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Key local figure

Paul C. Cameron

Paul C. Cameron (1808–1891) lived at Burnside in Hillsborough and, from 1837 to 1856, at Fairntosh, managing the Cameron plantations; on the eve of the Civil War he and his siblings enslaved over one thousand people on plantations in Orange and other counties. A UNC trustee, he chaired its building committee and gave the money for the original Memorial Hall.

Source: UNC Libraries: Cameron Family Papers (#133), finding aid

Also found in catalogs as Paul C (Paul Carrington) Cameron.

1808–1891 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

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Paul C. Cameron
Paul C. Cameron

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Select a title to open its page or chronology entry.

Agricultural societies and fairs in Orange County, 1821–18571821–1857 · Orange County farmers organized agricultural societies repeatedly between 1821 and 1857. The Cane Creek Agricultural Society, reporting in 1821 that the county's wheat crop had largely failed, asked farmers to report their improvements and trials. A county society formed at Hillsborough in 1822, with Duncan Cameron as president, offered premiums and planned a cattle show, and in 1841 a grand jury proposed another. In 1853 the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts was organized under Paul C. Cameron. At its first fair, in 1854, Cameron predicted that the coming railroad would shake farmers out of their old habits. The society bought fair grounds near the depot in 1856 and held fairs through 1857. Whigs, Democrats and Know Nothings in Orange County, 1841–18591841–1859 · Orange County's elections from 1841 to 1859 were often close, as Whigs, Democrats and for a time the Know Nothings contested the county. In 1841 Orange narrowly backed the Whig James S. Smith for Congress, though the Democrat Romulus M. Saunders won the district. In 1844 the county elected its whole Whig ticket and gave its own William A. Graham a majority for governor. A tied 1848 state Senate race, broken by the sheriff's casting vote, ended in a new election. Orange backed Graham's 1852 run for vice president, voted for the Know Nothing, or American, candidate for Congress in 1855 and went Democratic in 1856. In December 1859 a Whig and Opposition meeting denounced John Brown's raid. Building the State University Railroad, 1879–18831879–1883 · 29 events · Chapel Hill's railroad to University Station was graded by state convicts; a guard shot one dead as he ran, and an overseer was charged with cruelly whipping another, a Black convict named Fries, who died. A coroner's jury found other causes, and Battle wrote that the solicitor found no ground to prosecute. In 1879 the legislature had rechartered a stalled iron-mine line as the State University Railroad, and in January 1880 the stockholders adopted Kemp P. Battle's resolution to run it from Chapel Hill to University Station, and the directors elected him president. The first passenger train left Chapel Hill in February 1882, and by July mail ran on the line. Building Memorial Hall, 1883–18851883–1885 · 16 events · Memorial Hall began with a promise from Governor Thomas J. Jarvis at the June 1883 commencement, when Gerrard Hall overflowed, and with a planned monument to the late president David L. Swain. The board ordered a large hall instead of an obelisk, and the cornerstone was laid on September 25, 1883. Work stopped that winter because the architect, Samuel Sloan, had underestimated the cost; Kemp P. Battle and George T. Winston canvassed the state for memorial tablets, and work resumed in the spring. After Sloan died in 1884 his chief carpenter finished the hall, with Paul C. Cameron advancing funds without security. It was dedicated on June 3, 1885, with the state's bill for its prison brick still unpaid.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 65 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Students illuminate the college to welcome Caldwell home from Europe When President Caldwell came back from nearly a year in Europe buying books and apparatus, the students lit up the college buildings and escorted him to a stand by the well in front of South Building, where he spoke to them and the villagers. In December 1825 the trustees formally thanked him for his work. People: Paul C. Cameron, George E. BadgerSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 295
