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Local figure

Thomas Felix Hickerson

Thomas Felix Hickerson taught at the University of North Carolina from 1905, first as an instructor in mathematics and then as professor of civil engineering, joining the mathematics department in 1936 and retiring in 1952. A Gimghoul for fifty-one years, he supervised the building of the order's castle and planted the boxwoods around Dromgoole Rock.

Source: NCpedia: Hickerson, Thomas Felix (Martha B. Caldwell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1988)

Also found in catalogs as Thomas F. (Thomas Felix) Hickerson.

1882–1968 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 work about Thomas Felix Hickerson is indexed here, as is one work by Hickerson.

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Life and Orange County connections

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

StorylineGimghoul Castle at Piney Prospect, 1923–19311923–1931 · 8 events · In 1923 the Order of Gimghouls gave the University 35 acres next to Battle's Park in a land exchange and began selling house lots whose deeds required approved house plans. With money from those lot sales, the order built a stone castle on the crest at Dromgoole Rock near Piney Prospect, at the spot where legend placed Dromgoole's fatal duel and burial. Members and alumni agreed unanimously in June 1924 to build the lodge, and the Weekly put the likely cost at $35,000 to $45,000. Some 1,300 tons of stone were hauled in, stonemasons came from the Waldensian settlement at Valdese, and Charlie Lee Martindale was general contractor. The order first gathered in the castle in May 1926. After repeated break-ins, apparently by students, it had wrought-iron grills fitted over the windows and added heavy doors and bolts by 1931. StorylineAuctioning land into house lots, 1923–19251923–1925 · 7 events · From 1923 to 1925 farms and fields around Chapel Hill and Carrboro were cut into house lots. The Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company opened Forest Hills on the Pittsboro road and lots on North Street in 1923. In 1924 the Durham Auction Company sold the Lloyd field in Carrboro and part of the old Purefoy land at sales with bands and free dinners, and W. C. Coker's woods east of the campus were laid out in large lots. In 1925 the realty company bid in most of Robert L. Strowd's farm east of town at auction and began selling lots there as Davie Woods.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 16 dated events in the chronology →

