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Community in Orange County

Cedar Grove

A rural community and township in northern Orange County, farm country settled in the 18th century. Its records are church, school and family histories, and the Cedar Grove storyline gathers the area’s dated entries.

Source: NCpedia, North Carolina Gazetteer

22 works about Cedar Grove are indexed here. 4 held at OCPL →

Common subjects in works about Cedar Grove

Cedar Grove and rural northern OrangeSchools & EducationBlack Life & Civil RightsWars & Military ServiceWomen's Lives & HistoryChurches & FaithHealth, Medicine & CareLibraries, Archives & Public Memory
Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓

In the chronology

Storylines about Cedar Grove, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineHugh McAden, Henry Pattillo and the first Presbyterian congregations, 1753–17901753–1790 · 19 events · Orange County's Presbyterian settlers had congregations before they had ministers. Hugh McAden preached on the Eno and at the Hawfields in 1755 and 1756, and the settlements asked Hanover Presbytery for preachers, but none came regularly until Henry Pattillo became pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches in 1765. Pattillo and his fellow ministers condemned the Regulators in 1768 and he preached to Tryon's troops; in 1770 they formed Orange Presbytery, which first met at Hawfields. In 1775 the Provincial Congress sent Pattillo to win former Regulators to the American cause, and about 1790 the old Pattillo field was split into two pastoral charges. StorylineCedar Grove and rural northern Orange1755–2013 · 224 events · The crossroads communities north of Hillsborough grew around Eno Presbyterian, organized in 1755, the Hughes Academy of 1845, the Pope farm of the 1870s and Ellis Store of 1923, with nearly half the county’s Black-owned farms in Cedar Grove Township by 1940. The Schley Grange brought telephones in 1948, the schools were consolidated and desegregated in the 1960s, and the branch library came and went between 2004 and 2010. StorylineThe Grange in Orange County, 1873–19481873–1948 · 6 events · The Patrons of Husbandry, or Grange, took root in Orange County twice. James Means of Concord organized the Eno Grange at Cedar Grove in December 1873, and in October 1874 delegates of seven Granges organized a county council with John K. Hughes as master. A state Grange revival from 1929 to 1931 produced five Orange chapters, among them Schley Grange No. 710. Schley and Fairfield made their halls out of abandoned schoolhouses, and the chapters met every two weeks with women and children as members. A Grange was organized at New Hope in 1946, and in 1948 W. Kerr Scott, the Democratic nominee for governor and a former State Grange master, spoke to the county's Granges. StorylineEno Presbyterian Church moves to Cedar Grove, 1879–18991879–1899 · 6 events · After wind-driven woods fires burned Eno Presbyterian Church at its old site near the river in 1893, the congregation moved to Cedar Grove. Its frame church, built in 1878, had hosted Orange Presbytery in 1879, a meeting the Chapel Hill Ledger called the best attended since the war. In October 1893 the pastor, W. F. Wilhelm, died at Hillsborough after a long fever, and every business in town closed for his funeral. At Cedar Grove the congregation built its new church from 1897 to 1899, and the elder Robert W. Anderson became the first burial in its cemetery in 1898. H. S. Bradshaw was installed as pastor on the last day of 1899. StorylineThe stock law and the end of open range, 1881–18871881–1887 · 10 events · From 1881 to 1888 Orange County argued over whether to keep the open range, with farmers fencing their crops against roaming livestock, or adopt a stock law, which made owners keep their animals penned. Little River Township voted for the old fence system in 1881, and two Black leaders, Alfred Holmes and Lewis Jenkins, spoke for a no-fence law in 1884. An 1885 act barred cattle from running at large in four townships and let Chapel Hill Township adopt the stock law. Its voters rejected the law 415 to 104 that November, but in 1887, on a petition of 383 freeholders, the commissioners put it in force there from 1888, without an election or a fence tax. StorylineConsolidating the rural schools and hauling the children, 1919–19261919–1926 · 32 events · Between 1919 and 1926 Orange County closed many of its small country schools and began carrying the children by truck and bus to larger ones. The Chapel Hill Graded School had a Ford truck for country children by 1919, and in 1923 superintendent Claytor began folding the county's one- and two-teacher schools into larger ones. The county board set an order for new buildings at Efland, White Cross, the Orange County Training School, Orange Grove and Caldwell, ordered its first school buses in 1924 and sold the emptied schoolhouses. By April 1926 the county had put up seven brick consolidated schools since 1922, including the Orange County Training School for Black pupils, and ran 24 buses.
