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Churches and lodges

Hawfields Presbyterian Church

Hawfields Presbyterian Church was founded in 1755 in the part of Orange County that is now eastern Alamance, near present Mebane. Henry Pattillo served it with the Eno and Little River churches from 1765 to 1774, and its ministers also preached to the New Hope families, who first belonged to the Hawfields congregation.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Hawfields Presbyterian Church. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

Held at OCPL

Church in the Old Fields: Hawfields Presbyterian Church and Community in North Carolina

Turner, Herbert Snipes · 1962

Herbert Snipes Turner's history of Hawfields Presbyterian Church and its community from 1738 to 1960. Hawfields lies in what is now Alamance County, land that was part of Orange County until 1849, and the book gives a place to Henry Pattillo, the congregation's eighteenth-century minister. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1962, 297 pages with illustrations.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1963).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 285.175 TUR NC Cardinal UNC Durham CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Elsewhere

Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church

Chalmers, Elizabeth · 1940

Elizabeth Chalmers's 74-page history of Hawfields Presbyterian Church, the old congregation in the Haw River country of what is now Alamance County, published in 1940 with illustrations. It includes Presbyterian experience of the Civil War. Hawfields lay within Orange County until Alamance was formed in 1849, linking the church to the county.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

NC Cardinal UNC

An alphabetical list of those identifiable graves in the second Hawfields burying ground in Alamance County.

Biggerstaff, Ralph Lydron, 1905-1999 · 1975

Ralph Lydron Biggerstaff's 1975 alphabetical listing of the identifiable graves in the second burying ground at Hawfields Presbyterian Church in Alamance County. Alamance County was formed from Orange County in 1849.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

UNC

Published by or for this institution

Coming home to Hawfields : a collection of recipes. Vol. 2

Hawfields Presbyterian Church (Alamance County, N.C.). Presbyterian Women · 2009

Community cookbook, the second volume of recipes gathered by the Presbyterian Women of Hawfields Presbyterian Church in Alamance County and published in 2009. Alamance was cut from Orange County in 1849, which keeps its congregations within reach of Orange County research.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

UNC

An Alphabetical List of Those Identifiable Graves in the Second Hawfields Burying Ground

Hawfields Presbyterian Church · 1975

An alphabetical list of the identifiable graves in the second Hawfields burying ground, compiled by Hawfields Presbyterian Church in 1975. Hawfields is the old Presbyterian congregation in the Haw River country west of Hillsborough, in the part of Orange County that became Alamance in 1849, and the list serves family historians tracing that community.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

NC Cardinal

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Hawfields Presbyterian Church alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

History and Architecture of Orange County, North Carolina

Mattson, Richard L. · 1996 · Unpublished manuscript

Richard L. Mattson's manuscript survey of the history and architecture of Orange County, completed in September 1996. Its 78 pages cover the county's historic buildings and structures and end with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Orange County multiple property documentation form: "Historic resources of Orange County."

1993

National Register multiple property documentation form on the historic resources of Orange County, completed in 1993. Kelly Lally and M. Ruth Little led the first phase of the survey, and Jody Carter and Todd Peck the second. It runs 123 pages with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

[Architectural field surveys for Orange County : collected for the Historic and architectural resources of the Tar-Neuse River basin report]

1974 · Survey and Planning Branch, Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History

Historic building survey forms for Orange County gathered in 1974 by the state's Historic Preservation Section for a report on the Tar-Neuse River basin. About 400 pages of forms covering buildings in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the countryside; a form can carry a description, historical notes, location, a photograph and a floor plan.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal

Churches in Orange County, North Carolina, South of Interstate 85 from 1756 to 2000

Johnson, George Arthur · 2000

George Arthur Johnson surveys the churches of southern Orange County, the part of the county south of Interstate 85 that takes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, from 1756 to 2000. The volume also includes his talk to the Chapel Hill Historical Society on March 4, 1996, on the university, the churches and the Jews of Chapel Hill. Published by the society in 2000, 144 pages plus lettered pages A to F.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC CH Historical Society

[Map of Orange County].

