Thomas W. Bickett

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

1. March 5, 1917 The legislature passes a $3 million bond issue that funds university buildings In the last hours of the 1917 session the house passed a $3 million bond issue, with only 14 of 120 votes against, for state institutions and public schools, giving the university $100,000 a year for five years for new buildings and repairs. Baptist leaders denounced the haste and the aid to state colleges. People: Edward Kidder Graham, Thomas W. Bickett Place: General Assembly, Raleigh; UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 129
2. October 22, 1917 Hillsborough men enlist in a Home Guard detachment of the state militia Answering Gov. Bickett's call, the Council of Defense chose 25 men on October 20, 1917, and they enlisted for the duration at the Hillsborough court house on October 22 and 24, electing Shepperd Strudwick first lieutenant. The county bought their uniforms, and they drilled twice a week until the influenza ban on meetings. People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961), J. Cheshire Webb, Thomas W. Bickett Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 58
3. University Day, October 1917 Governor Bickett gives a wartime University Day address A month after the term opened, Governor Thomas W. Bickett spoke at University Day in a chilly Memorial Hall, denouncing slackers. Marshals led the academic procession through ranks of uniformed men. People: Edward Kidder Graham, J. Stuart Allen, Thomas W. Bickett Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 146
4. June 5, 1918 A subdued wartime commencement honors the governor, Senator Overman and the Rev. W. D. Moss With about a third of the class of 1918 already in camps, the university gave honorary degrees to Governor Bickett, Senator Lee S. Overman, Edwin Mims and the Presbyterian pastor W. D. Moss. Frederic C. Howe, immigration commissioner at New York, gave the address. People: William Dygnum Moss, Thomas W. Bickett, Lee S. Overman Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Edwin Mims, Frederic Clemson HoweSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 166
5. February 15, 1919 The Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense is discharged Gov. Bickett advised in February 1919 that the legislature would not fund the Council of Defense, and on February 15 the state chairman gave all members of the Woman's Committee an honorable discharge, ending the county organization. People: Thomas W. Bickett Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 51
6. July 16, 1919 Hillsborough holds the county homecoming celebration for returned soldiers On July 16, 1919, about 15,000 people came to Hillsborough to welcome home Orange County's soldiers and sailors, with a parade, Gov. Bickett's address at the court house and a dinner for about a thousand guests in Cameron Park. J. Cheshire Webb chaired the celebration, and the county Red Cross voted $300 toward its cost, money the celebration fund turned out not to need. People: Frank Nash, Julian S. Carr, John W. Graham, J. Cheshire Webb, Samuel Mallett Gattis, Thomas W. Bickett Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Cameron ParkSearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 112 · Also: State Archives of North Carolina, Military Collection, WWI Papers, Box 2, Folder 37: Orange County Red Cross History, Hillsborough chapter h
7. September 1919 Some 300 county officials meet at the University as the State and County Council Two weeks before classes, about 300 school board members, county commissioners, superintendents, health and welfare officers and juvenile judges from 76 counties met on campus to compare work under the new state welfare and school laws. Governor Thomas W. Bickett gave the welcome. People: Thomas W. Bickett Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 215-216
8. November 2, 1920 Orange County women vote in a presidential election after the Nineteenth Amendment Orange County women could vote for president for the first time on November 2, 1920, after registering by October 23 without paying a poll tax. In an October 15 speech at the Chapel Hill high school auditorium, Governor Thomas Bickett said women should cast their votes. Literacy tests and hostile registrars kept many Black women off the rolls. People: Thomas W. Bickett Place: Countywide · Also mentions: Chapel Hill high schoolSearch the index · The Tar Heel, October 19, 1920, p. 1: Bickett Addresses Voters of Orange on Election Issues (continued p. 4)
9. November 5, 1920 Trustees let Chase ask for a six-year building program On November 5 Governor Bickett and the trustees' executive committee reversed an earlier two-year limit and let Chase plan every building needed for six years. Near the end of November he gave the State Budget Commission a $5.6 million list: dormitories for about 1,275 men, a law building, classroom buildings, a gymnasium, a women's building and faculty houses. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Thomas W. Bickett Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 227