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Local figure

Toney Strayhorn

Toney Strayhorn, enslaved in Orange County, and his wife Nellie bought thirty acres in what became Carrboro and built a one-room log cabin there in 1879, the start of the house at 109 Jones Ferry Road. He taught himself to read and write and became a minister, a magistrate and one of the founders of First Baptist Church in Chapel Hill.

Source: Town of Carrboro: Our Roots Run Deep: Black History in Carrboro

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

Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. Toney and Nellie Strayhorn, formerly enslaved, bought thirty acres in what became Carrboro The Strayhorns bought about thirty acres and built a one-room log cabin at what is now 109 Jones Ferry Road, and their son William built the house next door at 107 in 1915. Toney Strayhorn is remembered as a founder of First Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, and the house is still owned by a great-granddaughter. People: Toney Strayhorn, William Strayhorn Place: 109 Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro · Also named: Nellie StrayhornTown of Carrboro: Our Roots Run Deep: Black History in Carrboro
  2. The Strayhorn log cabin on Jones Ferry Road reaches its two-story form Toney Strayhorn, born enslaved in Orange County, became a farmer and brick mason and in the late 1800s built a one-room log cabin on his tract. He and later his son William enlarged it until, by about 1910, it stood two stories high with a rear ell and big brick end chimneys that show the family's skill. People: Toney Strayhorn, William Strayhorn Place: Toney Strayhorn House, 109 Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro · Also named: Nellie StrayhornTown of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 37
  3. Contractor Charles Craige builds a gambrel-roofed bungalow for mason William Strayhorn The house at 107 Jones Ferry Road was built for William and Margie Strayhorn beside the home of his father Toney, head of a family of brick masons. The 1983 inventory dates it 1915, but in August 1925 the Weekly listed Will Strayhorn's home in Carrboro among the works of the Black contractor Charles Craig, who it said had begun contracting two or three years before. William died young in 1933; his daughter Laura and her husband Albert Reaves kept the house in 1983. People: William Strayhorn, Toney Strayhorn, Charles C. Craig Place: William Strayhorn House, 107 Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro · Also named: Margie Strayhorn, Charles Craige, Charles Craig · Also mentions: Jones Ferry RoadTown of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 36 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 14, 1925, p. 1
  4. Mason Toney Strayhorn and his grandson Alfred Barbee finish a stone dam across Morgan Creek Toney Strayhorn, a formerly enslaved Carrboro mason and preacher, completed a thirty-foot-wide stone dam spanning Morgan Creek near University Lake with his grandson Alfred Barbee, whose first masonry job it was. Alfred and his brother Willis Barbee went on to build walls, dams and chimneys around Chapel Hill and Carrboro for sixty years. People: Alfred David Barbee Sr., Toney Strayhorn Place: Morgan Creek near University Lake, south of CarrboroSearch the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: Heather Fearnbach, Troy M. and Roberta C. Andrews House, National Register nomination (draft, 2026)
  5. Toney Strayhorn dies at his Carrboro home at 84 Toney Strayhorn, a well-known Black resident of Carrboro, died at his home on the night of December 2, 1934, at the age of 84. The Weekly called him a beloved figure in and around Chapel Hill all his life and reported that white members of the Carrboro Baptist church held a prayer service for him just before he died. People: Toney Strayhorn Place: Strayhorn home, CarrboroThe Chapel Hill Weekly, December 7, 1934, p. 6
  6. Carrboro unveils a truth plaque at the Strayhorn House The Town of Carrboro unveiled a truth plaque at the Strayhorn House, 109 Jones Ferry Road. It records that Toney and Nellie Strayhorn, enslaved in Orange County, were one of the first Black families to settle in Carrboro and built a one-room log cabin there in 1879 after buying thirty acres. Place: Carrboro · Also named: Nellie StrayhornSearch the index · Town of Carrboro: Our Roots Run Deep: Black History in Carrboro

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 Toney Strayhorn, 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 Historic Black neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Background reading on Historic Black neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Toney Strayhorn. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Histories of home : a walk with Northside neighbors

Jackson Center for Saving & Making History · 2021 · Marian Cheek Jackson Center

A folded walking tour map of Northside, the historically African American neighborhood near downtown Chapel Hill, produced by Alexander Stephens for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History in 2021. One illustrated sheet, 43 by 28 centimeters, folded to pocket size. The walk introduces the neighborhood through its residents' own histories of home.