  2. Duncan Cameron gives his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people Duncan Cameron deeded his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people, with any children the women would bear: Gabriel, Mima, Simeon and Sarah in Orange County, and families at the Mill Quarter plantation in Person County, among them Phillip and Jenny and their children Randol, Jim, Ellen, Nancy and Phill. Cameron acknowledged the deed before Justice William Gaston at Raleigh on January 1, 1835. People: Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, William GastonOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 26, p. 184 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 26/184, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 26/184, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  3. Paul C. Cameron builds Burnside on the foundation of Thomas Ruffin's old house Paul Cameron built the town house he named Burnside on South Cameron Street, on the stone foundation of his father-in-law Thomas Ruffin's earlier house. Enslaved workers from Cameron's Fairntosh plantation built it under his master carpenter Jack, and John Berry laid the brick. People: John Berry, Thomas RuffinSearch the index · Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 24 · Also: NCpedia, Berry, John
  4. Paul C. Cameron moves to Fairntosh to manage the Cameron plantations Paul C. Cameron gave up the bar and moved with his wife, Anne Ruffin Cameron, from Burnside in Hillsborough to Fairntosh to manage the Cameron plantations with his uncle Thomas D. Bennehan. They lived there until 1856.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Cameron Family Papers (#133), finding aid
  5. Paul Cameron sells Burnside to Cadwallader Jones Jr. Paul Cameron sold Burnside, his three-year-old Hillsborough house, to Cadwallader Jones Jr. for $2,000. Jones sold it back to Cameron in the 1850s when he ran into money trouble. People: Cadwallader JonesSearch the index · Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 24
  6. Three planters grow nearly all of Orange County's cotton The 1840 agricultural census recorded 253,437 pounds of cotton in Orange County, about 90 percent of it from the plantations of Paul Cameron, John Lipscomb and Fendal Southerland in the east of the county, worked by enslaved labor. The county also grew 262,882 pounds of tobacco that year, mostly in the north. People: Paul C. CameronSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 24
  7. Paul C. Cameron sends enslaved people from the family farms to cotton plantations in Alabama and Mississippi Paul C. Cameron bought a cotton plantation in Greene County, Alabama, in 1844 and land for another in Tunica County, Mississippi, in 1856, and sent more than 100 enslaved men and women from the family's North Carolina farms to them.Search the index · UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Ancient North Carolinians: Stagville (Orange County)
  8. Andrew Mickle turns the log schoolhouse at Highlands into a house The log school built south of the Eno around 1844 was converted to a residence, and Andrew Mickle added a three-bay, two-story side-hall section in 1846. Paul C. Cameron enlarged it again in 1857. People: Paul C. Cameron, Andrew MickleSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 205 US 70A, Highlands
  9. Paul C. Cameron builds new quarters for enslaved families at Horton Grove In the decade before the Civil War Paul C. Cameron began a building campaign at the family's Horton Grove farm near Stagville. Four of the dwellings built to house families the Camerons enslaved still stand.Search the index · UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Ancient North Carolinians: Stagville (Orange County)
  10. The Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts is organized Farmers and mechanics meeting at the courthouse in Hillsborough on Tuesday of August court, August 23, 1853, organized the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts under a subscription agreement circulated that summer, with Paul C. Cameron as president, James C. Turrentine as treasurer and Edwin A. Heartt as secretary. The legislature had lately voted aid to such county societies. People: Paul C. Cameron, John Wall Norwood, James C. TurrentineSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 24, 1853, p. 3
  11. Orange County holds its first agricultural fair at Hillsborough The Orange County agricultural society held its first annual fair over two days, with 81 entries and 190 articles in the stock and mechanical departments and 180 in Floral Hall. Prizes went to castings from Allen Brown's Eagle Foundry, cloth from the Alpha Woolen Mills, local ploughs, carriages by A. C. Murdock and Hurdle & Hurdle, saddles and leather, and Paul C. Cameron gave a two-hour address on the second day. People: Paul C. Cameron, John Wall Norwood, A. C. MurdockSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, November 1, 1854, p. 2
  12. 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.Search the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 19 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, November 1, 1854, p. 2
Show all 65 dated events