1849

Large manuscript map of Orange County on linen, tracing ownership and chains of title for notable tracts with the dates each passed to new owners. Hachures show relief, and it marks principal towns, roads, railroads, mines, creeks, rivers and lakes. The date is uncertain; both 1849 and 1913 have been given for it.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC DigitalNC DPLA

Map of Orange County, N.C.

Tate, George W. · 1891 · George W. Tate

Facsimile, dated 1940, of George W. Tate's 1891 map of Orange County. It shows towns, roads, railroads such as the North Carolina Rail Road and the Chapel Hill line, residences, schools, churches, mills and mines, with portraits and pictures of buildings in the margins.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC DPLA Library of Congress Library of Congress Digital Collections

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough whose titles, catalog subjects or descriptions are about this site. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 285.175 TUR Church in the Old Fields: Hawfields Presbyterian Church and Community in North Carolina Turner, Herbert S. · 1962

    Herbert Snipes Turner's history of Hawfields Presbyterian Church and its community from 1738 to 1960. Hawfields lies in what is now Alamance County, land that was part of Orange County until 1849, and the book gives a place to Henry Pattillo, the congregation's eighteenth-century minister. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1962, 297 pages with illustrations.

Where to look next on the shelf

These books don’t necessarily mention Hawfields Presbyterian Church, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

Histories of the town and county

  • Foundational · NC 975.656 ORA Orange County--1752-1952 1953

    Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.

Buildings and surveys

  • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

    Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Foundational · NC 917.56 ORANGE An Inventory Of Sites Of Cultural, Historic, Recreational, Biological, And Geological Significance In The Unincorporated Portions Of Orange County Orange County (N.C.) · 1986

    County planning department survey of significant sites in the unincorporated parts of Orange County, published in 1988, 95 pages with maps. The survey covers cemeteries, church buildings and archaeological sites on the cultural side, and plants, animals, endangered species, wildlife refuges, geology and recreation areas on the natural side. Useful for local historians, genealogists tracing burial grounds and land planners alike.

  • Foundational · NC 363.69 HIS Historic Preservation Element: Orange County Comprehensive Plan ; Orange County, North Carolina Orange County (N.C.) · 1996

    The historic preservation element of Orange County's comprehensive plan, prepared for the county Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department by the Jaeger Company of Gainesville, Georgia, and adopted on 1 April 1996. Partly financed by National Park Service funds through the state Division of Archives and History, it sets county policy on historic buildings and sites and their conservation. 59 pages plus 50 unnumbered, with illustrations and maps, some folded and in color.

Land, family and burial records

  • Start here · NC 333.16 CHILTON The Land Grant Atlas of Old Orange County Chilton, Mark · 2012

    Mark Chilton's oversized atlas plotting eighteenth-century land grants across the original Orange County, which stretched well beyond today's boundaries into what became Alamance and Durham counties. Published in Carrboro by Hand Made Books beginning in 2012, the set was planned in four volumes: Henry McCulloh's great tract number 11 and the land north of it; the Saxapahaw old fields (volume 2); Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the Johnston Tract; and Durham, Rougemont and McCulloh's tract number 12. Maps and color illustrations, 41 cm.

  • Start here · NC 306.097 KEN Kinship and Neighborhood in A Southern Community: Orange County, North Carolina, 1849-1881 Kenzer, Robert C. · 1987

    Robert C. Kenzer's study of kinship and neighborhood in Orange County between 1849 and 1881, the decades before and after the Civil War, tracing family ties and neighborhood networks through the county's records. Published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1987, 251 pages with illustrations, maps, portraits and a bibliography. Topics include kinship, neighborhoods and social conditions in the county in the nineteenth century.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.509 STO Tombstone Inscriptions: Recorded From Private or Abandoned Cemeteries in Alamance and Orange Counties, North Carolina Stokes, Durward T. · 1979

    Durward T. Stokes's transcriptions of tombstone inscriptions from private and abandoned cemeteries in Alamance and Orange counties, dated at Graham, N.C., August 25, 1979. A photocopied typescript of 60 leaves with 10 preliminary pages, it preserves names and dates from family and neglected burial grounds and is a genealogical source for both counties.

