Skip to content

Local figure

Absalom Tatom

Absalom Tatom (1742–1802) was a Continental Army officer who on August 15, 1778 became assistant quartermaster and keeper of the state arsenal at Hillsborough, and in 1781 was district auditor there. He represented the borough of Hillsborough in the legislature from 1788 and was a delegate to that year's convention, where he voted against ratifying the Constitution before amendments. He served in Congress in 1795 and 1796.

Source: NCpedia: Tatom, Absalom

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

Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. Absalom Tatom becomes assistant quartermaster and keeper of the arsenal at Hillsborough During the Revolution, Continental officer Absalom Tatom takes charge of the state's arsenal at Hillsborough as assistant quartermaster. People: Absalom TatomSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 339
  2. Orange County's delegates vote against ratifying the Constitution before amendments In the 184 to 84 roll call that defeated Iredell's amendment to ratify, Alexander Mebane, William Mebane, William McCauley, Jonathan Lindley and William Shepperd of Orange all voted no, as did A. Tatom. The next day the same members voted to concur in the declaration of rights and amendments. People: William McCauley, Alexander Mebane, Absalom TatomDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 278
  3. General Assembly orders a new district courthouse built at Hillsborough Alexander Mebane of Orange brought in the bill, and the act named William Watters, Absalom Tatom and Jeduthan Harper commissioners to raise a courthouse on the lot where the burned one had stood and to sell off its brick and remains. It was paid for by a poll and land tax on Orange and by lighter taxes on Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Granville and Randolph, the counties of the Hillsborough district. People: Alexander Mebane, Absalom TatomSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1790, Chapter XXVII

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.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Absalom Tatom, 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 Absalom Tatom 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 Absalom Tatom

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.

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