Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

Thomas Hart

Thomas Hart (about 1730 to 1808) came to Orange County in 1755 and served as its sheriff, a militia captain and commissary; Regulators severely whipped him in 1770. He developed Hart's Mill on the Eno near his home, Hartford, sat for Orange in the colonial Assembly in 1773, and left for Maryland as Cornwallis approached Hillsborough.

Source: NCpedia: Hart, Thomas

9 works about Thomas Hart are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineThe sheriff and the taxes: Orange County's sheriffs, 1752–17771752–1777 · 19 events · In colonial Orange County the sheriff collected the taxes, and how sheriffs and their deputies collected them became a grievance that fed the Regulation. The governor chose sheriffs from names the county court sent him, beginning with Alexander Mebane, who returned 1,113 tithables for 1752 and 1753. Thomas Hart's short account and the Assembly bill excusing him from taxes, deputies' seizures of deer skins and livestock, and Tyree Harris's extra charge on late payers came before the 1768 depositions and the rescue of a seized horse at Hillsborough. Regulators whipped Sheriff John Lea in 1769. In 1777 the first court under statehood named Mebane's son sheriff. StorylineSamuel Strudwick’s claim to the Haw Old Fields, 1754–17881754–1788 · 7 events · Samuel Strudwick held a mortgage claim to 30,000 acres of the Haw Old Fields, but the land was already held by settlers, and from 1754 to 1788 he struggled to make his title good against them. Those he met in 1766 agreed to recognize it; by 1768 his tenants had formed an association to hold the land against him, and after the Revolution settlers took state patents on nearly all of the tract, even his own house. Strudwick appealed to the Assembly and to Thomas Burke in 1780, and when the lawsuits ended in 1788 he had lost about a third of the property. StorylineThe Bentons at Hartford: Jesse Benton and the young Thomas Hart Benton, 1780–17991780–1799 · 10 events · When Thomas Hart left Orange in 1780, Hartford and its mills passed to Jesse Benton, and his letters to Hart show what the war and the drought of 1782 cost the place. Benton backed the Science Hall academy and claimed 23,931 acres in the west, but he died in 1790 with his estate heavily in debt, and his will let his executors sell Hartford and its mills. His son Thomas Hart Benton, born in 1782 and later a U.S. senator from Missouri, left Hartford for the university and was expelled from the Philanthropic Society in March 1799 for taking his roommates' money.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 27 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Thomas Hart receives his first Orange County land grant Thomas Hart, newly come from Hanover County, Virginia, settled at Hillsborough and was granted 273 acres in 1757, then 1,058 acres in 1759 and 951 in 1779, on the Eno River, Seven Mile Creek, Horseley Creek and Country Line Creek. On his land at Seven Mile Creek and the Eno, about two miles northwest of town, he built his home, Hartford; up the river stood his grist mill, and the community there was known as Hart's Mill. Place: Eno River, near Hillsborough · Also mentions: Hart's MillSearch the index · Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 325
  2. Thomas Hart is appointed sheriff of Orange County Governor Arthur Dobbs appointed Thomas Hart sheriff of Orange County in 1763, and he served two years. His father-in-law, John Gray, had held the office before him. As collector of taxes Hart became unpopular with the Regulators, though Stokes found no charge that he abused any of them in collecting. People: Thomas Hart, Arthur Dobbs, John Gray Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 326
  3. A second jail with a stockade goes up at Hillsborough A ten-foot stockade was built around the jail and stocks for twenty-four pounds, with Thomas Hart and Francis Nash overseeing the work. People: Thomas Hart, Francis Nash Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 23
  4. The Assembly passes a bill excusing Thomas Hart and others from paying taxes On November 20, 1764, the Assembly passed a bill excusing Thomas Hart, then sheriff of Orange, and others from paying taxes, which the Regulators did not forget. Eli Caruthers later recorded the Regulators' story that Edmund Fanning, who owed his seat to Hart, carried a bill giving Hart a thousand pounds for losses as sheriff that he never suffered. People: Thomas Hart, Edmund Fanning Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 327
