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Local figure

Henry Horace Williams

Williams taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill from 1890 until 1940 and chaired the department from 1890 to 1935, holding the Kenan professorship from 1921 to 1935. His students included Thomas Wolfe and Paul Green.

Source: UNC Libraries: Henry Horace Williams Papers, 1835-1948 finding aid

1858–1940 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

9 works about Henry Horace Williams are indexed here, as are 4 works by Williams. 1 held at OCPL →

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Henry Horace Williams, 1907
Henry Horace Williams, 1907

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineBig farms sold in small tracts, 1919–19231919–1923 · 3 events · Between 1919 and 1923 three big Orange County farms were broken up and sold at auction in smaller tracts. On July 12, 1919 the 508-acre Williams-Snipes farm near Carrboro sold in tracts laid off by a Greensboro realty company, and Professor H. H. Williams of the University bought most of it. That October the New Hope Valley tobacco farm east of Chapel Hill, owned by Maynard Mangum of Durham, was auctioned as sixteen farms and brought $98,260.70. On November 22, 1923 Julian Carr's Occoneechee Farm near Hillsboro was sold at auction in small farms along the Durham-Greensboro highway, with its personal property; Carr had already sold his Holstein herd to Chapel Hill dairyman C. H. Weaver. StorylineChapel Hill’s first airports, 1928–19341928–1934 · 10 events · By June 1928 contractor Charlie Lee Martindale had bought a 50-acre plot north of Chapel Hill from Horace Williams and laid out Martindale Field. Operators carried passengers and gave flying lessons there, and by early June 1929 the runways had been lengthened, six planes were based there, and the Weekly reported the field on the air-trail maps. The local American Legion post painted the town's name on the roof of the Carolina Theatre, and its work was credited in part with helping get the field started. In April 1934, ousted when Martindale gave G. N. Pickell exclusive rights at his field, pilot I. M. Tull opened the University Airport, and Chapel Hill had two airports. StorylineChapel Hill and the 1933 school law: the special district and the ninth month1933 · 9 events · Under the 1933 school machinery act, Chapel Hill's former charter school board asked that its old district become a city unit so that its voters could tax themselves to supplement the state's eight-month term. The State School Commission ruled that such a unit needed a school population of 1,500 and agreed to make Chapel Hill a special district if the country north of Bolin Creek were added. The board set a tax of 18.5 cents on $100 to raise teachers' pay and add a ninth month. When Black registrants complained that the registrar had spoken against the tax while enrolling voters, he resigned. On October 12 the district cast 729 votes for the levy against a registration of 1,239. StorylineThe Horace Williams Airport, 1940–20181940–2018 · 52 events · In 1940 the University bought the Chapel Hill airport that Charlie Martindale had opened in 1928 and planned a field named for Professor Horace Williams, who gave more than 200 acres. University students began Civil Aeronautics Authority flight training there that February. WPA workers began grading in January 1941 on a project costing about $200,000, and that month fire destroyed the hangar and seven training planes. By mid-October crews had finished rough grading for the runways, and that fall University and Duke students began joint pilot training. In 1942 the federal government paid for a new road to the field because of its military value, and in March 1943 paratroopers from Fort Bragg dropped on the airport. From 1968 townspeople and faculty opposed paving the field, and the Faculty Council asked that it be kept to University use; the runway was paved chiefly for medical flights, and in 1974 the Chapel Hill aldermen set up a study of the airport. In 1980 neighbors petitioned to close the airport, and in 1981, a year of three crashes near the field, Chancellor Christopher Fordham offered to close it once a replacement was built near Chapel Hill. The county commissioners approved a private Midway Airport in Bingham Township in 1982 and 1983. In 1988 and 1989 the county studied and then dropped a plan for a new county airport, and after a fatal crash in August 1989 about 350 people debated the University's runway extension at a council hearing. In 1990 UNC decided to keep the airport open to public use, and from 1991 county and town managers planned for moving it; mediators led a dialogue group on its future from October 1992. UNC closed Horace Williams Airport in 2018.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 21 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. Horace Williams earns a master's degree at the university Williams entered the state university at Chapel Hill in 1879 and in 1883 took both the B.A. and an M.A. His M.A. and William Battle Phillips's Ph.D., conferred at the same commencement, were the first advanced degrees the reopened university granted for further study. Before 1875 any graduate could receive the A.M. three years after the B.A. People: William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), appendix of degrees in course, p. 807 (with pp. 231-232) · Also: NCpedia: Williams, Henry Horace