Show all 12 storylines
StorylineCounty school finance and the special tax districts, 1923–19241923–1924 · 5 events · In 1923 Orange County began its first round of school consolidation and, for the first time by Lefler and Wager's account, funded its school deficits with bonds. Robert Hume Claytor folded one- and two-teacher schools into larger ones and sought local tax elections. In August the commissioners voted six percent bonds to pay debts the Board of Education had run up to keep a six-month term, and called school tax elections in the Carrboro district and part of Cedar Grove Township. In April 1924 the county board moved building money to Efland, which had a local tax, an eight-month term and a paved road for school trucks, and put it first in the building order. StorylineRelief in Orange County as the Depression deepens, 1929–19331929–1933 · 47 events · When the Depression began, Orange County had no health department, no public health nurse and no hospital of its own, and welfare superintendent George H. Lawrence's list of families in dire need grew from 30 to about 60 by December 1929. The commissioners matched private gifts for an emergency health fund, and the Kiwanis Club, the King's Daughters and the Daily Tar Heel took up relief. In 1930 the county said its funds could not meet emergency relief, and Chapel Hill set up an unemployment committee under Howard W. Odum. In September 1932 the commissioners, short of money, cut off county relief to every family with an able-bodied man, and federal relief allotments began that October. StorylineThe Rural Progress Program and its successors, 1951–19591951–1959 · 21 events · Orange County joined the state Rural Progress campaign in September 1951, aiming to add $1,000 to each farm family's income and to improve every home and community. County workers enlisted more than 100 white neighborhood leaders and Black captains to survey farm families, and Lincoln High's agriculture department began the program among Black families around Chapel Hill. Separate prize nights for white and Black farm families followed each year. Orange was named the state's County of the Year in December 1953 and won the division for Black families in February 1954. Successor programs followed in 1955 and 1957, and Cedar Grove won the silver loving cup for Black families in 1957 and 1958. StorylineThe 1956 school bonds and what they built, 1955–19581955–1958 · 14 events · In 1955 commissioners' chairman R. J. M. Hobbs asked the county and Chapel Hill school boards to plan for a large bond election, and the board called a vote on $2 million in school bonds, divided among the county schools, Carrboro and the Chapel Hill unit. At the February 1956 hearing two Hillsboro men objected, citing the uncertainty left by the Supreme Court's school decision; Remus J. Smith Sr. answered that the classrooms would be needed even if segregation ended. Voters approved the bonds on March 27, 1956. The county board put a new Carrboro school first and that fall adopted a $1.17 million building program, and contracts for work from Carrboro to Efland followed through 1958. StorylineCedar Grove School’s road to accreditation, 1956–19611956–1961 · 8 events · Cedar Grove School won state accreditation in 1961 after five years of requests to the county board for classrooms, land and a lunchroom. In 1956 Wayne Compton and four other men asked for four more classrooms, a larger lunchroom and playground land; the board did not act, though it later approved a cafeteria. In 1958 Ruth Lawrence Woodson, state supervisor of the Black elementary schools, refused accreditation because the school had too few classrooms and was using its library as a fourth-grade room. In 1959 the five men, now the school's advisory committee, asked for a two-classroom addition, which was finished by September 1960, and in 1961 the state added Cedar Grove Elementary to its accredited list. StorylineOrange County’s antipoverty program and JOCCA, 1964–19821964–1982 · 9 events · Orange County's antipoverty program began in 1964 with a slow start for Community Action, Inc., a proposed privately financed biracial corporation meant to work on Chapel Hill's racial and economic problems. In April the county commissioners, while saying they favored its aims, put off endorsing it over objections to the makeup of its 18-member board. By mid-May the commissioners and the Chapel Hill aldermen had named members, and in June Carrboro's commissioners voted 3 to 2 to take part. In September the county commissioners unanimously created an Economic Opportunity Act advisory committee to plan a county program and seek federal funds, and in October they named its fifteen members. Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action (JOCCA), created in 1966, set up a rural health service that began in 1970, and Gloria Williams directed JOCCA in the 1980s and 1990s.

