting on Wednesday, June 27, the Hillsborough town commissioners took up a proposal to change the North Carolina Railroad's route so that it would run into and through the town instead of passing it a mile off. By mid-August a committee they had appointed called a meeting of citizens to consider the plan.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The railroad is rechartered as the State University Railroad

The legislature rechartered the stalled iron-mine line as the State University Railroad, shifting its purpose to a rail link for the university, with UNC president Kemp P. Battle working alongside Hoke to raise funds.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Kemp Plummer Battle · Robert F. Hoke

Robert F. Hoke raises subscriptions to run the railroad toward Chapel Hill

When iron prices rose in 1880 and shipping ore to Pennsylvania furnaces paid, Gen. Robert F. Hoke, who owned most of Iron Mountain north of Chapel Hill, began organizing the branch line from University Station. His Iron Mountain Company put up $6,000, the largest single pledge, and Julian S. Carr was among the other subscribers.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Julian S. Carr · Robert F. Hoke

Robert F. Hoke serves as unpaid superintendent of the State University Railroad

As the branch from University Station toward Chapel Hill got under way, university president Kemp P. Battle became president of the railroad company and General Robert F. Hoke its superintendent, both without salary. John Holt managed the convict work force and Captain Fry was the civil engineer.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

Subject: University Station

State convicts build the University Railroad

Governor Thomas J. Jarvis supplied state convicts at low hire to grade the line from University Station to Chapel Hill, while the Richmond and Danville company laid the rails. A white convict was shot dead while fleeing, and a Black convict named Fries died of gangrene after a whipping by the road's managers, which the solicitor found no ground to prosecute.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Kemp Plummer Battle · Alexander Boyd Andrews · Robert F. Hoke · Thomas Jordan Jarvis · Frederick N. Strudwick

Subject: University Station

Chapel Hill women serve a dinner to the convicts building the University Railroad

Spencer collected food around the village and, with other women, served a dinner at a long plank table to ninety-six convicts grading the railroad to Chapel Hill, with Joseph Blount Cheshire saying grace. Some residents refused to give, and Colonel Thomas M. Holt promised the ladies a ride on the first train.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer · Joseph Blount Cheshire Jr.

Work on the University Railroad stops for a time

Construction work on the State University Railroad near Chapel Hill came to a halt in mid-November 1880, for reasons the townspeople did not know.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Cross ties go down along the University Railroad

All but 5,000 of the cross ties for the State University Railroad had been delivered and placed on the track by mid-December 1880. The rest were under contract for January delivery, and the iron was to be laid as soon as they arrived.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: University Station

Mebaneville, the railroad village on the Orange-Alamance line, is incorporated

The settlement that grew along the North Carolina Railroad from 1854 was incorporated in 1881 and shortened its name to Mebane in 1883. Part of the town lies in Orange County.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Track laying on the State University Railroad stalls for want of labor

Work laying rails on the State University Railroad was held up by a shortage of hands during the wheat harvest; the paper expected it to be pushed to completion once harvest was over.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

The State University Railroad reaches New Hope Creek

Track on the State University Railroad was completed to New Hope, with cars due to cross the New Hope bridge that week. The sills, roadbed repairs, culverts, cattle guards and trestles were finished to within two and a half miles of Chapel Hill, and more than fifty hands were at work.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Commencement celebrates the railroad's arrival, and Battle calls Hoke its father

At the 1882 commencement an hour was set aside in Gerrard Hall to celebrate the railroad's coming to Chapel Hill. Kemp P. Battle told the history of the line and called General Robert F. Hoke the source of the enterprise and the father of the State University Railroad Company.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

People: Kemp Plummer Battle · Paul C. Cameron · Thomas Jordan Jarvis

Subject: Gerrard Hall

Julia Spencer drives a last spike to celebrate the finished University railroad

Chapel Hill celebrated the completed State University Railroad with speeches and the driving of the last spikes, one by Julia J. Spencer, daughter of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, and one by the railroad's agent, J. G. Cooley. Passenger trains had been running to the West End terminus since February.

Someone tries to wreck a North Carolina Railroad train near University Station

Rails, iron and other obstructions were placed in a cattle guard on the North Carolina Railroad about a mile from University Station, and a material train was nearly wrecked at night.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad · University Station

A runaway freight train runs into the eastbound passenger train at University Station

A special freight that had got out of control on the down grade ran into the rear of the eastbound passenger train while it stood at University Station about ten at night, badly damaging the rear coach.