  2. Horace Williams begins teaching philosophy at the University of North Carolina Williams joined the faculty in 1890 as professor of philosophy and chaired the department from 1890 until 1935. He taught at Chapel Hill for fifty years, until his death in 1940. Place: Chapel HillIn the index: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · UNC Libraries: Henry Horace Williams Papers, 1835-1948 finding aid
  3. Horace Williams buys the house at 610 East Rosemary Street Williams bought the 1854 house built by the university chemistry professor Benjamin Hedrick and owned it until he died. Preservation Chapel Hill now has its offices there and opens the house to the public. People: Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick Place: 610 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Benjamin HedrickSearch the index · Preservation Chapel Hill: Horace Williams House
  4. Edward Kidder Graham wins the Mangum Medal Added to the commencement orators after Horace Williams showed Alderman one of his papers, Graham won the top senior speaking prize with an address on "the economic man" that foresaw business coming to rule Southern life. He reworked the theme over the next decade into his argument for the university's service to the state. People: Edward Kidder Graham, Edwin Anderson Alderman, Henry Horace Williams Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch 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. 39
  5. Horace Williams's war remarks bring a trustee inquiry that clears the faculty After the Charlotte Observer quoted philosophy professor Horace Williams in May 1917 calling the war a clash of national interests, critics questioned his loyalty, and trustee John Sprunt Hill pressed the matter. The trustees' visiting committee investigated and in June 1918 cleared Williams and the faculty of disloyalty. People: John Sprunt Hill, Edward Kidder Graham Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch 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. 155
  6. 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 Smith, Edward Kidder Graham Place: Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch 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
  7. The Williams-Snipes farm near Carrboro is auctioned off in tracts The 508-acre Williams-Snipes farm on the Greensboro road about a mile and a half from Carrboro, cut into smaller tracts by the Consolidated Realty Company of Greensboro, sold at auction for an average of about $40 an acre to several buyers. Professor H. H. Williams of the University bought most of it. Place: Greensboro road (Carrboro to Hillsboro), near CarrboroSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), July 17, 1919, p. 1
  8. Horace Williams holds the Kenan professorship of philosophy Williams was named a Kenan professor at the June 1920 commencement, announced by President Chase together with W. C. Coker and Louis R. Wilson. He held the Kenan chair of philosophy until 1935 and taught as professor emeritus afterwards. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: W. C. Coker, Louis R. WilsonSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Henry Horace Williams Papers, 1835-1948 finding aid · Also: The Alumni Review
  9. The Chapel Hill school graduates fifteen as its high school passes 200 pupils At the school's closing exercises, principal Fred W. Morrison announced that high school enrollment had passed 200 for the first time, 210 against 49 nine years before. H. H. Williams gave the address, M. C. S. Noble presented diplomas to fifteen graduates, and Mrs. A. C. McIntosh reported $260 raised for a loan fund for needy high school students. People: Fred W. Morrison, Henry Horace Williams, M. C. S. Noble Place: School auditorium, Chapel Hill · Also named: Mrs. A. C. McIntoshSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 7, 1923, p. 1
  10. Contractor Charlie Lee Martindale opens an airfield north of Chapel Hill Martindale bought a 50-acre plot from philosophy professor Horace Williams and laid out an airfield he called Martindale Field. He leased it to George A. Noah and Yawger Pickall, who flew passengers from it and by December 1928 ran it as the North State Aircraft Company. By 1931 it was known as the Chapel Hill airport. People: Charlie Lee Martindale, Henry Horace Williams Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: George A. Noah, Yawger Pickall · Also mentions: Chapel Hill airportSearch the index · UNC-Chapel Hill (University Gazette, May 22, 2018): Cleared for landing · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 8, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 27, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 7, 1928, p. 1
  11. Receivers auction the R. L. Strowd farm east of Chapel Hill The receivers of the bankrupt Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company put up the roughly 600-acre R. L. Strowd farm in eleven tracts, including the old country club site, the old Hargrave home place and the Strowd home. Bids totaled $34,473, about twice the offers of the spring auction, though still below the mortgages and subject to the court. People: W. S. Roberson, Henry Horace Williams, Isaac W. Pritchard, Milton E. Hogan Place: R. L. Strowd farm, eastern edge of Chapel Hill · Also named: R. L. StrowdSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 5, 1928, p. 1
