Local figure
Isaac J. Collier
Isaac J. Collier (born about 1810) was a Chapel Hill cabinetmaker, carpenter and contractor. He opened a cabinet shop with Jones Watson in 1833, was contractor for the Chapel of the Cross in 1844, and that December won, with Kendall B. Waitt, the contract to build A. J. Davis's additions to Old East and Old West.
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Isaac J. Collier. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Isaac J. Collier’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →
- Orange Methodist Church is organized at the Davis School House Alexander Gattis and neighbors organized Orange Methodist Church in the Davis School House near the Wash Fowler home. Its early records are lost: Lefler and Wager give about 1830, and the church's own tradition 1832. The congregation had trustees by October 1836, when Gattis and Thomas King deeded them land, and built its first church about 1838. People: Jones Watson, Isaac J. CollierSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 297
- Isaac J. Collier and Jones Watson open a cabinetmaking business The two men started making furniture on Franklin Street in 1833. After the partnership dissolved in the later 1830s, Collier kept the business going. People: Jones Watson, Isaac J. CollierSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 63
- Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt go into partnership in a Chapel Hill cabinet shop Isaac J. Collier went into partnership with Kendall B. Waitt, a Chapel Hill artisan from Massachusetts, in a cabinet shop in the later 1830s, after his partnership with Jones Watson. The two worked together for years, later as building contractors. People: Kendall B. WaittSearch the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Collier, Isaac J. (b. ca. 1810)
- Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West Chapel Hill contractors Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt subcontracted the masonry of the university additions to Cosby, who put enslaved workmen including the brothers Osborne and Albert on the job. Cosby and the architect Alexander Jackson Davis quarrelled over the drawings, and president David L. Swain asked the Hillsborough builder John Berry to look at the brickwork, which Berry reported was defective. People: John Berry, David L. Swain, Alexander Jackson Davis, Isaac J. Collier, Kendall B. WaittIn the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Cosby, Dabney (1779-1862)
- Isaac J. Collier serves as contractor for the Chapel of the Cross Chapel Hill woodworker and builder Isaac J. Collier was the contractor for the Episcopal Chapel of the Cross on East Franklin Street, built to a design by the Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter.Search the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Collier, Isaac J. (b. ca. 1810)
- The university awards Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt the contract for the Old East and Old West additions On December 23, 1844, Collier and Waitt won the contract to build A. J. Davis's three-story brick additions to Old East and Old West, at $9,360. They subcontracted the masonry to Dabney Cosby; the next day trustee secretary Charles Manly asked that they hire his enslaved carpenters. People: Alexander Jackson Davis, Dabney Cosby, Charles Manly, Kendall B. WaittSearch the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Collier, Isaac J. (b. ca. 1810)
- Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West The northward extensions of Old East and Old West, designed by A. J. Davis and built by Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt for $9,360, were finished in 1848 with debating halls and library alcoves for the two societies. At the Dialectic opening James Mebane, the society's first president in 1795, sat beside the student president, Kemp P. Battle. People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, Alexander Jackson Davis, Kemp Plummer Battle, Isaac J. Collier, Samuel Field Phillips, James Mebane, Kendall B. WaittSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 513
- Isaac J. Collier finishes a house for Elizabeth Nunn In a letter of September 24, 1851, Lucy Battle told her husband that Isaac J. Collier was finishing a house for Elizabeth Nunn, widow of a Chapel Hill innkeeper. Collier probably built other modest frame houses in the village as well.Search the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Collier, Isaac J. (b. ca. 1810)
- Isaac Collier builds an I-house on East Rosemary Street Isaac Collier is thought to have built the two-story I-house at 315 East Rosemary Street between 1853 and 1858. The novelist Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, later lived there. People: Betty Smith, Isaac J. CollierSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 51
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 3 with a known location.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
- Old East University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 3 events here
- Old West University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 3 events here
- Chapel of the Cross Churches and lodges · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
- Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Named with them in the chronology
People named in the same dated entries as Isaac J. Collier, 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.
- Kendall B. Waitt 4 entries, including Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt go into partnership in a Chapel Hill cabinet shop (between 1836 and 1838)
- Alexander Jackson Davis 3 entries, including Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West (1844–1848)
- Dabney Cosby 2 entries, including Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West (1844–1848)
- Jones Watson 2 entries, including Orange Methodist Church is organized at the Davis School House (about 1830-1832)
- Charles Manly 1 entry: The university awards Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt the contract for the Old East and Old West additions (December 23, 1844)
- David L. Swain 1 entry: Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West (1844–1848)
- James Mebane 1 entry: Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West (1848)
- John Berry 1 entry: Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West (1844–1848)
- Kemp Plummer Battle 1 entry: Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West (1848)
- Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips 1 entry: Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West (1848)
- Samuel Field Phillips 1 entry: Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West (1848)
Research sources
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Collections and databases
- NC LIVE: prepared search for Isaac J. Collier Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries
Local help
- Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Local History Help Hours and request formOCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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Books about Isaac J. Collier
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