Orange Grove

Cane Creek Baptists replace their first meeting-house with a larger building

The church's history committee judges that the log meeting-house of 1789 was probably replaced by a larger and more lasting building around 1806, the year the Sandy Creek Baptist Association held its meeting at Cane Creek.

Cane Creek Baptist Church joins the Beulah Association

Cane Creek joined the Beulah Baptist Association in 1837. Its pastor Stephen Pleasant, put out of the County Line Association for supporting missions, had been one of the Beulah Association's founders.

Rock Spring Academy advertises under principal H. M. Cates

The Hillsboro Recorder in 1867 praised Rock Spring Academy, then headed by H. M. Cates, who was also Cane Creek's church clerk, and noted special terms for disabled Confederate veterans. The school did not last much longer.

Cane Creek Baptist Church gives part of its lot for an academy

Under pastor J. F. MacDuffie the church voted to set aside church land for an academy and school, called Rock Spring in the motion. MacDuffie bought a house nearby and the school opened as Orange Grove Academy.

The name Orange Grove first appears with the Cane Creek church school

Through the 1800s the Hillsborough Recorder called the neighborhood around Cane Creek Church Rock Spring. The earliest use of the name Orange Grove the church historians found is the renaming of the church's academy as Orange Grove Academy.

Cane Creek Baptist Church votes a larger school building and sells the first one to the county

The church voted to put up a much larger building for its Orange Grove School, south of the church, and to sell the original academy building to Orange County for use as a public school.

Cane Creek Baptist Church buys its first organ

A 1904 business meeting voted to buy an organ to replace the old piano; the money was not raised until 1919, and John Cheek bought the instrument in 1920.

Carl Durham serves on the Orange County Board of Commissioners

Durham joined the Orange County Board of Commissioners in 1933 or 1934, probably in the seat R. A. Eubanks gave up in April 1933 to become Chapel Hill postmaster, and served until 1938, when he was elected to Congress. In 1935 he proposed and secured $22,000 in federal aid for a rural electrification line in the Calvander-Orange Grove area, and in 1937 he was elected a UNC trustee.

Farmers pay to carry the rural power line on to Orange Grove

Soon after the federally funded line from Chapel Hill to Calvander was built in 1933, a second line paid for by local farmers' donations carried power on from Calvander to Orange Grove.

The county board closes Orange Grove School and sends its pupils to Hillsboro

The board discontinued Orange Grove School and first planned to split its children between Hillsboro and White Cross. Parents objected strongly to White Cross, so the board voted to send them all to Hillsboro; the school site went to Cane Creek Baptist Church for $50 in 1947.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Cane Creek Baptist Church breaks ground for a new church

After committees appointed in May 1949 priced a remodeling of the old church against a new building, the congregation chose to build. Tommy Lloyd, chairman of the deacons, turned the first earth at the groundbreaking.

Harry Byrd becomes Cane Creek Baptist Church's first full-time pastor

Until the late 1940s Cane Creek shared its preacher with another church and held services on two Sundays a month. Harry Byrd, a 1953 Wake Forest graduate, came that year as its first full-time pastor and stayed until 1957.

Cane Creek Baptist Church dedicates its new church

I. G. Greer of Chapel Hill gave the dedication address for the church built in 1949 to 1951. Julius Andrews chaired the building committee, and the new pastor Harry Byrd took part.

Efland and Orange Grove volunteer fire departments are incorporated

As the Orange Rural Fire Department's board worked from 1971 to set up fire districts covering the whole county, rural communities formed their own departments: the Efland Volunteer Fire Department incorporated in September 1972 and the Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Company on February 1, 1973. New Hope followed later in February 1973.

Subject: Rural fire protection

The Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Company builds its first station

Started after neighbors waited a long time for an Eli Whitney fire truck at a house fire around 1970, the company built its first station in 1974 and received its first truck later that year.

Subject: Rural fire protection

Cane Creek Baptist Church marks its two hundredth year

The church celebrated its bicentennial with former pastor James Bouseman back as guest preacher. During the year Cecil Crawford led members on a walk to the site of the first meeting-house above Cane Creek.