UNC

African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties

Bolduc, Jean · 2016

Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Significance report : the Northside Neighborhood, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Mary L. Reeb, consultant · 1989 · Town of Chapel Hill

Consultant Mary L. Reeb's April 1989 report for the Town of Chapel Hill on the significance of the Northside Neighborhood, the historically Black neighborhood north of downtown. Topics include the neighborhood's buildings and dwellings and real estate development in Chapel Hill. Prepared as a working document for the town, it runs to 34 leaves with maps and a two-page bibliography.

UNC

Announcing: the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History

2009

Announcement issued in Chapel Hill in 2009 for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, a community history organization in the town's Northside neighborhood.

UNC

African Americans of Durham and Orange counties : an oral history

Bolduc, Jean · 2016 · The History Press

Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.

Northside neighborhood, Chapel Hill, Orange County : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action

2005 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A community diagnosis of the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill, dated the twelfth of May 2005 and published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Findings on health status and socioeconomic conditions are followed by proposed next steps for action. Topics include community health services for town and county. Appendices A and D are missing from the copy described, and the bibliography sits on leaf 41.

UNC
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Pine Knolls, Chapel Hill and Carr Court, Carrboro, Orange County community diagnosis

1997

A 1997 community diagnosis of two neighborhoods, Pine Knolls in Chapel Hill and Carr Court in Carrboro, dated the tenth of May. Topics include community health services, health status, socioeconomic factors and public opinion in the county. Bound in with it are a list of health services for Orange County and a 1995 guide to services for county parents and young children.

UNC

A small business incubator for a disadvantaged community : is it the answer for Northside

Chanin, Douglas · 1995 · University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Douglas Chanin's 1995 study weighing a small business incubator as a tool for the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill. Forty-seven leaves, filmed on a single microfilm reel by the university library. Topics include African American business enterprises in North Carolina, small business in Chapel Hill and the town's economic conditions, which places the work with local community development research.

UNC

Newsletter, Pine Knolls-Northside communities

1988

Neighborhood newsletter for the Pine Knolls and Northside communities of Chapel Hill, starting in 1988. Issued in volumes at 36 centimeters, the large format of a folded news sheet.

UNC

Let the record show, the Hackneys : two early, prominent Black families of Chatham and Orange Counties, NC : a history and genealogy of Charles H. & Antoinette Stone Hackney and Louis Henry and Laura Edwards Hackney

1987 · The Associates

A history and genealogy of two Black families of Chatham and Orange counties, tracing the households of Charles H. Hackney and Antoinette Stone Hackney and of Louis Henry Hackney and Laura Edwards Hackney. Published in 1987 by The Associates, it sets out the family lines from the nineteenth century forward.

Chapel Hill - Carrboro : report of a survey conducted by a group participating in a workshop on neighborhood centers.

1966 · Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Report of a survey of Chapel Hill and Carrboro made in 1966 by a group at a workshop on neighborhood centers, sponsored jointly by the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers and the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina. Subjects include the Hargraves Community Center and the Northside neighborhood, and the topic is community center planning and social conditions in the town. Forty-six leaves.

UNC

Northside news.

Jackson Center

Community paper for the Northside neighborhoods of Chapel Hill, issued by the Jackson Center and described beneath its title as a print link for the neighborhoods of Northside. Volumes with color illustrations at 36 centimeters.

UNC

Research sources

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Background

National Register files

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Toney Strayhorn Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • 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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