In the chronology

Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:

  1. Presbyterians found Hawfields Church Hawfields Presbyterian Church was founded in the part of Orange County that is now eastern Alamance. Henry Pattillo later served as its pastor. People: Henry Pattillo, Hugh McAden Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 294
  2. Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno and Hawfields settlements The traveling Presbyterian licentiate Hugh McAden preached to the Eno settlement on the second Sabbath of August 1755, lodging at John Anderson's house, and rode on to preach at the Hawfields on the fourth Sabbath. His journal is the earliest surviving description of either settlement. People: Hugh McAden Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina
  3. New Hope Presbyterian Church traces its beginning to 1756 New Hope Presbyterian Church, south of Hillsborough on the road to Chapel Hill, counts 1756 as its founding year, when the Hawfields and Eno Presbyterians, with whom the New Hope families then worshiped, first asked Hanover Presbytery for preachers. Its early records burned in 1827; D. I. Craig judged it was formally organized later, most likely under Henry Pattillo after his 1765 call, and it first appears with its own minister in the 1795 Orange Presbytery minutes. People: Henry Pattillo New Hope Presbyterian Church: History of NHPC · Also: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina
  4. The Hawfields and Eno settlements ask Hanover Presbytery to send them ministers After Hugh McAden's visits, the Hawfields and Eno Presbyterians applied to Hanover Presbytery for supply preachers. None came regularly until the congregations called Henry Pattillo in 1765. People: Henry Pattillo, Hugh McAden Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 13
  5. New Hope congregation builds its first meetinghouse Settlers still attached to the Hawfields congregation built a rough first meetinghouse about five miles south of Hillsborough and a quarter mile east of the road to Chapel Hill. An octagonal log church on higher ground replaced it, which the church dates to 1775. Internet Archive: D. I. Craig, A Historical Sketch of New Hope Church, in Orange County, N.C. (1891)
  6. Henry Pattillo becomes pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches Henry Pattillo moved to Orange County as pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River Presbyterian churches and served them for nine years, becoming known as "Father Pattillo." He was the first regularly installed minister at Eno. NCpedia: Pattillo, Henry (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
  7. Orange Presbytery holds its first meeting at Hawfields Church The synod granted the petition of David Caldwell, Hugh McAden, Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, James Creswell and Henry Pattillo for a presbytery of their own, covering all the territory south of the Virginia line. The new Orange Presbytery met for the first time at Hawfields Church that fall. People: Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, Hugh McAden Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Henry Pattillo in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 44 (1967), p. 381
  8. Henry Pattillo leaves the Hawfields and Eno churches Pattillo, who came to the Hawfields and Eno churches in 1765, left in 1774. The New Hope families still belonged to the Hawfields then, and Craig believed Pattillo had organized New Hope church in its first meetinghouse. NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 20
  9. John DeBow takes the Hawfields and Eno charge and preaches at New Hope DeBow, a young minister, succeeded Pattillo at the Hawfields and Eno about 1775 and preached at New Hope as he could. Craig calls him probably the first preacher with anything like a regular appointment there. People: John DeBow NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 22
  10. The Hawfields congregation leaves its first log meetinghouse for a new site farther west As the congregation's center shifted west, Hawfields abandoned its log church on the old road west from Hillsborough and built anew on ground now in the back of the present cemetery. A granite marker given by the B. Frank Mebanes marks that second site. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 28
  11. John DeBow, minister to the Hawfields, Eno and New Hope people, dies DeBow died at 38 and was buried at Hawfields church. Craig was told he was the first person buried in the present Hawfields churchyard. People: John DeBow NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 22
  12. Jacob Lake ends his ministry to New Hope Lake followed DeBow and served New Hope with the Hawfields and Eno churches in the same way until about 1790. He left Orange Presbytery in 1794 after about ten years in it. Later pastor tablets give his years as 1784-1792 (Hawfields) and 1786-1794 (Eno). NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 22
Show all 22 dated events
  1. William Hodge, raised in the Hawfields congregation, is ordained its pastor Orange Presbytery ordained William Hodge as pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads after James McGready's revivals of 1789-1791 renewed his wish to preach. He served until about 1799, when he left for Tennessee and Kentucky. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 17