  1. Orange County citizens meet at Hillsborough to raise aid for Norfolk and Portsmouth yellow fever sufferers A meeting of Orange citizens chaired by William A. Graham, with Paul C. Cameron as secretary, adopted Josiah Turner Jr.'s resolutions for a collection and named a committee of sixteen to solicit money and provisions for yellow fever sufferers in Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Episcopal and Presbyterian churches in Hillsborough had already taken up collections of $159 and $46 on Sunday, September 9, and sent them on. People: William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Josiah Turner Jr., Thomas Webb, John Wall NorwoodSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, September 19, 1855, p. 2
  2. Paul C. Cameron repurchases Burnside and moves back to Hillsborough Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron left Fairntosh in 1856, bought back Burnside, the Hillsborough house where they had first lived after their 1832 marriage, and moved back to town.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Cameron Family Papers (#133), finding aid
  3. Orange elects Paul C. Cameron to the state Senate over Josiah Turner Jr. In the state election, Democrat Paul C. Cameron won Orange's Senate seat by 30 votes over Josiah Turner Jr., an old-line Whig running with American party support; the editor credited Cameron's old associations and character with carrying many Whig votes. The American party's Commons candidates, young men new to politics, finished within fifty votes of one another. People: Paul C. Cameron, Josiah Turner Jr.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 13, 1856, p. 2
  4. Orange County Agricultural Society holds its third fair near Hillsborough At the society's third annual fair, on its grounds near Hillsborough, members elected Paul C. Cameron president and Thomas Webb secretary. Cameron, away in Alabama, had given the society a flag that flew from a pole more than eighty feet high. People: Paul C. Cameron, William A. Graham, John Wall Norwood, Josiah Turner Sr., Thomas Blount HillSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, November 5, 1856
  5. Paul C. Cameron enlarges Highlands, the former log schoolhouse south of the Eno Paul C. Cameron added two bays to Highlands, giving it the center-hall plan it keeps. The house had begun about 1844 as a log school and was made a dwelling by Andrew Mickle in 1846. People: Andrew MickleSearch the index · Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 197
  6. Paul Cameron brings English gardener Thomas A. Adams to plant the Burnside grounds Paul Cameron hired Thomas A. Adams, a landscape gardener from Chester, England, to plant the twenty-acre front yard of Burnside with trees ordered from Parsons and Co. of Long Island. The grounds became known as Cameron Park, and many of the trees still stand.Search the index · Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 24
  7. The university's Alumni Association elects Paul C. Cameron its president Called to order by Walter L. Steele of Richmond County, the Alumni Association elected Paul C. Cameron of Orange its president by acclamation. Governor Charles Manly conducted him to the chair, and Cameron formed the alumni into procession by year of graduation, from 1796, before they marched to their hall for business. People: Charles Manly, Francis L. HawksSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Gazette, June 6, 1857, p. 2
  8. The Orange County Agricultural Society holds its fourth fair near Hillsborough The society held its fourth annual fair on its grounds near Hillsborough on October 29 and 30, re-elected Paul C. Cameron president, and heard him speak when no orator could be had. Premiums went to Jones & Hooker of Hillsborough for implements, furniture and iron castings, to A. C. Murdock for buggies and to John Laws for tinware, and the paper reported yields of 55 bushels of corn on an acre, 20 bushels of wheat on half an acre and 1,100 pounds of tobacco on an acre. People: Paul C. Cameron, Thomas Webb, A. C. Murdock, Josiah Turner Sr.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, November 4, 1857, p. 2
  9. Orange County elects Josiah Turner Jr. to the state Senate over Paul C. Cameron Orange County voters on August 5, 1858, elected Josiah Turner Jr., running as an independent Whig, to the state Senate over the Democratic nominee Paul C. Cameron. In the same poll the county gave John W. Ellis 1,012 votes for governor and Duncan K. McRae 1,037. People: Paul C. CameronSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 11, 1858, p. 2
  10. Paul C. Cameron holds 470 people in slavery in Orange County The 1860 count listed Cameron of Fairntosh as the owner of 470 enslaved people in Orange, and the joined Bennehan-Cameron holdings ran to as much as 30,000 acres worked by about 900 enslaved people. People: Paul C. CameronNC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 12
