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 8 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. The congregation 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 After his short-lived partnership with Jones Watson, Isaac J. Collier had joined Kendall B. Waitt, a Chapel Hill artisan from Massachusetts, in a cabinet shop by 1836. The two worked together for years, later as building contractors.Search 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. CollierIn 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 ManlySearch 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. CollierSearch 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 September 1851 Lucy Battle wrote her husband that Isaac J. Collier was completing a house for Elizabeth Nunn, widow of a Chapel Hill innkeeper, one of several modest frame houses he built in the village.Search the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Collier, Isaac J. (b. ca. 1810)
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.
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
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- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
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- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Isaac J. Collier NC LIVE 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
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
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