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Local figure

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle

Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, a university trustee, chaired the first curriculum committee, wrote the first student regulations, and gave the address at the laying of the Old East cornerstone in 1793. McCorkle Place bears his name.

Source: Carolina Story: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle and McCorkle Place

1746–1811 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 indexed works are connected with this person.

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Halifax, October 30

2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

A contemporary account, datelined Halifax, October 30, of the laying of the cornerstone of the state university at Chapel Hill on October 12, 1793. Trustees gathered to watch the Masonic brethren set the stone, William R. Davie placed a commemorative plaque, and the Reverend Samuel E. McCorkle took part after the procession. Transcribed and issued as an electronic edition by the University Library in 2005 in the Documenting the American South collection 'The first century of the first state university'.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

The prophet of Zion-Parnassus, Samuel Eusebius McCorkle

Hurley, J. F. (James F.), 1870-1936 · 1934

J. F. Hurley's life of Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, the Presbyterian minister behind the Zion-Parnassus Academy in Rowan County. Published in Richmond by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication in 1934, 121 pages with illustrations and a bibliography. Topics include Scots-Irish settlement, Thyatira Presbyterian Church near Salisbury and Presbyterian church history in the state, along with the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: McCorkle, Samuel Eusebius, 1746-1811.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. University trustees ask Benjamin Hawkins to gather information on American colleges At their July 1791 meeting the university trustees named Senator Benjamin Hawkins, Samuel McCorkle and Hugh Williamson to gather information on the laws, rules and buildings of American colleges, with their income and spending, and to estimate what the university's own buildings would cost. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Hugh WilliamsonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 15
  2. A trustee committee under Samuel McCorkle reports the university's first plan of studies Named at New Bern on December 4, 1792, the committee proposed teaching languages with English first, history, mathematics, natural philosophy, botany, agriculture and architecture, and buying scientific apparatus. A newspaper notice of December 12 inviting teachers for this course drew no applicants. People: David Stone, Samuel Ashe, Hugh Williamson, Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Alfred MooreDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 48
  3. Old East cornerstone is laid William Richardson Davie and fellow trustees laid Old East’s cornerstone; October 12 is observed as University Day. People: William Richardson Davie, Samuel Eusebius McCorkleUNC
  4. Trustees adopt the plan of instruction and set the university's opening for January 15 The board ordered the McCorkle committee's scheme into effect, fixed tuition by subject and created a presiding professor at $300 a year plus fees. It also resolved to build a steward's house before the opening and set a bill of fare for Commons with no drink but water. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, John Haywood, William LenoirDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 50
  5. Trustees adopt the university's first by-laws Drafted by Samuel McCorkle and amended in committee, the by-laws set four classes, prayers at sunrise and evening, a monitor in each class to report absences and misconduct, and punishments from admonition to expulsion. Students could not keep liquor in their rooms or gamble. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkleDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 54
  6. Trustees adopt William R. Davie's plan dividing the university into a preparatory school and professorships Davie's plan put English at the center, let French stand beside the classics and set up chairs of moral and political philosophy, natural philosophy, mathematics, chemistry with agriculture and the mechanic arts, and languages. The board elected Samuel McCorkle a professor, but he declined when refused extra pay in place of the president's house. People: David Ker, William Richardson Davie, Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Charles Wilson HarrisDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 93

Places in this person’s story

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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.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Samuel Eusebius McCorkle 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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