  5. The Assembly finds Sheriff Thomas Hart's tax account short and orders the omitted poll tax collected Hart had not collected the poll tax, and on May 10, 1765, the Assembly at Wilmington found his account short through error. On May 15 it passed a bill requiring the omitted poll tax to be collected. Hart settled with the colony, and in 1770 a petition of 174 Orange inhabitants to Chief Justice Martin Howard against fees called him the only sheriff that ever settled. People: Thomas Hart, Martin Howard Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 327
  6. Thomas Hart buys Joseph Maddock's mill on the Eno Joseph Maddock, a Quaker who had run the grist mill on the Eno west of Hillsborough since 1755, sold it to Thomas Hart, a friend of Governor William Tryon, who built it up with a sawmill, oil mill, fulling mill, distillery, tannery and other works. This is the mill, known as Hart's Mill, that a British guard held in February 1781. People: Thomas Hart Place: Hart's Mill, Eno River west of Hillsborough · Also named: Joseph Maddock, William TryonNC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Hart's Mill (G-122)
  7. Thomas Hart is made an Orange militia captain and commissary In 1768 Thomas Hart was made a captain in the Orange County militia and commissary for the troops of Orange and Granville counties. NCpedia says he also began a second term as sheriff that year, but the papers printed in Husband's Impartial Relation name Tyree Harris as the sheriff collecting the 1767 taxes in 1768 and John Lea as the new sheriff that August; Henderson gives Hart's terms as sheriff as 1762-63. People: Tyree Harris Place: Orange County · Also named: John LeaSearch the index · NCpedia: Hart, Thomas · Also: Internet Archive: Hermon Husband, An Impartial Relation
  8. Thomas Hart and Francis Nash tell Fanning they cannot raise the troops he ordered Edmund Fanning, away at Halifax, had ordered Captain Thomas Hart to raise 500 men for the defense of the county. On April 17, 1768, Hart and Francis Nash wrote back that they could not raise them, that feeling against Fanning ran high, and that Strudwick's tenants were meeting in revolt at the Haw Fields. Fanning passed their report to Governor Tryon on April 23, and it was read in council at Wilmington four days later. People: Thomas Hart, Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, William Tryon Place: HillsboroughInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 328
  9. Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt Two weeks after Regulators rescued a seized horse at Hillsborough, Fanning reported people across the county binding themselves by oath to refuse taxes, and said he and other officers expected an attack. People: Edmund Fanning, William Tryon, Thomas Lloyd (died 1792), Thomas Hart, Francis Nash, James Thackston, John Gray Place: HillsboroughLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 31
  10. Tryon's army gathers at Hillsborough to guard the superior court Tryon reached Hillsborough on September 19 with 195 Rowan and 310 Mecklenburg volunteers, and two days later 699 Orange and 120 Granville militia joined them. With gentlemen volunteers, artillery and officers the force came to 1,461 men, a quarter of the Assembly among its officers. People: William Tryon, Edmund Fanning, Thomas Lloyd (died 1792), Thomas Hart Place: HillsboroughInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 177
  11. Regulators disrupt the Hillsborough Superior Court About 150 Regulators crowded the Hillsborough Superior Court, beat the lawyer John Williams, Edmund Fanning and others, and forced Judge Richard Henderson to adjourn; he fled that night. The next day the crowd tore down Fanning's house and wrote mocking judgments on the court docket. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, Richard Henderson, Alexander Martin, Thomas Hart, John Williams Place: HillsboroughColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 8, pp. 241-244: Letter from Richard Henderson to William Tryon, September 29, 1770