Subject: University Station

The Keystone Bridge Company replaces the wooden railroad bridge over the Eno at Hillsboro with an iron one

Crews of the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh began replacing the wooden railroad bridge over the Eno near the Hillsboro depot with an iron bridge, expecting to finish by August 10. Trains kept running across it at three miles an hour.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A coal car axle breaks and wrecks seven freight cars west of Hillsborough

On Saturday an axle on a coal car broke as a freight train ran down a sharp grade on the North Carolina Railroad a few miles west of town. Seven cars were wrecked, the track was torn up, and the passenger train passed on a temporary track about six hours late. Hal Bullock, a Black brakeman, was slightly hurt.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

A new station house is finished at University Station

A new station house was finished at University Station on the North Carolina Railroad, ending the use of a box car for travelers to Chapel Hill. The Durham Sun, quoted by the Observer, called it small but as neat as any on the line.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: University Station · North Carolina Railroad

A freight car loaded with cotton burns at University Station

A car of cotton attached to a freight train burned at University Station on Friday, March 4. The cars behind it were uncoupled before the fire spread to them.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: University Station

A westbound freight train wrecks by the Eno bridge at the Hillsborough depot

About 5 a.m. on February 13, 1893, a westbound freight train wrecked just before it reached the bridge over the Eno at the Hillsborough depot, smashing several box cars loaded with freight. The track was open again within a few hours.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: Eno River road bridge, Hillsborough

Jefferson Davis's funeral train passes through Hillsborough without stopping

People from the town and the countryside waited at the Hillsborough depot most of the morning of May 30 to see the train carrying Jefferson Davis's remains to Richmond, and were disappointed when it went through at full speed. Several Hillsborough residents attended the ceremonies at Raleigh the same day.

Heavy rains wash out parts of the University Railroad

Heavy September rains did damage around Hillsborough, and washouts badly damaged the University Railroad, the branch line between University Station and Chapel Hill.

Part of From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new town, 1882–1913 · 79 events

Subject: University Station

The grand jury refuses to indict William Merritt on a charge of trying to wreck a train

The Orange grand jury returned no true bill against William Merritt, a white man accused of trying to wreck a North Carolina Railroad train between Hillsborough and Efland on December 13, 1893.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

Thomas Webb, former president of the North Carolina Railroad, dies at Hillsborough

Thomas Webb, a Hillsborough lawyer who had been president of the North Carolina Railroad Company and had been helpless from paralysis for years, died at his home in his 67th year. Eagle Lodge buried him with Masonic honors after a service at the Presbyterian church, and the town's stores closed during the funeral.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

G. E. Thurston succeeds J. W. Massey as the Southern Railway agent at Hillsborough

The Southern Railway transferred its Hillsborough station agent, J. W. Massey, to Selma and put his brother-in-law G. E. Thurston of Raleigh in charge of the Hillsborough station.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Superior court disposes of the charge of setting fire to the University Station depot

At the fall term of Orange Superior Court, a man named Shumaker, charged with setting fire to the depot at University Station, submitted, and judgment was suspended on payment of the costs.

Subject: University Station

The Farmers' State Alliance meets at Hillsborough and denounces the North Carolina Railroad lease

The North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance held its state session at its Hillsborough headquarters, re-elected its officers and passed a resolution denouncing the lease of the North Carolina Railroad to the Southern Railway Company.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

The Southern mail train and the Chapel Hill branch train collide at University Station

The regular Southern Railway mail train and a train on the Chapel Hill branch line collided at University Station on the morning of Monday, October 9, 1899. A conductor was slightly hurt.

Part of Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 · 82 events

Subject: University Station

Hillsborough's new railroad depot nears completion

A new railroad depot at Hillsborough, replacing the old one, was all but finished in late January 1902 and was expected to be a considerable improvement.

Fire destroys the Hillsborough depot

About midnight on November 9, 1903, fire destroyed the Southern Railway's freight and passenger depot and telegraph office at Hillsborough with all the freight, baggage, tickets and records inside, including goods just unloaded for local merchants.

Work begins on a new railroad depot to replace the one burned in November

Contractor J. D. Elliott began work on the new depot on May 9; it was to resemble the one destroyed by fire the previous November and to be finished in about four weeks.