  11. Orange Democrats meet at the court house and name delegates to the state convention A county meeting of Democrats in the Hillsborough court house, with Gen. Joseph Allison in the chair and Calvin E. Parish as secretary, adopted resolutions from a committee led by John W. Norwood warning that continued Northern aggression on Southern rights would end in disunion, and commended Governor Ellis for re-election. It named a long list of delegates, among them Paul C. Cameron, Cadwallader Jones and Pride Jones, to the state Democratic convention at Raleigh on March 8, and Norwood then spoke for two hours. People: Calvin E. Parish, John Wall Norwood, John U. Kirkland, Paul C. Cameron, Pride Jones, Joseph AllisonSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 7, 1860, p. 2
  12. The Orange Guards celebrate their fifth anniversary with visiting companies On Monday, October 1, the Orange Guards under Captain Pride Jones marked their fifth anniversary by receiving the Flat River Guards and the Guilford Greys at Hillsborough. With the Salisbury Brass Band the companies paraded, watched the Hillsborough Military Academy cadets drill, where Paul C. Cameron thanked Colonel C. C. Tew for the school, and held a ball at the Masonic Hall before parting on October 2. People: Pride Jones, John W. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Charles Courtenay TewSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, October 3, 1860, p. 3
  13. An Orange County mass meeting at the courthouse takes up the crisis of the Union Called by William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Cadwallader Jones, John W. Norwood and other men of both parties, a meeting of Orange County people at the Hillsborough courthouse on Saturday, December 15, directed that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions on the state of the Union and adjourned to December 22. People: William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Cadwallader Jones, John Wall Norwood, Pride Jones, Dennis Heartt, William H. Brown, Henry Kollock NashSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, December 19, 1860, p. 3
  14. John Wall Norwood and Paul C. Cameron run relief for Orange County soldiers' families Through the Civil War, Norwood and Paul C. Cameron oversaw aid to the families of Orange County men in the army, working out of Norwood's law office. At its May 1863 term the county court named Norwood one of three committee men for the Hillsborough district to say who should receive aid from the soldiers' fund. In August 1864 an appeal in the Recorder from the county's agents for soldiers' families said they had bought and given out more than six thousand bushels of corn and could get no more, and that between 1,500 and 2,000 county men had gone to fight. People: Paul C. CameronSearch the index · NCpedia: Norwood, John Wall · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, June 10, 1863, p. 3; Hillsborough Recorder, August 31, 1864, p. 2
  15. Volunteers at Durham's form a company called the Orange Greys Volunteers at Durham's Station began forming a military company in April 1861 and took the name Orange Greys. Paul C. Cameron addressed the company, which received a donation of $500. People: Paul C. CameronHillsborough Recorder, April 24, 1861, p. 2
  16. Orange County sends delegates to the secession convention On May 13, 1861, after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, Orange County voters again chose William A. Graham and John Berry as delegates to the state convention, over Paul C. Cameron and Henry K. Nash. The Recorder printed the precinct returns and noted the convention would meet in Raleigh on May 20. People: John Berry, William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Henry Kollock NashHillsborough Recorder, May 15, 1861, p. 3 ("Official Vote of Orange")
  17. Capt. Robert Walker Anderson of Hillsborough is killed at the Wilderness and other town men are wounded Capt. Robert Walker Anderson, ordnance officer of Cooke's brigade, was killed in the Wilderness on May 5. He was about twenty-five, the son of the late William E. Anderson of Hillsborough, and had married Paul C. Cameron's eldest daughter a year before. In the same fighting Webb of the 27th had an arm broken, Lt. J. A. Graham was wounded and Sgt. T. B. Whitted lost an eye. People: Paul C. Cameron, James Augustus GrahamHillsborough Recorder, May 18, 1864, p. 2
  18. Sixty-eight Orange magistrates pledge a tenth of their grain to soldiers' families at schedule prices The Orange County court, with sixty-eight magistrates present, resolved unanimously that each would sell a tenth of his wheat and corn crop at government schedule prices to destitute soldiers' families, called on all farmers to do the same, and the citizens in the courthouse pledged likewise. County agents P. C. Cameron and J. W. Norwood reported they had bought and given out more than 6,000 bushels since the previous fall but could buy no more with wheat at $25 a bushel. People: Paul C. Cameron, John Wall NorwoodHillsborough Recorder, August 31, 1864, p. 2