  12. Coates opens his first statewide school for law officers in Manning Hall About fifty police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, clerks and judges, growing to seventy-five or more, met for three days under the police chiefs' association, described as the first meeting of city, county, state and federal officers under one roof. The university's extension division and the same association had already run a ten-day police school in Chapel Hill in August 1929. Governor Gardner called it the most promising movement the university had begun. People: Albert Coates, Henry Horace Williams, O. Max Gardner, J. C. B. Ehringhaus Place: Manning Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 107 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 16, 1929, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 11, 1931, p. 8
Show all 19 dated events
  1. University faculty members resolve to back the Chapel Hill school supplement After their regular meeting the University faculty met as citizens, heard school board member R. J. M. Hobbs explain the proposed supplement, and passed without dissent H. H. Williams's resolution supporting the special school tax. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Henry Horace Williams Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1933, p. 1
  2. Former students give the University a portrait of Horace Williams A portrait of the philosopher Horace Williams, painted by Mary deB. Graves (Mrs. Rees), was presented to the University in the Graham Memorial by Kemp D. Battle for the alumni who gave it and accepted by President Graham. Williams himself stayed away. People: Mary deB. (Mary de Berniere) Graves, Frank Porter Graham Place: Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Kemp D. BattleSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 15, 1934, p. 2
  3. Horace Williams sets up a trust fund for philosophy fellowships at the University In his book The Education of Horace Williams, out that week, the veteran philosophy professor wrote that he had given his money to the University as a trust fund for fellowships in philosophy named for his mother and his wife. He expected them, with the two Kenan fellowships, to give the department about six fellowships of $700; the Weekly reckoned the fund at about $70,000. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1936, p. 1
  4. UNC purchases Chapel Hill's airfield In 1940 the university bought the Chapel Hill airport that Charlie Martindale had opened in 1928 on land bought from Professor Horace Williams. By August the trustees had set aside $15,000 for land, the university had agreed terms with Martindale and neighbor Fred Sparrow, Williams had given over 200 acres, and the field was to bear his name. People: Henry Horace Williams Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Charlie Martindale, Fred Sparrow · Also mentions: Chapel Hill airportIn the index: Horace Williams Airport (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 9, 1940, p. 1 (Horace Williams Airport; Clearing Starts at Airport)
  5. Horace Williams gives UNC more than 200 acres for an airport that will bear his name Professor emeritus Horace Williams gave the University more than 200 acres, the largest tract in the mile-square flight training field being put together around the old Chapel Hill airport, and the Weekly reported the field would be named for him. By August 9 trees were being cleared and Duke Power had agreed to move a line along the field's eastern edge. Place: Chapel Hill airport (Horace Williams Airport), off the Orange Church road north of Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 9, 1940, p. 1
  6. Horace Williams dies and is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Williams died at eighty-two and was buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. He left all of his property to the university in trust, the income to pay for fellowships in philosophy. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Old Chapel Hill CemeterySearch the index · NCpedia: Williams, Henry Horace · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1941, p. 3
  7. UNC receives the Horace Williams tract by bequest The core of what became the Carolina North tract, north of Estes Drive and west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, came to the university as a bequest from Professor Horace Williams, who died in late December 1940. His will, filed for probate at Hillsborough in the first days of January 1941, left the University his entire property, nearly all of it real estate including about 1,000 acres of farm land, with the income to go to fellowships; the land for the airport named for him, about 400 acres by his executor's count, had already been given in his lifetime. The university later bought adjoining land, and parts of the site were used as an airport, landfill, town operations center and animal shelter. People: Henry Horace Williams Place: Horace Williams tract, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Estes DriveUNC Board of Trustees: Development Agreement between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Town of Chapel Hill (Carolina North), June 2009 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1941, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 20, 1940, p. 1

