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Local figure

C. H. Reckard

The Rev. C. H. Reckard, pastor of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, delivered a sermon in April 1956 criticizing local stock car racing and its effect on young people; protests by him and other clergy led to a 1957 law banning Sunday racing.

Source: NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to C. H. Reckard. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about C. H. Reckard’s life and work.

Search works on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough Research sources View background reading ↓

Life and Orange County connections

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

StorylineThe fight over Sunday racing, 1956–19581956–1958 · 9 events · When new race tracks in Orange County held races on Sundays, ministers led a fight to stop them that ended in the state Supreme Court. In April 1956 the Rev. W. I. Conway asked the county commissioners to stop the races at a jalopy track near his church, and about 100 people formed the Orange County Anti-Racing Association, but the county attorney said a ban needed special legislation. In 1957 the legislature passed Senator Edwin S. Lanier's bill barring races on Sundays and after 6 p.m. After Orange Speedway, Inc. sued, the state Supreme Court struck the act down on January 10, 1958, and Sunday racing returned with a 100-mile Grand National race won by Buck Baker.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Irving E. Birdseye leaves the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church for a new church in Greensboro Irving E. Birdseye told the Hillsboro session that he would accept a call to the Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, a new congregation in Greensboro, and the congregation was asked to release him at a meeting on February 1. The pulpit stayed empty until C. H. Reckard arrived in May. People: Irving E. Birdseye, C. H. Reckard Place: Hillsborough Presbyterian ChurchSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 22, 1953, p. 1
  2. The Hillsboro Presbyterian Church calls C. H. Reckard as its pastor The congregation voted unanimously to call the Rev. C. H. "Jack" Reckard of Huntsville, Tennessee, a 1951 graduate of Louisville Seminary, to the pulpit left empty when I. E. Birdseye went to Greensboro. Reckard accepted, arrived with his family on May 14 and was to be installed by Orange Presbytery on June 14. People: L. E. Beard, Irving E. Birdseye Place: Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 23, 1953, p. 1
  3. Hillsboro Presbyterian pastor C. H. Reckard preaches against lewd pictures and magazines Prompted partly by a scandal in Wilmington, the Rev. C. H. Reckard told his congregation that obscene photographs and cartoon booklets were being passed among students at the local school, and he urged church people to protest the suggestive magazines on racks in Hillsboro, Chapel Hill and Durham stores. The charge about the school was the pastor's own; the paper printed long excerpts and no school response. Place: Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, HillsboroSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 17, 1954, p. 1
  4. Hillsboro Presbyterian pastor preaches against local stock car racing The Rev. C. H. Reckard, pastor of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, delivered a sermon criticizing local stock car racing and its effect on young people, one of the clergy protests against Sunday races at Orange Speedway. Place: Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Orange SpeedwaySearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002) · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 26, 1956, p. 8
  5. Orange County pastors form a ministerial association Pastors of 18 churches in northern and central Orange County met at the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church and formed an Orange County Ministerial Association, electing the Rev. C. H. Reckard president and the Rev. Lawton Pettit of St. Matthew's Episcopal secretary. Place: Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, Hillsborough · Also named: Lawton PettitSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Ministers form county association, May 10, 1956, p. 1
  6. North Orange ministers ask the school board to stop gambling at school events The North Orange Ministerial Association, in a resolution passed unanimously on December 3, asked the county Board of Education to end the bingo games, carnival games of chance and student sales of turkey-lottery tickets used to raise money at the schools, and the use of school buildings by outside groups for such games. The board received it 'as information' and sent copies to the district and local school committees. People: C. H. Reckard Place: Orange County Board of Education, HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 13, 1956, p. 1
  7. County commissioners endorse a bill to ban Sunday racing in Orange County After a plea from the North Orange Ministerial Association, the four commissioners present voted unanimously to approve Senator Edwin S. Lanier's bill against Sunday auto racing, asking only that it wait until June 1 so the track owners could recoup some of their investment. The Rev. C. H. Reckard spoke for the ministers and jalopy track owner Dace Ward for the racing side. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Dwight Ray, C. H. Reckard Place: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Also named: Dace WardThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 4, 1957, p. 1
  8. The General Assembly bans Sunday racing in Orange County After protests by the Rev. C. H. Reckard and other Orange County clergy, the legislature passed Senator Edwin S. Lanier's bill banning racing in the county on Sundays, with Rep. John W. Umstead's amendment barring races after 6 p.m. on other days. The bill passed on May 8, 1957, though Sunday races were being advertised again at Orange Speedway by 1961. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: John W. UmsteadSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002), section 8, p. 20; with The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1957, p. 1 (Legislature Passes Lanier's Bill to Ban Sunday Racing in Orange County)
  9. Hillsborough Presbyterian Church builds and moves into a new manse A new manse drawn by pastor C. H. Reckard was finished early in 1958, and the Reckards moved into it on Monday, February 3. People: C. H. Reckard Place: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, HillsboroughSearch the index · Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 137 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 6, 1958, p. 3
  10. Hillsborough Presbyterian Church adds Strudwick Hall, a fellowship hall named for Shepperd Strudwick In C. H. Reckard's pastorate the church built a fellowship hall to his drawings and named it for Shepperd Strudwick, elder, Sunday school superintendent and clerk of session. The name was older: at the service of November 16, 1952 the congregation had named the assembly room of its educational building Strudwick Hall for Mr. and Mrs. Shepperd Strudwick. People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961), C. H. Reckard Place: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, HillsboroughSearch the index · Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 137 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 20, 1952, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 29, 1959, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 5, 1959, 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 them all.

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 →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as C. H. Reckard, 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.

Background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough

Background reading on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss C. H. Reckard. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Occoneechee-Orange Speedway

Sanseverino, Edward P. · 1995

Edward P. Sanseverino's 1995 account of the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway, the stock car track outside Hillsborough that ran in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Topics include automobile racing and racetracks in North Carolina and Hillsborough in the twentieth century.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 796.72 SAN

Jock Lauterer photographic collection, circa 1964-1968.

Lauterer, Jock · 1964

Photographs made by Jock Lauterer in and around Chapel Hill from about 1964 to 1968, some 3,522 items in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Subjects include the Speaker Ban Law, Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, Tar Heel basketball and football, the Jubilee festival, the Old Well, and visitors including Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Bob Hope and Jayne Mansfield.

UNC

Occoneechee Speedway/Orange Speedway (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Clippings and promotional materials on the Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough, the dirt racetrack later renamed Orange Speedway. An undated folder from box 31 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection, Carrboro and Orange County series.

CH Historical Society

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