  19. Anderson's Confederate cavalry sign their paroles at Paul Cameron's house Highlands At the end of the Civil War, Confederate troops used Highlands, Paul C. Cameron's house south of the Eno, and the paroles of Anderson's cavalry were signed in the old part of the house. People: Paul C. CameronThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 28, 1955, p. 3 · Also: Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation
  20. Paul Cameron complains that Jesse Ruffin is raising freedpeople's hopes of land In May 1865, weeks after the Confederate surrender near Durham, Paul Cameron wrote to his father-in-law Thomas Ruffin that the judge's longtime coachman Jesse had stirred the freedpeople on his place to hope for a freehold in the land they worked, and asked that his name not be linked with Jesse's. People: Paul C. Cameron, Thomas Ruffin, Jesse RuffinBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 32
  21. A Hillsborough meeting backs the National Union Convention and names district delegates A public meeting at Hillsborough, with James P. Clark in the chair and Dr. Charles J. Freeland as secretary, endorsed the call for a National Union Convention at Philadelphia on August 14, 1866, in support of President Johnson's restoration policy. On resolutions offered by Josiah Turner Jr. it named thirteen men, among them Henry K. Nash, Thomas Webb, John W. Graham, Samuel F. Phillips and Paul C. Cameron, to a district convention at Raleigh, and recommended William A. Graham as a delegate for the state at large. People: Josiah Turner Jr., William A. Graham, Paul C. Cameron, Thomas Webb, John W. Graham, Henry Kollock NashSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 25, 1866, p. 2
  22. 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. MooreSearch the index · North Carolina Rail Road Company, Proceedings and By-Laws of the Stockholders of the North Carolina Rail Road Company at Their Twenty-First Annual Meeting, Held at Hillsboro', July 14th, 1870 (1870), scan p. 8
  23. 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. CameronSearch the index · North Carolina Rail Road Company, Proceedings and By-Laws of the Stockholders of the North Carolina Rail Road Company at Their Twenty-First Annual Meeting, Held at Hillsboro', July 14th, 1870 (1870), scan p. 8
  24. Senator Graham of Orange introduces a charter for the Bank of Hillsboro Senator Graham of Orange introduced a charter making Thomas B. Hill, C. M. Latimer, Thomas Webb, George Laws, D. C. Parks, J. Y. Whitted, P. C. Cameron, James Webb Jr. and others the Bank of Hillsboro, with capital up to $200,000. People: Thomas Webb, George Laws, David C. Parks, Paul C. Cameron, James Webb Jr., Thomas Blount HillSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, December 13, 1871, p. 3
  25. Paul C. Cameron buys the Hillsborough Military Academy at public sale Two years after Elizabeth Tew's death in 1870, the academy property was sold at public auction to Paul C. Cameron. His heirs sold it to the Farmers' State Alliance in 1891. People: Paul C. CameronNational Register: The Commandant's House nomination (1972)
  26. Commissioner's report keeps the campus and 600 acres for the university Commissioner George H. Snow inspected Chapel Hill in the summer of 1874 with trustees Paul C. Cameron, John Manning and Kemp P. Battle, and on Judge Bond's advice to be liberal the court left the university its campus, faculty houses, libraries and 600 acres. The outlying land, including about seventy acres at Piney Prospect, was sold, and Cameron bought the parcels along with the escheated mountain lands to secure his sister Mildred Cameron's debt. People: Paul C. Cameron, John Manning, Kemp Plummer BattleDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 59
  27. The General Assembly elects sixty-four trustees, who organize under William A. Graham with Kemp Battle as secretary and treasurer By an act of January 28, 1874, the legislature elected sixty-four university trustees by joint ballot, only two of them from the Reconstruction board, and fourteen of them men removed in 1868. The new board first met on February 18, 1874, in the Citizens National Bank in Raleigh, elected William A. Graham of Hillsborough its president and Kemp P. Battle its secretary and treasurer, named an executive committee, and the next day sent a committee to inspect Chapel Hill, after Governor Tod R. Caldwell declined to preside because he held the legislature had no power to elect trustees. People: William A. Graham, Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. Cameron, John Manning, Tod Robinson Caldwell, William L. SaundersInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