A selection of 12 events from Cedar Grove’s 325 chronology entries, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 325 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno Presbyterian settlers On August 10, 1755 the missionary Hugh McAden preached at Eno to a Presbyterian community already settled near the river, southeast of present Cedar Grove; the congregation counts its beginning from these years. The settlers asked Hanover Presbytery for supply preachers in 1756, and by church tradition the congregation was formally organized during the Synod mission of 1764. People: Hugh McAdenSearch the index · Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846), pp. 166, 225-226, quoting Hugh McAden's journal of 1755 · Also: Kaye Graybeal, Cedar Grove district National Register nomination, 1997
  2. New freedmen's schools open at Banocks Chapel, Cotton Run and New Hope, all with Black teachers Hay's October 1868 report counted 13 day schools in Orange and Person, adding schools at Banocks Chapel near Chapel Hill (John Weaver), Cotton Run and New Hope (London Moore) to those at Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Durham's, Bains and Cedar Grove. All 11 teachers were Black, among them R. G. Fitzgerald and E. E. Anderson at Hillsborough, James Whitted at Bains and Georgianna Rumbley at Cedar Grove, and the freedpeople owned the schoolhouses at Banocks Chapel, Bains and Cedar Grove. People: Robert G. Fitzgerald Also named: Thomas H. Hay, John Weaver, London Moore, James A. Whitted, Georgianna Rumbley, James WhittedFreedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Monthly Reports of Schools, Feb.–Dec. 1868, transcription p. 25
  3. The school board runs Harmony School directly when no committee can be found Unable to find anyone to serve as its committee, the board placed Harmony School under its own supervision so a school could be taught there.Search the index · DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 41
  4. Eno Presbyterian builds at Cedar Grove The replacement church was constructed over three years.Search the index · Kaye Graybeal, Cedar Grove district National Register nomination, 1997
  5. Cedar Grove Township counts about 375 influenza cases and four deaths Cedar Grove Township had about 375 cases of Spanish influenza and only four deaths, and the epidemic there lasted until the second week of December 1918.Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 79
  6. County relief ends its work projects in Cedar Grove township Welfare superintendent George H. Lawrence reported that the county was aiding about 800 families that winter through public work projects paid from federal funds of $6,000 a month, and that more than 200 of the 400 farm families on relief lived in Cedar Grove township. He ended the Cedar Grove projects that week so tenants could work their own crops. People: George H. LawrenceSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 17, 1933, p. 5
  7. Allan A. Ellis, retired Cedar Grove postmaster and merchant, dies Allan A. Ellis, 73, retired postmaster and merchant of Cedar Grove and a lifelong leader in the community, died at his home after a stroke. He was buried at Eno Presbyterian Church. Also named: Allan A. Ellis · Also mentions: Eno Presbyterian ChurchThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 14, 1946, p. 1
  8. The board cuts the north wing and kitchen from the Cedar Grove School plans To lower costs, the county board struck the six-classroom north wing, the kitchen, floor tile, clocks, bells, sidewalks and other items from Davis's design. The gymnasium was to serve as a multipurpose room partitioned into four classrooms until money for more space could be found. People: Archie Royal DavisNC State Historic Preservation Office: Cedar Grove School, National Register nomination (OR3044), p. 19
  9. Five Black farm communities organize for the county Farm and Home Efficiency program Black farm families in the Cedar Grove, Efland, Chapel Hill, Hillsboro and Terrell Creek communities met and organized for the year's Farm and Home Efficiency program run by the county's agricultural agencies, each setting up an advisory committee and choosing a community project. Cedar Grove chose to landscape the Cedar Grove School grounds, Hillsboro to beautify churches in six neighborhoods, and Terrell Creek to finish its community house and improve its churchyard. Also mentions: Cedar Grove SchoolSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 24, 1955, p. 1
  10. Cedar Grove's advisory committee asks for two more classrooms Lonnie Thompson, Arthur Wells, Carter White, Wayne Compton and Oscar Beasley of the school's advisory committee asked the board for a two-classroom addition. The board agreed to consider it and in August approved Archie Royal Davis's plans with a $20,000 limit. People: Archie Royal Davis, Arthur Wells, Oscar Carver Beasley, Carter White Also named: Lonnie Thompson, Wayne Compton, Oscar BeasleyNC State Historic Preservation Office: Cedar Grove School, National Register nomination (OR3044), p. 22
  11. Cedar Grove families answer the county's freedom-of-choice forms The county sent 401 school-choice forms to Cedar Grove School families at the end of the 1964-65 year. Fifty-two made no choice, three asked for all-white Aycock Elementary and four for Orange Junior High.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Cedar Grove School, National Register nomination (OR3044), p. 23
  12. Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reported Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove. People: Renée Price Also mentions: Hargraves Community CenterChapelboro: Orange County's Efforts To Equitably Vaccinate Minority Communities Show Early Success