  1. T. Felix Hickerson returns to Chapel Hill as an instructor in mathematics A year after taking his Ph.B. at the university, Thomas Felix Hickerson came back to Chapel Hill in 1905 for graduate work in mathematics and engineering and taught as an instructor in mathematics. He stayed on the faculty until 1952. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Hickerson, Thomas Felix (Martha B. Caldwell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1988)
  2. Engineering professor T. Felix Hickerson builds a house on Battle Lane T. Felix Hickerson, later author of a standard road-design textbook and the engineer who laid out Gimghoul and Laurel Hill, built a two-story weatherboarded house at 108 Battle Lane that pairs a classical entrance porch with a bay window and a sleeping porch. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: 108 Battle Lane, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: GimghoulSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 49
  3. The Order of Gimghouls plats its Chapel Hill subdivision with racial deed restrictions The Junior Order of Gimghouls subdivided its land east of campus into house lots, with a plat recorded in Orange County Plat Book 1, page 51. The original deed covenants carried the racial restrictions standard for the period, along with setbacks and a requirement that the order review house plans. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Gimghoul neighborhood, Chapel HillLiving Places: Gimghoul Neighborhood Historic District (adapted from the 1993 National Register nomination by M. Ruth Little)
  4. County commissioners hear Chapel Hill township farmers on the county roads At a hearing in the People's Bank, sought by a township citizens' committee that Mayor Roberson had named, farmers from every side of Chapel Hill told the three county commissioners their roads were impassable much of the year. Chairman R. H. Ward answered that the road tax did not stretch over some 600 miles of county roads, and R. L. Strowd urged the township to issue its own road bonds. People: Ralph H. Ward, Robert L. Strowd, Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Directors' room, People's Bank, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 3, 1923, p. 1
  5. University trustees approve the land exchange with the Order of Gimghouls The trustees approved a swap under which the Gimghouls gave the University 35 acres next to Battle's Park and received about seven acres to straighten their lines. The order planned to sell 42 house lots along the Raleigh road beyond the cemetery and to keep Piney Prospect for a stone lodge. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Piney Prospect and Battle's Park, Chapel HillThe Chapel Hill Weekly, June 21, 1923, p. 1
  6. The University builds a road south of the campus from the Raleigh road to the Pittsboro road Work went ahead on a University road running through the woods about 200 yards south of the old campus wall, from the Raleigh road near Emerson Field to the Pittsboro road by the faculty homes on University Heights. Half the right of way was cleared and 400 feet graded by early August, with completion expected by fall. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: South of the UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Emerson FieldSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 9, 1923, p. 1
  7. The Gimghouls vote to build a lodge at Dromgoole Rock Meeting at luncheon, members and alumni of the Order of Gimghouls agreed unanimously to build a lodge on the crest at Dromgoole Rock near Piney Prospect, paid for with money from their lot sales, and named T. F. Hickerson, A. H. Patterson and W. S. Bernard to carry it through. The Weekly put the likely cost at $35,000 to $45,000 and described plans for a stone and shingle building with a round ballroom, with at least 25 acres kept as the order's park. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson, Andrew Henry Patterson, William Stanly Bernard Place: Dromgoole Rock, edge of Battle's Park, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1924, p. 1
  8. W. C. Coker's woods east of the campus are laid out as a new home colony Engineer T. F. Hickerson laid out roads through W. C. Coker's land east of the campus beside the Country Club road, dividing it into 13 large lots facing a ridge road and the golf course, with water, sewer and electric lines to follow as in the Gimghoul section. People: William Chambers Coker, Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: East of the campus, Country Club road, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Country Club, GimghoulSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1924, p. 1
  9. T. Felix Hickerson publishes Highway Curves and Earthworks UNC civil engineering professor Thomas Felix Hickerson, who laid out the curving roads of Rocky Ridge Farm, first published his road design text in 1926. Later issued as Route Location and Design, it was used in engineering programs at some 83 colleges. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, National Register nomination (OR0303), p. 19 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 4, 1926, p. 1
  10. William C. Coker plats the Laurel Hill subdivision On his land southeast of the campus, Coker had T. Felix Hickerson lay out Laurel Hill Road along a ridge beside the golf course, with short cul-de-sacs and large lots. Coker approved every house plan and seems to have sent builders to Atwood and Nash; seven houses were built before the 1929 crash. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson, William Chambers Coker Place: Laurel Hill, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 64
  11. Chapel Hill Country Club members finance a nine-hole golf course The Chapel Hill Country Club approved a plan for members to advance $100 each against future golf dues; sixteen pledged, raising $1,600 to finish the nine-hole course, with work to begin at once under W. C. George. T. F. Hickerson was elected club president. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson, W. C. George (Wesley Critz George) Place: Country Club, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 4, 1927, p. 3
  12. Portrait of Major William Cain is presented to the University's school of engineering On January 28, 1929, before a crowd that filled the auditorium of Phillips Hall, William Steen's portrait of Major William Cain, who had taught engineering at the University since 1889, was unveiled and accepted for the school of engineering by T. F. Hickerson. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson, Gustave M. Braune Place: Phillips Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: William Cain, William SteenSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 1, 1929, p. 1
Show all 16 dated events
  1. The Gimghouls fit their castle with iron grills and chain its boulder pyramids After repeated break-ins, apparently by students who climbed the rough stone walls and entered through the tower door, the Order of Gimghoul had Germino, a Durham metal worker, fit about three dozen wrought-iron grills over the castle windows and transoms and added heavy doors and bolts, under the direction of T. Felix Hickerson. The boulders of the four pyramids by the drive, which had been rolled down the slope at night, were chained together with iron stakes set in lead. The society's assembly room in the tower was also fitted out with hand-hewn pegged oak furniture as a memorial to the late Drew Patterson. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Gimghoul Castle, Piney Prospect, Chapel Hill · Also named: Drew PattersonThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 20, 1931, p. 1
  2. T. Felix Hickerson stays in Chapel Hill when the School of Engineering is dissolved When the university's School of Engineering was dissolved in 1936, Hickerson chose to stay in Chapel Hill in the mathematics department rather than move to Raleigh. He received a Kenan professorship in 1945 and retired in 1952. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Hickerson, Thomas Felix (Martha B. Caldwell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1988)
  3. Gimghoul Road residents petition the aldermen over speeding and night use of the Gimghoul grounds Residents of Gimghoul Road asked the aldermen for a 25-mile speed limit, a sign and police patrol, and asked that the Order of Gimghouls be told to close its property at the end of the road to night traffic because of what they called immoral conditions there. The aldermen referred the petition to T. F. Hickerson, who managed the property, suggesting a chain across the entrance each evening, and he promised to cooperate. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Gimghoul Road, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 5, 1940, p. 1
  4. Black CCC enrollees put out a forest fire below the Gimghoul castle A forest fire broke out in the woods below the Gimghoul castle at the southeast edge of Chapel Hill on the day of the Duke game, and eight men from the nearby Civilian Conservation Corps camp, whose roughly 190 enrollees were all Black, put it out after it had burned about two acres. Camp work director S. O. Short said his crews fought fires across Orange, Durham and Chatham counties that dry fall, among them 500 to 600 acres near the Neuse River in Durham County, ten acres near Sheriff Latta's place near Hillsboro and 25 acres north of Carrboro. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: Woods below the Gimghoul castle, Battle Park, Chapel Hill · Also named: S. O. ShortSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 21, 1941, p. 1

People named in the same events

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Indexed works

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

By Thomas Felix Hickerson

Topography, Chapel Hill and vicinity, Orange County, North Carolina.

Hickerson, Thomas F. (Thomas Felix), 1882-1968; Morrison, W. F. · 1918

Topographic map of Chapel Hill and vicinity based on an 1896 U.S. Geological Survey, with additions by Thomas Felix Hickerson and W.F. Morrison in 1918, issued as an advance sheet. Ten-foot contours and spot heights show relief, along with roads, railroads, buildings, streams, the University, its athletic fields and the University Quarry. Carrboro falls within the sheet.

UNC DPLA

About Thomas Felix Hickerson

Order of Gimghoul records, 1832-2006 (bulk 1940-1997).

Order of Gimghoul (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · 1832

Organizational records of the Order of Gimghoul, a student society at Chapel Hill, spanning 1832 to 2006 with most material from 1940 to 1997. About 4,000 items in six linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40262. Subjects include the Gimghoul Corporation along with Lyman A. Cotten, Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, Thomas F. Hickerson, George Watts Hill and Charles Milton Shaffer, and reach student activities and faculty social life.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hickerson, Thomas F. (Thomas Felix), 1882-1968.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.209 HIC Echoes of Happy Valley: Letters and Diaries, Family Life in the South, Civil War History Hickerson, Thomas F. · 1962

    Letters and diaries of the Lenoir, Gwyn and allied families of Happy Valley on the Yadkin River, where Thomas Felix Hickerson's parents lived, bearing on family life in the South and on the Civil War. Hickerson also wrote a history and genealogy of the valley. Published by the author in Chapel Hill in 1962, 245 pages with plates, a genealogical table and an index.

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