  28. Walter Steele and Paul Cameron inspect the derelict campus and Solomon Pool refuses to surrender the keys On April 3, 1874, trustees Walter L. Steele and Paul C. Cameron came to Chapel Hill for the new board. Solomon Pool declined their written request for the keys and possession of the buildings, since the governor had not recognized the board, but let them inspect as visitors. Their report to the trustees on April 9 described broken doors and fallen plaster, the lower passage of Old West fouled by cattle and horses, rotted gates and axe-scarred oaks, 7,490 books in the Dialectic library and 6,901 in the Philanthropic, and recommended an immediate suit against Pool for possession. People: Paul C. Cameron, Solomon Pool, William L. Saunders, James B. MasonInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
  29. 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. GrahamSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 15, 1874, p. 3
  30. Women's groups give scientific apparatus to the reopened university At the board's request Cornelia Phillips Spencer gathered gifts of instruments from women around the state, including Plateau's apparatus from the pupils of the Nash and Kollock school in Hillsborough. The women of Hillsborough gave a Holtz electrical machine in memory of William A. Graham, which Paul C. Cameron presented at the 1877 commencement. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Paul C. Cameron, William A. GrahamSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 76
  31. A storm unroofs the university's New East building A late-March storm tore the tin roof from the center of New East, over the library and the Philanthropic Society's hall, and felled one of the campus oaks. Andrew Mickle and villagers nailed down a temporary covering, and Paul C. Cameron, chairman of the repairs committee, came to Chapel Hill and arranged to reroof all the university buildings, giving the woodwork to carpenter Foster Utley. People: Paul C. Cameron, Andrew MickleHillsborough Recorder, March 31, 1875, p. 3
  32. Kemp Battle's subscription drive raises $20,167 and Paul Cameron repairs the campus for the reopening After the trustees on May 5, 1875, appointed a committee to seek gifts for the revival, Kemp P. Battle canvassed Raleigh, Goldsboro, Rocky Mount and Tarboro in person and the rest of the state by letter, reporting $18,787 in six weeks and $20,167 in twelve, at a total expense of $62.66; Zebulon B. Vance and Charles W. Broadfoot collected in Charlotte and Fayetteville, and women's groups sent scientific apparatus through Cornelia Phillips Spencer. Paul C. Cameron, without contractor or pay, spent the summer at Chapel Hill directing the repairs and reported on August 31 that he had spent $10,677.76 on the buildings and $2,249.09 on gas works and apparatus. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. Cameron, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Zebulon B. Vance, Washington Caruthers Kerr, Rufus Lenoir PattersonInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
  33. Rufus L. Patterson moves a loan to repair the university buildings and offers to stand surety At the trustees' reorganization meeting, Patterson moved that the treasurer be allowed to borrow $5,000 if needed to repair the Chapel Hill buildings, and volunteered to be surety for the university. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. CameronSearch the index · Internet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
  34. Governor Vance closes the first summer normal school at Chapel Hill The university's first summer normal school ended with a week of closing events: lectures by George W. Graham and Paul C. Cameron, a concert in the college chapel, and closing exercises on Thursday, August 9, at which Governor Zebulon Vance gave the final address. The session had drawn 235 teachers from 44 counties. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. CameronSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 15, 1877, p. 3
  35. Corporators of the State University Railroad meet at Chapel Hill and open books for stock Corporators of the rechartered State University Railroad met at the Chapel Hill law office of Watson and Alexander, with Paul C. Cameron in the chair after Kemp P. Battle explained the charter. They opened subscription books at twelve places from Hillsborough and Durham to Pittsboro and Raleigh, named three commissioners at each, and refused conditional subscriptions. People: Paul C. Cameron, Kemp Plummer Battle, Julian S. Carr, James B. Mason, John R. HutchinsThe Chapel Hill Ledger, April 19, 1879, p. 3
  36. University Railroad stockholders organize and run the line to University Station Stockholders of the University Railroad Company met at President Battle's office with $10,160 of stock taken. After Julian S. Carr and Paul C. Cameron argued for Durham, they adopted Battle's resolution to locate the road from Chapel Hill to University Station, elected Cameron, Hoke, McCauley, Carr and Battle directors, and called in a quarter of the stock. People: Paul C. Cameron, Kemp Plummer Battle, Robert F. Hoke, Julian S. Carr, David McCauleyThe Chapel Hill Ledger, January 10, 1880, p. 2