See all 325 dated events in the chronology →

Maps of Cedar Grove

Dated maps that show this place, oldest first: town plans, county, road and soil maps, fire insurance sheets and the U.S. Geological Survey’s topographic maps, each linked to the library or archive that holds it. The USGS maps are free to download.

  1. Map of Orange County UNC · a county map
  2. Map of Orange County, N.C. UNC · a county map
  3. A map of Orange County, N.C. UNC · a county map
  4. Soil map, North Carolina, Orange County sheet Duke · a county map
  5. School map, Orange County, North Carolina. UNC · a county map
  6. Map of Orange County, N.C. : 1939 UNC · a county map
  7. An atlas for Orange County, North Carolina UNC · a county map
  8. USGS topographic map, Cedar Grove quadrangle (1:24,000) U.S. Geological Survey (PDF)

Indexed works

Works about Cedar Grove from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Widely held

A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983

Pender, Irene Oliver · 1983

Irene Oliver Pender's history of the public schools of Orange County from 1752 to 1983, covering more than two centuries of schooling in Hillsborough, Efland, Cedar Grove and the rural districts of the county. Published in 1983, 186 pages with illustrations.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 371.097 PENDER UNC Duke

Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989

1989 · The Church

The centennial history of Mount Adar Baptist Church at Cedar Grove in northern Orange County, marking 1889 to 1989 under the motto a century of remembrance, a future of vision. Prepared by a centennial committee co-chaired by Nancy Rogers and Jackie Oakley and published by the church in 1989, 36 unnumbered pages with illustrations. Topics include Baptists in North Carolina and church history for Cedar Grove.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Cedar Grove (N.C.) -- Church History.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 286.06 MOU UNC

History of Eno Presbyterian Church, Cedar Grove, North Carolina

Ellis, A. A. · 1980 · The Church

A 1980 edition, issued by the church, of A. A. Ellis's history of Eno Presbyterian Church at Cedar Grove, Orange County. Twenty unnumbered pages with illustrations and portraits. Ellis's original history of the congregation appeared in 1955.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Cedar Grove (N.C.) -- Church History.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 285 ELL UNC

History of Eno Presbyterian Church, Cedar Grove, N. C

Ellis, A. A. · 1955 · Eno Presbyterian Church

A. A. Ellis's short history of Eno Presbyterian Church at Cedar Grove in northern Orange County, published by the church in 1955, 22 pages with illustrations and portraits. Subjects include the religious aspects of the Civil War among Presbyterians, along with Presbyterian and church history for Orange County.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Cedar Grove (N.C.) -- Church History.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 285 ELL UNC

Cedar Grove, 1939 : revisiting Marion Post's photos of a Black rural neighborhood

Bennett, Evan P. · 2025 · Historical Research Office, Office of Archives and History

Evan P. Bennett returns to the photographs Marion Post Wolcott made in 1939 in Cedar Grove, a Black farming neighborhood in northern Orange County that she documented for the federal resettlement program. Published in 2025 by the Historical Research Office in Raleigh, pages 384 to 406, with illustrations and portraits. Topics include rural African Americans in the Cedar Grove township and photographers in the state.

UNC

Your Head is a Storehouse Memoirs by George Wynder Thompson

Thompson, George Wynder · 2013 · Brentwood Christian Press

George Wynder Thompson's memoir of growing up during segregation in Orange and Alamance counties, around Cedar Grove, Mebane and Burlington. Thompson worked as a sharecropper and later for Burlington Industries. Published in 2013 by Brentwood Christian Press.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DigitalNC record: Cedar Grove (N.C.).

DigitalNC DPLA

Recently indexed: Community service day, Cedar Grove, Saturday, May 15, 1915 (1915) · The prevalence of physical activity among African Americans in a rural community in North Carolina (1993) · Aloha · Examining the contributions of community gardens to social capital (2009) · InfoUSA City Directories Cross Reference Directory: Consumer and Business Guide for Durham, North Carolina and Vicinity · Cedar Grove, Orange County : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action (2002)

Search all 22 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

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

  • Foundational · NC 285 ELL History of Eno Presbyterian Church, Cedar Grove, North Carolina Ellis, A. A. · 1980

    A 1980 edition, issued by the church, of A. A. Ellis's history of Eno Presbyterian Church at Cedar Grove, Orange County. Twenty unnumbered pages with illustrations and portraits. Ellis's original history of the congregation appeared in 1955.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 286.06 MOU Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 1989

    The centennial history of Mount Adar Baptist Church at Cedar Grove in northern Orange County, marking 1889 to 1989 under the motto a century of remembrance, a future of vision. Prepared by a centennial committee co-chaired by Nancy Rogers and Jackie Oakley and published by the church in 1989, 36 unnumbered pages with illustrations. Topics include Baptists in North Carolina and church history for Cedar Grove.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this place. Research guide: Research a neighborhood or rural community.

Background

National Register files

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Cedar Grove 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.

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Related themes

Cedar Grove and rural northern Orange →Schools & Education →Black Life & Civil Rights →Wars & Military Service →Women's Lives & History →Churches & Faith →

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