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Local figure

John H. Watson

John H. Watson, a justice of the peace and often mayor of Chapel Hill, owned the village hotel that had been the Eagle Hotel until the New York lawyer William G. Peckham bought it.

Source: Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 261

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Students win the use of Steward's Hall for the commencement ball A committee chosen by a mass meeting of students, with Christopher C. Battle as its writer, petitioned the trustees on November 6, 1833 for a room in Steward's Hall for the commencement ball, and the trustees agreed. The ball managers then invited leading men of the state, among them Governor Swain. People: David L. Swain, John H. WatsonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 348
  2. John H. Watson sits on Chapel Hill's board of town commissioners A business directory of Chapel Hill dated Christmas 1857 listed John H. Watson among the town's commissioners, with H. B. Guthrie, P. H. McDade and Calvin Scott.Search the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Literary Gazette, January 23, 1858, p. 4 (Business Directory of the Town of Chapel Hill, December 25, 1857)
  3. Thirty Chapel Hill families pool money to buy corn Amid wartime scarcity, thirty heads of families sent Andrew Mickle to buy corn in a better-supplied district; he brought back about 1,921 bushels by rail to Durham and wagon from there, at $6.75 a barrel delivered. The livery keeper John H. Watson took ninety barrels, President Swain 33 and Judge Battle 24. People: Charles Phillips, David L. Swain, Andrew Mickle, John H. WatsonDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 725
  4. Rival claimants to Chapel Hill's town offices are told to stand down On March 30, 1870, the Chapel Hill commissioners recorded that a group of residents claimed to be the village's officers, had taken some of the town's books and papers and had named A. Mickle magistrate of police. On April 1, Solomon Pool reported that their election had been held without any law authorizing it, on informal notice from T. M. Argo, and the board adopted his advice to take no action if they gave up the books. People: Solomon Pool, John H. WatsonSearch the index · Town of Chapel Hill: Board of Commissioners minutes, March 30 and April 1, 1870
  5. John H. Watson serves as Chapel Hill's magistrate of police Watson headed the town government as magistrate of police in 1872 and again from 1876 to 1878, before the amended charter of 1879 created the office of mayor.Search the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 364
  6. John H. Watson buys the Chapel Hill Hotel from David McCauley John H. Watson, a brother of Jones Watson, bought the Chapel Hill Hotel from McCauley. By 1891 he had taken W. W. Pickard as a partner. People: David McCauley, John H. WatsonSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 135
  7. Jones Watson serves as mayor of Chapel Hill Jones Watson, one of the five commissioners named in the town's 1851 charter, was mayor of Chapel Hill in 1882, an office the town's charter had created in 1879. His brother John H. Watson followed him in 1883. People: John H. WatsonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 364
  8. Alphonso J. McDade serves as mayor of Chapel Hill A. J. McDade was mayor of Chapel Hill in 1884, an office the town charter had created in 1879. John H. Watson held it the year before and the two years after. People: John H. WatsonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 364
  9. Alphonso J. McDade returns as mayor of Chapel Hill McDade served a second stretch as mayor from 1888 through 1890, following W. N. Pritchard. John H. Watson succeeded him in 1891. People: John H. WatsonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 365
  10. John H. Watson serves four years as mayor of Chapel Hill Watson, who had been mayor in 1883 and again in 1885 and 1886, held the office from 1891 through 1894, his longest run. A. S. Barbee followed him.Search the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), pp. 364-365
  11. Watson and Pickard rebuild the Chapel Hill Hotel and add the University Inn Annex With money from W. G. Peckham, a New York lawyer, John H. Watson and his partner W. W. Pickard tore down the old hotel except for the Polk apartment, rebuilt it, and added a large new section called the University Inn Annex. People: John H. WatsonSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 161

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.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as John H. Watson, 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 Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865

These works give background on Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865, the wider story this person is part of (475 works in all). Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Sparrows' Nest of Letters

2011

Letters of the Sparrow family, including Thomas Sparrow and George Attmore Sparrow, gathered and published in 2011. The correspondence includes material associated with the Hillsboro' Military Academy, which opened in Hillsborough in 1859, and combines family and military history.

