Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

Charles Alphonso Smith

Charles Alphonso Smith (1864–1924), a Greensboro native, came to the University of North Carolina in 1902 as professor of English and the next year became the first dean of its graduate department, where he founded the journal Studies in Philology. In 1905 he served with President Francis P. Venable on the committee to raise the matching fund for Andrew Carnegie's library gift. He left in 1909 for the University of Virginia.

Source: NCpedia: Smith, Charles Alphonso

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Charles Alphonso Smith. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Charles Alphonso Smith’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The university organizes a Graduate Department with C. Alphonso Smith as dean By the 1904 commencement the university had organized its Graduate Department, with Dr. C. Alphonso Smith as dean. An alumni committee on the university's condition praised the step. People: Charles Alphonso SmithSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 632
  2. Andrew Carnegie offers the university $50,000 for a library At the 1905 commencement President Venable told the alumni that Andrew Carnegie had offered $50,000 for a library building if an equal sum were raised for its upkeep. About $27,000 was in sight, and a faculty and alumni committee was named to raise the rest. People: Francis Preston Venable, Eben Alexander, Charles Alphonso SmithSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 647
  3. A memorial service for President Graham fills Gerrard Hall Every seat in Gerrard Hall was taken for the formal memorial service for Edward Kidder Graham, held after the epidemic had eased. Horace Williams and R. D. W. Connor spoke, and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton read a tribute from C. Alphonso Smith. People: R. D. W. Connor, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Henry Horace Williams, Charles Alphonso SmithSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 177

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 and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

  • Gerrard Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Charles Alphonso Smith, 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.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Charles Alphonso Smith 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

Local help

Search further

Ready-made searches in other catalogs and collections. Results are not checked against this person.

Books about Charles Alphonso Smith

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched by name. The catalogs give no dates for this person, so results may include other people with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026