Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

In the chronology

1. 1754 The Assembly moves the county seat to the Eno crossing of the Western path Judging the Piney Ford site too far west, the Assembly directed that the courthouse, prison and stocks stand where the Western path crossed the Eno, on land where James Watson lived. The site, just east of the present courthouse, was the start of Hillsborough.
2. 1755 A law orders a road from Orange courthouse to the Cape Fear The act was not carried out at once, and in the meantime farmers cut their own rough roads across the county.
3. 1755 Alexander Mebane, Josiah Dixon and William Churton lay out Hillsborough's first prison Lot No. 1 in the town was set aside for the market house, courthouse, prison, pillory and stocks. People: William Churton
4. 1755 The first Orange County courthouse is built at Hillsborough A frame courthouse went up at the new county seat in 1755. Until then the court had met in private homes.
5. December 1756 Hillsborough's first courthouse is ready for use Until it opened, the county court met at the home of James Watson. It was the first of the four courthouses Hillsborough has had.
6. 1764–1768 The county town becomes a courthouse village of stores, ordinaries and public buildings William Few recalled that in 1764 the town was the metropolis of the county, where the courts were held and all public business done, a village of thirty or forty inhabitants with two or three small stores and two or three ordinary taverns, and that Scottish merchants then opened stores of European goods and a church, courthouse and jail were built. Claude Joseph Sauthier's 1768 plan of the town marks Canby's Ordinary, Nunn's Ordinary, McNair's Store, the market house, the first courthouse and the second jail. People: William Few
7. March 22, 1768 Settlers west of the Haw River call Orange County's representatives and vestry to a settlement at the courthouse Inhabitants on the west side of the Haw River addressed Orange County's Assembly men and vestrymen, asking them to fix a day before the next court to meet at the courthouse and settle accounts of taxes and officers' fees, and declaring they would pay no more taxes until they had a full settlement.
8. October 15, 1776 Crowds force the Orange County polls to close four times in the election for the fifth Provincial Congress The whole county, then taking in later Caswell, Alamance, Person and Durham, voted only at the Hillsborough courthouse, and the crush of voters forced four halts; by sunset about a quarter had voted. The winners, James Saunders, William Moore, John McCabe, John Atkinson and John Paine, faced a petition to keep them from their seats.
9. 1777 Hillsborough gets its first regular Presbyterian services After years of occasional preaching in the courthouse by David Caldwell, John DeBow and others, the Rev. Alexander McMillan began regular services there in 1777, shared with Little River and New Hope. Presbytery deposed him in September 1778, and the town had no organized Presbyterian church for many years. People: David Caldwell
10. 1777–1778 Rochester serves as clerk of the Orange County court Rochester resigned his seat in the first General Assembly of the state to become clerk of court. He was also commissioned to supervise the building of a new courthouse and to help establish an academy in the Hillsborough area, and he gave up the clerkship in 1778 because its fees did not cover the expenses of the office.
11. March 24, 1778 The superior court sits at Hillsborough for the first time in five years Judges Samuel Ashe and James Iredell opened the March 1778 term in the old courthouse, with Waightstill Avery prosecuting and John Henderson of Granville as grand jury foreman. The district court had not sat since September 1772, when the quarrel between Governor Martin and the Assembly over the court law shut the courts. People: Samuel Ashe, James Iredell, Waightstill Avery
12. April 20, 1778 The Assembly orders a new courthouse built at Hillsborough Nathaniel Rochester and William Courtney oversaw the work. Planned in brick but built of wood because of wartime shortages, it was one room about 40 by 25 feet near the present courthouse site and served until fire destroyed it in late 1789 or 1790. People: Nathaniel Rochester
13. September 1778 The Presbytery removes Alexander McMillan, who had led Presbyterian worship in Hillsborough McMillan had held regular services in the courthouse jointly with the Little River and New Hope congregations until the Presbytery deposed him for misconduct. For some years afterward Hillsborough had no regular Presbyterian services.
14. fall 1780 The Board of War makes the courthouse a storehouse and the church a hospital With supply wagons crowding every road into Hillsborough, the board designated the courthouse a storehouse and ordered the church repaired for use as a hospital.
15. December 3, 1781 (as printed) The Assembly levies a tax on the Hillsborough District to repair the courthouse, stocks and streets An act taxed residents of the district and the town, with the money going to repair the courthouse and stocks and the town's streets.
16. 1782 A brick courthouse replaces the first one at Hillsborough The county's second courthouse, built of brick, went up in 1782. The book says fire destroyed it seven years later and a wooden courthouse followed in 1790.
17. March 1790 Fire destroys the greater part of Hillsborough A letter written at Hillsborough early in March 1790 reported that the greatest part of the town had been destroyed by fire a few days earlier, news that reached New Bern by March 18 and was printed in the State Gazette of North Carolina on March 27. The district and county courthouse was among the buildings lost, the courts moved into a private house, and the General Assembly ordered a replacement built on the same lot before the year was out.
18. November and December 1790 General Assembly orders a new district courthouse built at Hillsborough Alexander Mebane of Orange brought in the bill, and the act named William Watters, Absalom Tatom and Jeduthan Harper commissioners to raise a courthouse on the lot where the burned one had stood and to sell off its brick and remains. It was paid for by a poll and land tax on Orange and by lighter taxes on Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Granville and Randolph, the counties of the Hillsborough district.
