William L. Saunders

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 16 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. August or September 1775 The Provincial Congress names Caswell, Moore and Pattillo to win over former Regulators The congress at Hillsborough agreed to protect former Regulators who broke the oath of allegiance forced on them after Alamance, and appointed Richard Caswell, Maurice Moore and Henry Pattillo to persuade them to join the American cause. William L. Saunders later remarked on the irony, since Pattillo had joined in denouncing the Regulators in 1768. People: Richard Caswell, Maurice Moore, Henry Pattillo, William L. Saunders Place: HillsboroughInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Henry Pattillo in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 44 (1967), p. 384
2. 1868 Dialectic and Philanthropic societies hide their books and papers Believing the societies would not be run under their constitutions after the university changed hands, their last officers gave the Dialectic records to Alexander McIver and the Philanthropic records to William L. Saunders. The property lay safe until the societies revived in 1875. People: Alexander McIver, William L. Saunders Place: Chapel HillDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 785
3. summer 1870 (sent by July 28) A squad of Holden's militia marches into Chapel Hill and camps behind the college During the Kirk-Holden war a squad of state militia under a Dr. Emery marched into Chapel Hill and camped behind the college, while some county men took to the woods and Frederick Strudwick and William L. Saunders hid to avoid arrest. Spencer wrote the next year that the militia had broken into the Philanthropic and Dialectic society libraries and taken books. People: Frederick N. Strudwick, William L. Saunders Place: Behind the college, Chapel Hill · Also named: George W. KirkHope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 211 · Also: Trial of William W. Holden
4. September 23, 1871 William L. Saunders of Chapel Hill refuses to answer the congressional Klan committee Called before the joint committee on affairs in the insurrectionary states, Saunders, whom the book names as head of the Invisible Empire in North Carolina, declined to answer 53 questions about the Ku Klux. People: William L. Saunders Place: Chapel HillLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 117-118 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, September 27, 1871, p. 2
5. January 28 to February 18, 1874 The General Assembly elects sixty-four trustees, who organize under William A. Graham with Kemp Battle as secretary and treasurer By an act of January 28, 1874, the legislature elected sixty-four university trustees by joint ballot, only two of them from the Reconstruction board, and fourteen of them men removed in 1868. The new board first met on February 18, 1874, in the Citizens National Bank in Raleigh, elected William A. Graham of Hillsborough its president and Kemp P. Battle its secretary and treasurer, named an executive committee, and the next day sent a committee to inspect Chapel Hill, after Governor Tod R. Caldwell declined to preside because he held the legislature had no power to elect trustees. People: William A. Graham, Kemp Plummer Battle, Paul C. Cameron, John Manning, Tod Robinson Caldwell, William L. Saunders Place: Citizens National Bank, RaleighInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
6. April 3 to 9, 1874 Walter Steele and Paul Cameron inspect the derelict campus and Solomon Pool refuses to surrender the keys On April 3, 1874, trustees Walter L. Steele and Paul C. Cameron came to Chapel Hill for the new board. Solomon Pool declined their written request for the keys and possession of the buildings, since the governor had not recognized the board, but let them inspect as visitors. Their report to the trustees on April 9 described broken doors and fallen plaster, the lower passage of Old West fouled by cattle and horses, rotted gates and axe-scarred oaks, 7,490 books in the Dialectic library and 6,901 in the Philanthropic, and recommended an immediate suit against Pool for possession. People: Paul C. Cameron, Solomon Pool, William L. Saunders, James B. Mason Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Walter L. SteeleInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
7. September 15, 1875 The Dialectic and Philanthropic societies meet again On the evening of the reopening celebration the two literary societies were revived, the Dialectic called together by its last secretary, Thomas M. Argo, with Judge William H. Battle as temporary president. William L. Saunders, who had kept the Philanthropic Society's books since its last meeting in 1868, called that society together. People: William Horn Battle, William L. Saunders Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Thomas M. ArgoDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 98 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 15, 1975, p. 3
8. 1878 to 1891 William L. Saunders becomes secretary of the university, and later its treasurer as well After Seaton Gales died in 1878, the trustees chose Saunders as the university's secretary; once President Battle gave up the treasurership, Saunders held both offices, which he kept until his death in 1891. People: Kemp Plummer Battle Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Seaton GalesSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 125
9. by February 21, 1880 The Alumni Association names a committee to help raise money for the university The university's Alumni Association appointed Julian S. Carr, Fred Phillips, S. F. Phillips, Mills L. Eure and Charles M. Stedman to work with the trustees in raising funds. Secretary W. L. Saunders was receiving gifts, among them $5 from James W. Wilson of the class of 1852. People: Julian S. Carr, Samuel Field Phillips, William L. Saunders Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Fred Phillips, Mills L. Eure, Charles M. StedmanSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Ledger, February 21, 1880, p. 2
10. 1887 Cornelia Phillips Spencer writes a short school history of North Carolina Spencer took a Raleigh publisher's commission for a short history of North Carolina for elementary schools and wrote it out by hand in the Loves' new house on East Franklin Street. Before it was printed the publisher had William L. Saunders read it, and Saunders cut or toned down some of her statements about the Civil War without asking her, by Love's account. The book, First Steps in North Carolina History, was out by 1889; that November the Wilmington Messenger reported that she was rewriting parts readers had objected to. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, William L. Saunders Place: Love house, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: East Franklin StreetSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 263 · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), November 16, 1889, p. 2
11. by November 19, 1887 Secretary of State William L. Saunders searches Orange County's old records for state history William L. Saunders, North Carolina's secretary of state, spent some days in Hillsborough searching the county's old records and books for material on the history of North Carolina. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), November 19, 1887, p. 3
12. 1891 commencement Trustees elect Richard H. Battle secretary and treasurer of the university At the 1891 commencement meeting the trustees elected Richard H. Battle of Raleigh, a trustee since 1879, secretary and treasurer of the university in place of the late William L. Saunders. He held the office until his death in 1912. People: Richard H. Battle, William L. Saunders Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 461

After their death in 1891

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

1. 1922 UNC trustees name a new classroom building for William L. Saunders The trustees named one of the new buildings Saunders Hall to honor Saunders as a Confederate veteran, a university trustee and a leader of the state Ku Klux Klan. It was built for the history department. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Saunders HallSearch the index · UNC Libraries: A Guide to Researching Campus Monuments and Buildings: Carolina Hall (formerly Saunders Hall)
2. 2014 Students call for William L. Saunders's name to come off Saunders Hall The Real Silent Sam Coalition, a student group, began a campaign to remove Saunders's name from the building because of his leadership in the Ku Klux Klan. The trustees renamed it Carolina Hall in May 2015. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: William L. Saunders (1835-1891)
3. 2015 Saunders Hall is renamed Carolina Hall UNC trustees approved the name change in May 2015; the building received its new name that August. People: William L. Saunders Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC A to Z — Carolina Hall