  12. Regulators whip Thomas Hart in the Hillsborough court riot During the riot that broke up the Hillsborough superior court, the Regulators whipped Thomas Hart, the merchant and mill owner who had served as commissary to Tryon's army in 1768. People: Thomas Hart Place: HillsboroughInternet Archive: Archibald Henderson, ed., "Hermon Husband's Continuation of the Impartial Relation", North Carolina Historical Review 18 (1941), p. 75
Show all 27 dated events
  1. Hillsborough's leading men write to Governor Tryon for protection after the riot James Watson, Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, Robert Lytle, William Johnston, James Thackston and James Monro wrote from Hillsborough describing the Regulators' insolence at the superior court, said they stood hourly in danger of their lives and estates, and asked Tryon to adopt whatever measures he judged proper. People: Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, William Johnston, James Thackston, James Watson Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Robert Lytle, James MonroDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Letter from James Watson, Francis Nash, et al. to William Tryon, September 30, 1770
  2. Thomas Hart contracts to supply provisions for Tryon's campaign against the Regulators Hart accepted Governor Tryon's offer to victual the militia raised to suppress the Regulators, on the terms on which he had supplied the troops at Hillsborough in 1768. His department covered nearly a thousand men from eleven counties including Orange. People: William Tryon Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Letter from William Tryon to Thomas Hart (Apr 13, 1771)
  3. Orange County citizens petition their assemblyman Thomas Hart for reform laws Elected to the colonial Assembly for Orange in 1773-1774 and again in 1775, Thomas Hart received a petition from Orange County citizens asking for laws to regulate taxes and the courts, keep an indemnity law, and require proper bonds of sheriffs. Stokes found that Hart introduced the legislation, some of which passed, and served on the committee on claims and grievances. People: Thomas Hart Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 332
  4. Richard Henderson forms the Louisa Company with Thomas Hart and other Orange men Richard Henderson organized the Louisa Company in 1774 to buy western lands, taking in Thomas and Nathaniel Hart, John Williams, Lancelot and William Johnston, John Luttrell and others. Reorganized as the Transylvania Company after its purchase from the Cherokees, its partners, among them James Hogg and David Hart, recorded their agreement in the Orange County deed books. People: Richard Henderson, Thomas Hart, John Williams, William Johnston, James Hogg Place: Orange County · Also named: Nathaniel Hart, John Luttrell, David HartSearch the index · Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 329
  5. Thomas Hart is Orange County's only member at the first Provincial Convention When North Carolina's first Provincial Convention met on August 25, 1774 and chose delegates to the first Continental Congress, Thomas Hart alone sat for Orange County and the borough of Hillsborough sent no one. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 38 · Also: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952
  6. Colonel John Gray dies and leaves Grayfields to his son-in-law Thomas Hart Colonel John Gray, a former sheriff and assemblyman and one of the first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish, died in 1775 and willed his estate, including his large plantation Grayfields, to his son-in-law Thomas Hart, husband of his daughter Susannah. Stokes found that this inheritance gave Hart the capital for his many ventures. People: John Gray, Thomas Hart Place: Orange County · Also named: Susannah Gray HartSearch the index · Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 326
  7. Orange County sends Thomas Burke, John Kinchen and Francis Nash to the second Provincial Congress The second Provincial Congress met at New Bern a day ahead of the royal legislature, with Burke, Kinchen and Nash as Orange's delegates. In the legislature itself Orange sat Ralph McNair and Thomas Hart, and Thomas Nash sat for Hillsborough. People: Thomas Burke, Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, Ralph McNair, John Kinchen Place: New Bern · Also named: Thomas NashSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 42
