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Local figure

John DeBow

John DeBow (about 1745–1783) was a Presbyterian minister educated at the College of New Jersey. Ordained in 1776, he took the call to the Hawfields and Eno churches and also preached in the Hillsborough courthouse. He kept a school and asked the General Assembly to support it until a state university existed. He died of smallpox in September 1783 and was the first person buried in the new Hawfields cemetery.

Source: NCpedia: DeBow, John

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to John DeBow. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about John DeBow’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John DeBow takes the Hawfields and Eno charge and preaches at New Hope DeBow, a young minister, succeeded Pattillo at the Hawfields and Eno about 1775 and preached at New Hope as he could. Craig calls him probably the first preacher with anything like a regular appointment there. People: John DeBowSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 22
  2. Hillsborough gets its first regular Presbyterian services After years of occasional preaching in the courthouse by David Caldwell, John DeBow and others, the Rev. Alexander McMillan began regular services there in 1777, shared with Little River and New Hope. Presbytery deposed him in September 1778, and the town had no organized Presbyterian church for many years. People: David Caldwell, John DeBowSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 70
  3. John DeBow, minister to the Hawfields, Eno and New Hope people, dies DeBow died at 38 and was buried at Hawfields church. Craig was told he was the first person buried in the present Hawfields churchyard. People: John DeBowSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 22

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 them all.

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.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as John DeBow, 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.

Research sources

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for John DeBow 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

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Books about John DeBow

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Historical records and collections

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