  2. William D. Paisley becomes pastor of the Hawfields and Cross Roads churches After serving the Union and Buffalo churches in Guilford County, Paisley took charge of the Hawfields and Cross Roads Presbyterian churches near present Mebane in 1801 and stayed until 1818. The Hawfields church historian credits him with organizing the first camp meeting in North Carolina there during the Great Revival. People: William D. Paisley NC State Historic Preservation Office: Paisley-Rice Log House, National Register nomination (OR0015), p. 5
  3. Crowds camp for days at Hawfields for the fall communion The revival that began at Cross Roads reached Hawfields at its fall communion. People came from long distances and, with too few houses nearby to take them in, camped on the church grounds in their wagons for several days. William Henry Foote's Sketches of North Carolina (1846) dates this to October 1802 in one chapter and to October 1801 in another, where he calls it the first camp meeting in North Carolina; a 1966 article in the North Carolina Historical Review puts the five-day Hawfields meeting a few weeks after the March 1801 Cross Roads communion. People: William D. Paisley Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 17 · Also: Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846); Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 43
  4. George Allen Jr. and Solomon Debow deed seven acres to Hawfields Church A 1914 history of the church, quoted by Carrington, says George Allen Jr. and Solomon Debow deeded seven acres to Hawfields Church in 1814, on the north side of the Great Road from Gilbreth's bridge to Hillsborough in the Haw Creek drainage, where the present church stands. Another account credits Thomas White with giving the site. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 29
  5. Ezekiel B. Currie takes charge of the Hawfields and Cross Roads churches Currie came from Nutbush and Grassy Creek and served Hawfields and Cross Roads for nearly twenty-five years, until age and illness ended his pastorate in 1843. He died in 1851 and was buried in the Hawfields graveyard. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 18
  6. The Presbytery of Orange, meeting at Hawfields, backs the Presbyterian General Assembly Meeting at Hawfields church, the Presbytery of Orange voted 33 to 5 to approve and sustain the measures of that year's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; two ministers and three ruling elders made up the minority. Hillsborough Recorder, September 8, 1837, p. 3
  7. Hawfields walls off part of its church for Black worshippers Black members, most of them enslaved, already sat in the end gallery of the frame church. In 1842 part of the west end was partitioned for them as well, and the book says the gallery and that section were often full. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 29
  8. Anderson G. Hughes, born near Eno, is installed pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads Orange Presbytery allowed the two churches to take Hughes as stated supply in May 1843 and installed him that October. His thirty-year pastorate, the longest in Hawfields history, ended when he collapsed in the Cross Roads pulpit in June 1873. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 19
  9. The Hawfields Presbyterian session clears James C. Patton on Nancy Wicks's charge The Hawfields church session had cited its member James C. Patton in November 1843 on the common report that he was the father of Nancy Wicks's child, and put the case off until after the county court. At the hearing Wicks testified that Patton was the father; a paper she had signed saying he was not was laid before the session, and Eli Fossett testified that she had told him she was pressed to name Patton under threat of losing her home. The session voted unanimously that the evidence was not enough to find him guilty. Mark Chilton, Natural Child: Legitimacy, Sexuality and Shame in the Court Records of Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
  10. Hawfields leaves its century-old pairing with Cross Roads and joins Bethlehem in a new pastoral group The Hawfields and Cross Roads field was divided, and Hawfields was grouped with Bethlehem, Bethany and Saxapahaw. The shared Mebane manse was sold and the money used to build a manse for each church; Hawfields' new pastor, B. W. Mebane, became its first resident minister. Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 20

Open these in the chronology →

Deeds

A deed from the county’s deed books that bear on this site, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. The note under each says why: the site’s survey file or National Register nomination cites it, it names the site, or it passes the site’s land along the chain of title the survey traces. Each deed’s page links to its deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

Search every historic deed →

Research sources

Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

Background

National Register files

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 11

Show all 11

Collections and databases 5

Local help 5

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