  8. Orange County sends Thomas Hart, Thomas Burke and three others to the Third Provincial Congress Thomas Hart sat for Orange in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough with Thomas Burke, John Kinchen, John Atkinson and John Williams. A 1961 article names Nathaniel Rochester as elected too, citing the Colonial Records; he may have sat for the town of Hillsborough. People: Thomas Hart, Thomas Burke, John Kinchen, John Williams Place: Hillsborough · Also named: John Atkinson, Nathaniel RochesterInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 332 · Also: Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 38
  9. Thomas Hart sits for Orange in the state Senate Thomas Hart served as a senator in the 1777 session of the General Assembly, sitting on many committees, and resigned his military commission to Governor Richard Caswell so that he could give all his time to state affairs. He had been commissary of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment with the rank of colonel. People: Richard Caswell Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 333
  10. Rochester opens a Hillsborough store with Thomas Hart and James Brown The partnership was successful and Rochester began putting his earnings into real estate. The business was liquidated in 1780 when British occupation of Hillsborough became a probability, and Hart moved his family to Maryland. People: Nathaniel Rochester, Thomas Hart, James Brown Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
  11. General Assembly charters an academy near Hillsborough named Science Hall Meeting at Halifax, the General Assembly passed an act to establish an academy in the neighborhood of Hillsborough, naming William Hooper, Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, James Hogg and others as trustees. The act named the school Science Hall and gave its trustees the same powers as those of Liberty Hall in Mecklenburg County. People: Alexander Martin, Nathaniel Rochester, Thomas Hart, James Hogg, Thomas Burke, William Hooper, William Johnston, John Kinchen Place: HillsboroughDocumenting the American South: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1779 (Colonial and State Records, vol. 24)
  12. Thomas Hart leaves Hartford and moves his family to Maryland With Loyalists raiding his property and Cornwallis expected after Camden, Thomas Hart took General Gates's advice and in the fall of 1780 moved his family from Hartford to Hagerstown, Maryland, according to his partner Nathaniel Rochester, who went with him. Before leaving Hart sold part of his land, and Hartford went to Jesse Benton, husband of his niece, for a payment and a note. There is no record that Hart came back. People: Thomas Hart, Nathaniel Rochester, Horatio Gates, Jesse Benton Place: Hartford, near HillsboroughInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 333
  13. Cornwallis's troops plunder Jesse Benton's brandy and sugar Jesse Benton wrote Thomas Hart in June 1781 that when Cornwallis's army held Hillsborough he had saved everything from the troops except 110 gallons of brandy, 60 pounds of brown sugar, and some jugs, bottles and other trifles that they plundered. People: Jesse Benton, Thomas Hart Place: Eno River, near HillsboroughInternet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 394
  14. Drought leaves the Hartford mills without water and crops short around Hillsborough Jesse Benton wrote Thomas Hart in December 1782 that it was a most fatal hard year, without water to run the mills or bring up the crops, and in March 1783 that crops were poor or lost and many families had to go fifty or sixty miles for bread while their debts mounted. He was letting many small debtors of Hart's wait because of the hard times. People: Thomas Hart Place: Hartford, near Hillsborough · Also named: Jesse BentonSearch the index · Internet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 397
  15. Jesse Benton of Orange County writes to Thomas Hart about legal disputes Jesse Benton of Orange County wrote to Thomas Hart about legal disputes and the pursuit of enslaved people. The letter survives in the Jesse Benton Papers at the State Archives. People: Jesse Benton, Thomas Hart Place: Orange CountySearch the index · State Archives of North Carolina catalog: Jesse Benton Papers (PC.322)