Undaunted heart : the true story of a Southern belle & a Yankee general

Barile, Suzy · 2009

Suzy Barile's account of Eleanor Hope Swain, daughter of the University of North Carolina's president, and Smith D. Atkins, the Union general whose troops occupied Chapel Hill in April 1865; the two married later that year. Published by Eno in Hillsborough in 2009, 237 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Soldiering for glory : the Civil War letters of Colonel Frank Schaller, twenty-second Mississippi Infantry

Schaller, Frank · 2007 · University of South Carolina Press

Civil War letters of Colonel Frank Schaller of the 22nd Mississippi Infantry, combining personal narrative with regimental history. Schaller was associated with the Hillsboro Military Academy in Hillsborough. Published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2007. 185 pages with six pages of plates and illustrations.

To prepare our sons for all the duties that may lie before them : the Hillsborough Military Academy and military education in antebellum North Carolina

Ross, Stephen A. (Stephen Anthony) · 2002

Stephen A. Ross's study of the Hillsborough Military Academy and military education in North Carolina before the Civil War, dated 2002. An article-length piece of 27 pages with illustrations and portraits.

UNC

Notice -- tax in kind ; Notice -- Confederate tax

2000 · Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Two Confederate tax notices of 1864 addressed to Orange County, one on the tax in kind and one on the Confederate tax, reproduced in an electronic edition by the university library at Chapel Hill in 2000 within the Documenting the American South collection The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865. The titles come from the captions, since the originals had no title page. Topics include property tax, tax assessment and tax collection in Orange County during the Civil War.

The final fifteen days, excerpts from the "Narrative of military operations," by General Joseph Eggleston Johnston

1940 · General Johnston Headquarters House?

Folded leaflet issued at Hillsborough in 1940, printing excerpts from General Joseph E. Johnston's 'Narrative of military operations' on the final fifteen days of the Civil War in North Carolina, the period of his surrender negotiations with Sherman in April 1865. Its first page announces the opening of the restored house near Hillsborough that served as Johnston's headquarters that year. One sheet of four pages with illustrations.

UNC
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Son Of Carolina

Long, Augustus White · 1939 · Duke University Press

Augustus White Long's memoir of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina from 1865 to 1900, including higher education in the decades after the Civil War. Published by Duke University Press in 1939 in the series A segment of the American scene. 280 pages.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1940), The William and Mary Quarterly (1940), Journal of American History (1940).

The University of North Carolina in the Civil War

Weeks, Stephen Beauregard · 1896 · Wm. Ellis Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer

Stephen Beauregard Weeks's address on the University of North Carolina in the Civil War, delivered at the centennial celebration of the institution's opening on June 5, 1895, and reprinted from volume 24 of the Southern Historical Society Papers. Printed in Richmond by Wm. Ellis Jones in 1896, 38 pages. It treats the university and the state in the war of 1861 to 1865 and the campus in the nineteenth century.

The last ninety days of the war in North-Carolina

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Cornelia Phillips Spencer's account of the closing weeks of the Civil War in North Carolina, reissued in 2005 as an electronic edition by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Topics include the 1865 campaigns, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, Stoneman's raid, and the history of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century, where Spencer, 1825 to 1908, spent her working life.

A card to the voters of Orange County

Leathers, Jas. S. · 2000 · Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A campaign address printed in 1864 by Jas. S. Leathers, appealing to the voters of Orange County during the Civil War. The Confederate imprint belongs to the wartime politics of the county and the state. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill produced this electronic edition in 2000 for its Documenting the American South collection on the Southern homefront.

Kimberly family papers

Kimberly, John, 1817-1882 · 2000 · Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Letters of the Kimberly family of Chapel Hill, written during the Civil War and issued in 2000 as an electronic edition in the Documenting the American South project of the university library, within its Southern Homefront collection. The sections cover the Union invasion, disease and death, the homefront and morale, with page images of the originals. Kristofer Ray transcribed and annotated the letters.

Documenting the American South : primary resources for the study of Southern history, literature and culture.

1996 · Academic Affairs Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Documenting the American South, the digital library begun in 1996 by the UNC Chapel Hill Academic Affairs Library, gathers primary sources on the history, literature and culture of the South from colonial times into the early 1900s. Its collections include the first century of the University of North Carolina, antebellum student writings, oral histories, first-person narratives, Southern literature, 'North American Slave Narratives', the Civil War home front, the Black church in the South, the North Carolina experience and North Carolinians in the First World War.

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