Skip to content

Local figure

Alfred Moore Waddell

Alfred Moore Waddell was born in Hillsborough in 1834 and attended the Bingham School and the Caldwell Institute before graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1853. A Wilmington lawyer and congressman, he led the 1898 Wilmington massacre and coup, the white supremacist insurrection that overthrew the city's elected government, and was installed as mayor.

Source: UNC Libraries, Wilson Special Collections: Alfred M. Waddell Papers, 1768-1935 (finding aid)

1834–1912 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 indexed works are connected with this person.

Alfred Moore Waddell, 1865
Alfred Moore Waddell, 1865

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908) Papers

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908 · 1857

Letters and papers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, the Chapel Hill writer and historian and daughter of professor James Phillips, 1857 to 1905. Most of the correspondence, from 1859 to 1895, concerns the university and life in the village, with letters exchanged with Swain, Kemp P. Battle and George T. Winston, successive heads of the university, and with Mrs. Swain and W. C. Kerr. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.7.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

John H. Wheeler (1806-1882) Diaries and Papers

Wheeler, John H. · 1854

Diaries and papers of John Hill Wheeler of Hertford County, historian, legislator, state treasurer from 1843 to 1845 and minister to Nicaragua from 1854 to 1857. The diaries, a broken run from 1854 to 1882, follow his social and political life in Washington, D.C. University commencements at Chapel Hill and his work on North Carolina history also come up. State Archives of North Carolina, MfP.51.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. Alfred M. Waddell appeals for the university's full restoration at the first commencement after reopening At the first commencement after the university reopened in 1875, Alfred M. Waddell gave an address urging that it be restored to its old prosperity and standing. He recalled the appeal in his centennial oration nineteen years later. People: Alfred Moore WaddellAlfred M. Waddell, The Ante-Bellum University (1895), scan p. 22
  2. Alfred Moore Waddell gives the oration at UNC's centennial celebration Waddell, a Hillsborough native who studied at the university from 1850 to 1853, delivered the oration at the celebration of the University of North Carolina's centennial. It was printed in Wilmington that year as The Ante-Bellum University.Search the index · Internet Archive (UNC Libraries copy): The ante-bellum university: oration delivered at the celebration of the centennial of the University of North Carolina, June 5th, 1895
  3. Stephen B. Weeks speaks on the university in the Civil War at its centennial At the centennial anniversary exercises Weeks gave a long prepared address, 'The University of North Carolina in the Civil War,' in Memorial Hall on the evening of June 5, after Henry A. London; Alfred Moore Waddell and Adolphus H. Eller had reviewed earlier periods of the university's history that morning. People: Alfred Moore Waddell, Henry Armand LondonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 518

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.

  • Memorial 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 Alfred Moore Waddell, 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.

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Alfred Moore Waddell 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 Alfred Moore Waddell

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Waddell, Alfred M. (Alfred Moore), 1834-1912, which helps separate this person from others 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.

Picture: Alfred Moore Waddell, 1865. Public domain. Photograph by Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. hdl.loc.gov CALL NUMBER: LC-BH832- 416 <P&P>P&P; via Wikimedia Commons

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