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Thomas Hart, 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.

Show 13 more

Indexed works

Works about or by Thomas Hart. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Jesse Benton Letters (1780-1790)

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2009 · lulu.com

Stewart E. Dunaway's transcription of letters exchanged between Jesse Benton and Thomas Hart from 1780 to 1790, concerning Hart's affairs at Hartford, his place at Hillsborough. The letters concern the economic and social conditions of Hillsborough in the eighteenth century and the Revolution in North Carolina. Self-published through lulu.com in 2009, 68 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, and part of the library's Wall Local History Collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Hart, Thomas, -1808 -- Correspondence.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO BENTON BEN NC Cardinal Durham

Jesse Benton Papers: Hartford, Hillsborough, N.C., 1780-1790

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 1991 · S.E. Dunaway

Stewart E. Dunaway's earlier compilation of the Jesse Benton papers from Hartford at Hillsborough, covering 1780 to 1790, self-published in 1991, 68 pages with illustrations. Alongside the correspondence of Benton and Thomas Hart, it covers the Revolutionary War campaigns in North Carolina, including the battles of Hart's Mill and Lindley's Mill in 1781, both fought in what was then Orange County. Dunaway reissued the letters in 2009.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Hart, Thomas.

NC Cardinal

The history of Maddock's Mill - Hillsborough, NC : including owners Thomas Hart, Rev. James Frazier, Jesse Benton, Catlett Campbell

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2022

History of Maddock's Mill at Hillsborough and of its owners Thomas Hart, Rev. James Frazier, Jesse Benton and Catlett Campbell. Stewart E. Dunaway published it in 2022 through Lulu, 174 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles, appending Benton and Hart family histories.

Included because: Its title names this person.

NC Cardinal UNC

Jesse Benton letters (1780-1790) : Hartford, Hillsborough, NC.

Benton, Jesse · 2009 · S.E. Dunaway

Letters written between 1780 and 1790 by Jesse Benton, a lawyer at Hillsborough, to Thomas Hart, the owner of the Hartford mill complex, edited by Stewart Dunaway and published in 2009. Sixty eight pages with illustrations, facsimiles and a plan. The correspondence falls in the Revolutionary and early federal years.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hart, Thomas, -1808.

UNC

The Hartford mill complex during the revolution

Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997 · 1979

Mary Claire Engstrom's article on the Hartford mill complex on the Eno and its fortunes during the Revolution, centered on Thomas Hart, who died in 1808. Nine pages with a facsimile and a portrait, printed in 1979.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hart, Thomas, -1808.

UNC

Jesse Benton Papers

Benton, Jesse · 1781

Letter of 1783 from Jesse Benton of Orange County, father of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, to Thomas Hart of Maryland about lawsuits and efforts to recover enslaved people who had escaped. The back of the sheet carries property valuations. Dated 1781 and 1783. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.322.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC
Show 3 more

Senate Bills (October 26): Bill to vest the title of certain lands therein mentioned to Abner Nash

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1779

North Carolina Senate bill of 26 October 1779 to vest title to certain lands in Abner Nash, later governor. It touches confiscated property, surveys, wills and executors, with lands in Granville, Guilford, Randolph and Jones counties. Edmund Fanning, the Hillsborough loyalist, and Thomas Hart figure in it. Seven images.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Hart, Thomas, -1808.

NC Digital Collections

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Thomas Hart, Orange Detachment's Accounts

North Carolina. Office of Archives and History. Division of Archives and Records Management · 1771

Accounts of the Orange County detachment under Thomas Hart, May 1771, kept during the government's campaign against the Regulators. The Regulator Movement was a backcountry revolt against officials the settlers accused of charging excessive fees and falsifying records. Four images.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

John Heritage Bryan (1798-1870) Collection

Bryan, John Heritage, 1798-1870 · 1716

Papers of John Heritage Bryan (1798 to 1870), New Bern lawyer, legislator and Whig congressman from 1825 to 1829, dating 1716 to 1907. His letters mostly follow social life in the towns and plantations of eastern North Carolina, chiefly New Bern and Raleigh, from the 1820s to the 1860s, and touch the university at Chapel Hill and the Hillsborough Academy.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC

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 2 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.

All places and the county map →

Records of enslaved people

4 records, 1780 to 1800, name Thomas Hart 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.

Search all records of enslaved people in Orange County →

Deeds

50 deeds, 1759 to 1802, in the county’s deed books name Thomas Hart as a party, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. Each links to the deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

Show all 50 deeds

Search every historic deed →

Wills

4 wills and papers in the county’s will books name Thomas Hart, from Ruth Herndon Shields’s abstracts. Each shows the role and the year.

Search the wills →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Thomas Hart Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • 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

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Thomas Hart

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the catalog name heading: Hart, Thomas, -1808. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026