Samuel Wellwood Hughes

Life and Orange County connections

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

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. January 1845 Samuel Wellwood Hughes opens a classical school for boys near Cedar Grove Samuel Wellwood Hughes opened his own academy in northern Orange County in January 1845. First called Cedar Grove Academy and later Hughes' Academy, it offered classical and mathematical courses modeled on the Bingham School and ran until his death in 1884. Place: Cedar Grove, Orange County · Also mentions: Bingham School, Cedar Grove AcademySearch the index · NCpedia: Hughes, Samuel Wellwood
2. March 12, 1850 Samuel W. Hughes is named to Orange County's first board for examining teachers On March 12, 1850, Samuel Wellwood Hughes was appointed to the first Orange County board to examine teachers for the common schools. In February 1852 he was also appointed to the county Board of Superintendents of Common Schools. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · NCpedia: Hughes, Samuel Wellwood
3. February 1852 Orange County seats a Board of Superintendents for its common schools At its February 1852 term the county court elected an eight-man Board of Superintendents of Common Schools, among them William H. Brown, who at some point served as the board's chairman. That year a new state law obliged such boards to name committees to examine would-be teachers rather than merely allowing it. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, William H. Brown, Nelson Parrish Hall Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), pp. 22-23
4. January 1859 Samuel Wellwood Hughes opens his own school near Cedar Grove After fourteen years as founder and principal of Cedar Grove Academy, Samuel Wellwood Hughes opened his own classical school five miles northwest of Hillsborough, its first session beginning on the second Monday of January 1859. He taught there until his death in 1884; the surviving schoolhouse, dated about 1862, was later moved to Hillsborough and restored. Place: Cedar Grove, Orange County · Also mentions: Cedar Grove AcademySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 5, 1859, p. 3 (Classical School advertisement dated December 10, 1858) · Also: Open Orange: Hughes Academy
5. December 13, 1859 Orange Whigs condemn John Brown's raid and name delegates to the state convention A Whig and Opposition meeting at the Hillsborough court house, with Harrison Parker in the chair, heard William A. Graham and Maurice Q. Waddell and adopted resolutions from a committee led by Josiah Turner Jr. They denounced the raid on Virginia as the work of abolition incendiaries, approved its swift punishment, pledged Orange's help to Virginia and the South, blamed the Democrats for stirring the slavery question for party ends, and named Orange delegates to the party's state convention at Raleigh in February 1860. People: William A. Graham, Josiah Turner Jr., Samuel Wellwood Hughes, Henry Kollock Nash, Harrison Parker Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Maurice Q. WaddellSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, December 21, 1859, p. 2
6. April 16, 1860 The county school board requires teachers to pass in grammar and geography The Board of Superintendents of Common Schools, meeting in the county court clerk's office, elected William H. Brown chairman, named Samuel W. Hughes, Joseph A. Tinnen and William H. Brown its examining committee, and ordered that no teacher be employed or paid without the committee's certificate. Certificates were to go only to applicants able to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography, a rule that by late May had dropped some former teachers. People: William H. Brown, Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: County court clerk's office, Hillsborough · Also named: Joseph A. TinnenSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, April 18, 1860, p. 3
7. April 16, 1866 Orange County's school board writes off its Confederate funds and rents out the schoolhouses Meeting after the war, the Board of Superintendents of Common Schools found that its balance of about $3,190 in Confederate money and a state draft for $1,732 payable in the same currency were worthless. It told each district's committeemen to rent out their schoolhouses and pay the rents to the county chairman. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan p. 53
8. 1870-1872 John T. Hogan serves as an Orange County commissioner Lefler and Wager's list of Orange County commissioners gives J. T. Hogan a term from 1870 to 1872. The clerk's statement of the commissioners' attendance and mileage for the year ending in 1871, printed in the Hillsborough Recorder, names him John T. Hogan, one of five members of the board. People: John T. Hogan, Samuel Wellwood Hughes, William N. Patterson Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 358 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, November 22, 1871, p. 3
9. 1872 Orange County names a three-man Board of Education and a panel of teacher examiners Under the Reconstruction school law the county had a Board of Education of W. N. Patterson, J. T. Hogan and Jones Watson in 1872. Samuel W. Hughes and Charles Curtis were among the county examiners who licensed teachers that year. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, Jones Watson, John T. Hogan, William N. Patterson Place: Orange County · Also named: Charles CurtisSearch the index · DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 91
10. March 5, 1873 The Board of Education divides the 1872 school fund among the townships by race At its March 5, 1873 meeting the board named a teacher examining committee and apportioned the 1872 fund at the same rate per child for both races: $4,219.60 for 3,080 white children and $2,402.98 for 1,754 Black children across eight townships. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Orange CountySearch the index · DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 28
11. April 22, 1882 The Mount Zion congregation buys an acre for its first church The Black congregation then known as Poplar Springs, which had met in a schoolhouse and on members' farms, bought a one-acre lot from S. W. Hughes and Margaret J. Hughes for $10. Its first church there was a small frame building with benches made by members. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: NC Highway 86 north of Hillsborough, Cedar Grove area · Also named: Margaret J. HughesMount Zion AME Church, Hillsborough: Our History (church website)
12. by July 15, 1882 Samuel W. Hughes's school at Cedar Grove closes for his illness The school Samuel W. Hughes had kept at Cedar Grove for more than forty years closed because of its principal's poor health. Hughes resigned as county superintendent of public instruction later that summer for the same reason. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Cedar Grove, Orange CountyOrange County Observer (Hillsborough), July 15, 1882, p. 3