  37. Zebulon Vance opens the Orange County Democratic canvass at Durham Senator Zebulon B. Vance gave the main speech when the Orange County Democratic canvass opened at Durham, then still part of Orange County. A procession led by the Durham band formed at the Grand Central Hotel and carried Vance, seated beside Paul C. Cameron, through the principal streets before Julian S. Carr took charge of him. People: Paul C. Cameron, Julian S. CarrSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), October 23, 1880, p. 2
  38. Paul Cameron buys university land put up for sale When part of the university's land around Chapel Hill was put up for sale, Spencer, fearing for places like Piney Prospect and the Roaring Fountain, wrote begging Paul C. Cameron to buy it, and Bennehan Cameron and John W. Graham came to bid for him. Cameron later left Spencer a few acres of it in his will. People: Bennehan Cameron, John W. Graham, Cornelia Phillips SpencerSearch the index · Hope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 275
  39. Hillsborough's commissioners protest the bill to divide Orange County At their regular meeting the Hillsborough town commissioners resolved against Caleb R. Green's bill to cut Durham County out of Orange, protesting that the question had never been put before the people, and named a committee of about a hundred citizens headed by the mayor to go to Raleigh and memorialize the legislature against it. People: Paul C. Cameron, John W. Graham, Henry Kollock NashOrange County Observer (Hillsborough), January 29, 1881, p. 2
  40. 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. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. Cameron, Thomas Jordan JarvisSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), pp. 251-252
  41. The state supplies prison-made brick for Memorial Hall Governor Jarvis offered the building committee convict labor to make brick at Chapel Hill, or brick from the State Prison delivered at its gate with the university paying the freight. After inspecting the penitentiary brick the committee chose it, and Jarvis had it shipped by rail shortly before the cornerstone was laid on September 25, 1883. In June 1885 the state's bill for the brick was the one building debt still unpaid. People: Thomas Jordan Jarvis, Paul C. CameronSearch the index · University of North Carolina, Memorial Hall Inaugural Proceedings, Wednesday, June 3, 1885 (1885), scan p. 9 · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), August 25, 1883, p. 3
  42. Memorial Hall rises at UNC under Paul C. Cameron's building committee The cornerstone of Swain Memorial Hall was laid on September 25, 1883, and the hall was dedicated on June 3, 1885, honoring President David L. Swain, faculty and the university's Confederate dead. Paul C. Cameron, president of the Alumni Association and chairman of the building committee, raised money for it and gave money himself. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, David L. Swain, Thomas Jordan JarvisSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Names in Brick and Stone, Memorial Hall
  43. Hillsborough holds a torchlight jubilee for the Democratic victory Democrats from Orange and five neighboring counties celebrated the election of Cleveland and Scales at Hillsborough with a cannon salute, a torchlight procession led by the Durham Cornet Band from the depot to the court house square, burning rosin barrels and fireworks, and speeches with Paul C. Cameron presiding. People: Paul C. Cameron, William R. Cox, Julian S. Carr, Halcott P. JonesSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), November 15, 1884, p. 3
  44. The trustees bar dancing from university buildings Pressed by church members who opposed the modern dance, the trustees prohibited the commencement ball in Smith Hall or any other university building. Battle welcomed the ban because he wanted Smith Hall kept as a library. People: Paul C. Cameron, Kemp Plummer BattleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 312 · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), February 21, 1885, p. 3
  45. Trustees thank Paul C. Cameron for the loan that finished Memorial Hall When the money ran out and appeals brought no answer, trustee Paul C. Cameron, chairman of the building committee, advanced the funds to finish Memorial Hall from his own pocket without security. At the dedication Governor Alfred M. Scales thanked him publicly, and the board unanimously adopted Fabius H. Busbee's resolutions thanking Cameron for the loan and for overseeing the work from the start.Search the index · University of North Carolina, Memorial Hall Inaugural Proceedings, Wednesday, June 3, 1885 (1885), scan p. 31
  46. Paul C. Cameron resigns as president of the university's alumni association Paul C. Cameron of Hillsborough resigned the presidency of the University Alumni Association because his hearing had failed, and the association chose a successor.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 16, 1888, p. 2