After their death in 1940

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. WPA workers begin building the University airport on the Horace Williams land With President Roosevelt's approval of a project costing about $200,000, WPA workers began grading the University's new airport, named for Horace Williams, who had given much of the land. Business manager Maurice Hill said it would have three runways, two over 4,000 feet, and would be finished by September. Place: Horace Williams Airport, north of Chapel Hill · Also named: G. Maurice HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 10, 1941, p. 1
  2. UNC Press publishes Robert W. Winston's life of Horace Williams The University of North Carolina Press published Judge Robert W. Winston's biography Horace Williams: Gadfly of Chapel Hill, drawn from his two years as a student of the philosophy professor after he reentered the University at sixty and from letters of former students. The Bull's Head Bookshop sold it at $3.50. People: Robert W. Winston, Henry Horace Williams Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Bull's Head BookshopSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 8, 1943, p. 4

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Henry Horace Williams, 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.

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Indexed works

Works about or by Henry Horace Williams. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Henry Horace Williams

The education of Horace Williams : by Henry Horace Williams

Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940 · 1936 · The author

Henry Horace Williams published this account of his own education in 1936 at Chapel Hill, issuing it himself. His personal narrative also addresses the history of the University of North Carolina during his lifetime. Preserved on microfilm.

UNC

Logic for Living: Lectures 1921-22

Williams, Henry Horace · 1951

Lectures on logic and thinking that Horace Williams gave at the University of North Carolina in 1921 and 1922, published in 1951, eleven years after his death. The book runs to 281 pages.

CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Modern Logic

Williams, Henry Horace · 1927 · UNC Press

Henry Horace Williams, who taught philosophy at Chapel Hill for decades, set out his thinking on logic and concepts in this 347-page book published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1927.

CH Historical Society Library of Congress

The Evolution of Logic

Williams, Henry Horace · 1925

Early book by Henry Horace Williams, the Chapel Hill philosophy professor, tracing how logic developed. It appeared in 1925 and runs to 181 pages.

CH Historical Society Library of Congress

About Henry Horace Williams

Horace Williams

Winston, Sr., Robert Watson · 1942 · The University of North Carolina press

Robert Watson Winston's biography of Henry Horace Williams (1858-1940), who taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina for half a century, subtitled gadfly of Chapel Hill. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1942, 309 pages with frontispiece and portraits; this copy is autographed. Topics include educators in Chapel Hill and the university's history.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

Reviewed in Social Forces (1943).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO WILLIAMS WIN UNC Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU Library of Congress

The Horace Williams house.

1989

An account of the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill and of Henry Horace Williams, the university teacher whose home it was. Published in the town in 1989, it concerns historic buildings in Chapel Hill, university faculty biography and novelist Thomas Wolfe.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

UNC

We will sell for the University of North Carolina 22 homes ...

1946

Auction announcement printed at Chapel Hill in 1946, advertising twenty-two houses offered for sale on behalf of the University of North Carolina. The sale concerned the university's endowment and property contributed by Henry Horace Williams, who died in 1940.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

UNC

The education of Horace Williams

Williams, enry Horace, 1858-1940 · 1997

Henry Horace Williams's autobiography, recalling his life as an educator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the history and culture of the South. Williams lived from 1858 to 1940. This printing dates from 1997, 200 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress

Patterson's General Store Ledger

Store, Patterson's General · 1910

Account ledger of Patterson's General Store in Chapel Hill for 1910 to 1911, recording what customers owed. Accounts run from townspeople and the university Athletic Association to figures such as Kemp Plummer Battle, Edward Kidder Graham, Collier Cobb, Horace Williams and Louis Round Wilson, and firms including the Bank of Chapel Hill, Odell Hardware, Standard Oil and the Southern Railway. Part of North Carolina Memory.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

DigitalNC DPLA

Charles Phillips Russell papers, 1861-1974.

Russell, Phillips, 1884-1974 · 1861

Phillips Russell (1884-1974) taught journalism at the University of North Carolina and wrote biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Paul Jones. His papers, 7,800 items in fourteen linear feet covering 1861 to 1974, are part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4004. Topics include his publishers, his teaching, the writer Lucy Phillips Russell, and colleagues such as Henry Horace Williams and John Ehle.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

UNC
Show 2 more about Henry Horace Williams

Williams, Henry Horace (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Henry Horace Williams, the longtime philosophy professor at the University of North Carolina, is the subject of these newspaper clippings, photocopied articles, published pieces and notes. From box 9 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection. Undated.

Included because: Its title names this person.

CH Historical Society

Records of the Horace Williams Philosophical Society, 1945-1968.

Horace Williams Philosophical Society · 1945

One hundred items document the Horace Williams Philosophical Society, 1945 to 1968, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40186. The society took its name from Henry Horace Williams (1858-1940), and topics include philosophy societies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and intellectual life in the state during the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC BIO WILLIAMS WIN Horace Williams: Gadfly of Chapel Hill Winston, Robert W. · 1942

    Robert Watson Winston's biography of Henry Horace Williams (1858-1940), who taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina for half a century, subtitled gadfly of Chapel Hill. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1942, 309 pages with frontispiece and portraits; this copy is autographed. Topics include educators in Chapel Hill and the university's history.

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Picture: Henry Horace Williams, 1907. Public domain. Photograph by University of North Carolina (1793-1962); This file was contributed to Wikimedia Commons by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of a cooperation project. The donation was facilitated by the Digital Public Library of America. Record in source catalog DPLA identifier: fdccaea386ee463f5be4c0aea9875f86; via Wikimedia Commons

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