After their death in 1884

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. by March 27, 1890 Cedar Grove citizens put up a new academy building and plan a chapel in memory of Samuel W. Hughes Citizens of Cedar Grove were building a handsome academy near the site of Samuel Wellwood Hughes's old school, now under Rev. J. R. Game of South Carolina. The trustees proposed a chapel beside it named for Hughes and asked his former pupils for a dollar or more each toward it. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, John Knox Hughes Place: Cedar Grove Academy, Cedar Grove, Orange County · Also named: J. R. GameOrange County Observer (Hillsborough), April 12, 1890, p. 2
2. 1894 to 1915 Annie L. Hughes keeps Cedar Grove Academy Annie L. Hughes carried on a Cedar Grove Academy from 1894 until 1915, a decade after the death of Samuel W. Hughes ended his Hughes Academy. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Cedar Grove · Also named: Annie L. Hughes · Also mentions: Cedar Grove AcademyDigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 16
3. July 1935 W. E. Thompson is elected commander of the Chapel Hill American Legion post Soon after moving back to Chapel Hill from Greensboro, W. E. Thompson was elected commander of the Chapel Hill post of the American Legion, with H. O. Bivins and S. W. Hughes of Hillsboro as vice-commanders and G. M. Kirkland as adjutant. People: W. E. Thompson, Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: H. O. Bivins, G. M. KirklandSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 26, 1935, p. 1
4. January 22, 1946 Governor Cherry honors three Orange draft board members Governor R. Gregg Cherry presented Congressional Certificates of Merit and Selective Service Medals to Orange board chairman G. O. Reitzel and members A. C. Pickard and S. W. Hughes. The awards marked their wartime service on the county's draft board. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, Clarence Pickard, Garland O. Reitzel Place: Wake County courthouse, Raleigh · Also named: R. Gregg Cherry, A. C. PickardSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 24, 1946, p. 1
5. by August 5, 1948 Orange County's World War II draft board is named again for the peacetime draft By August 5, 1948, the board that ran Orange County's World War II draft, Samuel W. Hughes, Garland O. Reitzel and A. Clarence Pickard, had been recommended to Governor Cherry to run the first peacetime draft, with C. P. Hinshaw as appeal agent and Dr. D. Efland Forrest as medical adviser. Registration of men 18 through 25 was set to begin August 30. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, Clarence Pickard, Garland O. Reitzel, Clarence P. Hinshaw Place: Hillsborough · Also named: A. Clarence Pickard, D. Efland ForrestSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 5, 1948, p. 1
6. by December 10, 1953 Clarence Pickard resigns from the Orange County draft board A. Clarence Pickard of Chapel Hill, a member of the county's Selective Service board since it was organized before the Second World War, sent his resignation to the state director. The News called it the first change in the board's membership since 1940; G. O. Reitzel and S. W. Hughes stayed on. People: Clarence Pickard, Garland O. Reitzel, Samuel Wellwood Hughes Place: Hillsborough · Also named: A. Clarence PickardSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 10, 1953, p. 1