  47. Trustee Paul C. Cameron dies Cameron, who had held nearly two thousand people in slavery before emancipation, chaired the building committees for the 1875 repairs and for Memorial Hall and lent $8,000 to finish the hall. After his death his heirs accepted ten Cameron Scholarships, each giving one student free tuition, in settlement of the loan.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 456
  48. Paul C. Cameron is buried from St. Matthew's Church Funeral services for Paul C. Cameron were held at St. Matthew's Church at 11 in the morning, and former servants of his carried the coffin into the church and to the grave at their own request. University trustees and faculty, Lieutenant Governor Thomas M. Holt and others came from Raleigh and Durham on a special train. People: Paul C. Cameron, Joseph W. MurphySearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), January 10, 1891, p. 3
  49. Paul C. Cameron's will is read and his executors qualify Cameron's handwritten will, found in his travelling valise, divided an estate the paper thought worth over a million dollars, ordered lands including the old Military Academy grounds sold, and left the house and lands east of Hillsborough to his widow and then to Mildred Cameron. Anne Cameron, Bennehan Cameron, John W. Graham and R. B. Peebles qualified as executors. People: John W. Graham, Paul C. CameronSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), January 17, 1891, p. 3
  50. Tablets to Mangum, Saunders, Ruffin, Cameron and Polk are put up in Memorial Hall Memorial tablets to Dr. A. W. Mangum, Col. William L. Saunders, Judge Ruffin, Paul C. Cameron and Col. Polk of the Revolution were set in place in Memorial Hall in time for commencement. People: William L. Saunders, Thomas Ruffin, Paul C. Cameron, Adolphus Williamson MangumSearch the index · The Chapel Hillian, June 2, 1891, p. 3
  51. Paul C. Cameron's heirs establish ten scholarships at the University The heirs of the late Paul C. Cameron set up ten Cameron scholarships at the University of North Carolina as a memorial to him. The Raleigh News and Observer, quoted by the Observer, called him a friend and benefactor of the University for over half a century.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), August 15, 1891, p. 2
  52. Mildred C. Cameron gives St. Matthew's a new altar and reredos Miss Mildred C. Cameron gave the altar and reredos in memory of Paul C. Cameron, Rebecca Graham and Pauline Sheppard.Search the index · Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 71
  53. Anne Ruffin Cameron, widow of Paul C. Cameron, dies in Hillsborough Anne Cameron, widow of Paul C. Cameron and daughter of Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, died at her home in Hillsborough. Her funeral was held at St. Matthew's Church the next day, with her grandsons as pallbearers, and she was buried in the churchyard beside her husband. People: Thomas Ruffin, Paul C. CameronSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 3, 1897, p. 3

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Paul C. Cameron, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by Paul C. Cameron. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Willie Person Mangum papers,

Mangum, Willie Person,; Mangum, Arthur,; Mangum, Charity Alston Cain

Personal and political papers of Willie Person Mangum, the Whig senator from Orange County, together with papers of Arthur Mangum and Charity Alston Cain Mangum. Correspondents include Daniel Webster, William A. Graham, David L. Swain, John Chavis and Abraham Lincoln, and other topics include plantations at Hillsborough, the estate called Walnut Hill, state politics, agriculture and education.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Cameron, Paul C (Paul Carrington), 1808-1891 -- Correspondence.

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Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 15 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Records of enslaved people

2 records, 1834 to 1835, name Paul C. Cameron as a party to the sale, gift, trust or other transfer of enslaved people. Each record lists the people named in it, with their ages and family ties.

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Deeds

13 deeds, 1834 to 1872, in the county’s deed books name Paul C. Cameron as a party, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. Each links to the deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

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Wills

One will or paper in the county’s will books names Paul C. Cameron, from Ruth Herndon Shields’s abstracts. Each shows the role and the year.

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Picture: Paul C. Cameron. CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph by Sprout2green; via Wikimedia Commons

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