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Local figure

Joseph A. Harris

Joseph A. Harris was a printer and newspaper editor in Orange County. In 1878 he began publishing the Chapel Hill Ledger from a small wooden shop on the south side of East Franklin Street, and he stopped it in 1880. He then edited and owned the Orange County Observer at Hillsborough, a Democratic weekly that ran into the 1910s.

Source: DigitalNC: Orange County observer. (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Joseph A. Harris. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Joseph A. Harris’ 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 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Joseph A. Harris publishes the Chapel Hill Ledger Joseph A. Harris began printing the Chapel Hill Ledger in a small wooden shop on the south side of East Franklin Street. He stopped publishing it in 1880. People: Joseph A. HarrisSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 135
  2. The Orange County Observer begins publication at Hillsborough Joseph A. Harris started the Orange County Observer at Hillsborough in October 1880 as its publisher and one of its editors, numbering it a new series of a paper established in 1878. The paper ran until about 1917. People: Joseph A. HarrisSearch the index · DigitalNC: Orange County Observer, October 23, 1880, p. 1 (masthead: Established in 1878, New Series, Vol. I, No. 3)
  3. Hillsborough church men organize a Young Men's Christian Association at the Presbyterian manse Men from the town's churches met at the Presbyterian manse on a Monday night, adopted a constitution and bylaws, and elected Charles M. Parks president and Joseph A. Harris secretary. The next meeting was called for the manse on December 10. People: Joseph A. HarrisSearch the index · DigitalNC: Orange County Observer, December 8, 1888, p. 3

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 1 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.

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Joseph A. Harris 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 Joseph A. Harris

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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