19. about 1826 Hillsborough's market house is torn down The town clock, which had hung in the market-house tower after leaving the old Episcopal church steeple, was put in storage until the new courthouse was finished.
20. 1840 Henry Evans, a free cabinetmaker of color, buys a shop lot on Churton Street Evans paid $265 for old lot 6 on Churton Street, across from the courthouse then being built, and made furniture there, including chancel pieces for St. Matthew's, where he was baptized in 1842. The Bailey map marks his workshop.
21. 1844–1845 John Berry builds the Orange County Courthouse County magistrates ordered a new Hillsborough courthouse in early 1844 and set aside $6,000, and its cornerstone was set to be laid with Masonic ceremonies on September 7, 1844. John Berry designed and built the Greek Revival temple-form building, which was standing by May 1845; the town clock went into its cupola in July 1846.
22. September 7, 1844 Eagle Lodge Masons lay the cornerstone of the new Orange County courthouse Masons of Eagle Lodge, with brethren from University Lodge, laid the cornerstone of the new courthouse in Hillsborough, with Dr. James S. Smith acting as deputy grand master. The Rev. William M. Green gave the oration in the old courthouse nearby. People: James Strudwick Smith, William Mercer Green
23. 1845–1847 The Old Orange County Courthouse is moved up Churton Street to Queen Street After the county built a new courthouse, its commissioners advertised the old wooden courthouse for sale at the November 1845 county court, to be removed from the court square. The Baptist missionary Elias Dodson bought it, and by about 1847 it stood at the corner of Churton and Queen streets as a church. The building later became the freedmen's school and then the home of Dickerson Chapel AME Church.
24. August 29, 1845 Witherspoon's farm Tusculum is sold at the courthouse door Dr. Edmund Strudwick, who had long held the mortgages, bought the farm at public sale. Susan Witherspoon was allowed to stay on at Tusculum by Strudwick's provision. People: Edmund Strudwick
25. 1846 Lemuel Lynch is paid to repair the courthouse clock The old town clock, in storage since the market house came down, was repaired for the new courthouse, where it still hangs in the cupola. Lemuel Lynch was paid $250 for the work and afterward $25 a year to keep it running on time.
26. 1851 Job Berry and Billy Payne begin the congregation that became Dickerson Chapel Dickerson Chapel AME Church dates its founding to 1851, when Job Berry, an enslaved painter and its first pastor, began gathering the congregation with Rev. Billy (William) Payne, enslaved by Dr. Edmund Strudwick. With state law barring Black preachers, they met in homes; the congregation moved into the old courthouse on Queen Street in 1866.
27. November 19, 1853 First Baptist Church of Hillsborough is organized in the old courthouse The First Baptist Church was organized in Hillsborough and met in the former 1790 courthouse building, now Dickerson Chapel, until 1862, while it raised its own church building on a lot acquired between 1854 and 1860.
28. 1860 to 1868 First Baptist Church of Hillsborough builds its church Seven years after organizing in the old courthouse, the First Baptist Church of Hillsborough began its brick church about 1860, to a design by William Percival. The congregation met in the courthouse until 1862 and the war stalled the work; John Berry took over from the first builder, D. Kistler, and finished it. The Baptist State Convention met in the newly completed church in the fall of 1868, when Rev. Thomas H. Pritchard of Raleigh preached the dedication sermon. People: William A. Graham
29. April 24, 1861 A courthouse meeting in Hillsborough calls for a secession convention Ten days after Fort Sumter, a large crowd from across the county met at the courthouse. With Dr. Edmund Strudwick presiding and Dennis Heartt as secretary, it adopted resolutions asking the legislature to call a convention at once to pass an ordinance of secession. People: Edmund Strudwick, Dennis Heartt
30. April 20, 1863 The county school board names committeemen for all 53 districts in wartime The Board of Superintendents appointed school committeemen for each of Orange County's 53 districts, a sign the public schools stayed open during the war. That month W. H. Brown's examining committee also called would-be teachers to the courthouse in May.
31. September 13, 1865 Job Berry calls a fair to buy a building for a Black school The Hillsborough Recorder printed Job Berry's notice that the colored citizens of Hillsborough would hold a fair on September 23 to raise money for a school building. The school later met in the old courthouse at Queen and Churton streets.
32. 1866 The AME congregation later called Dickerson Chapel begins worshipping in the old courthouse The AME congregation later known as Dickerson Chapel moved into the 1790 courthouse building on Queen Street in 1866, sharing it with the freedmen's school the Philadelphia Friends ran there. Lefler and Wager date its formal organization to 1873, and the Friends conveyed the building to the church's trustees in 1886.
33. February 21, 1866 E. H. Pogue starts making tinware for the wholesale trade in Hillsborough E. H. Pogue announced that he had begun manufacturing tinware in Hillsborough for merchants and retail dealers, and would also sell it to townspeople at wholesale rates. By early 1867 his store stood west of the courthouse, where he also sold groceries, stoves and tobacco and took country produce in barter.
34. June 5, 1866 Rev. Job Berry and the Philadelphia Friends open Hillsborough's first school for Black children and adults Job Berry, who had advertised a fair in September 1865 to raise money for a school, worked with the Friends of Philadelphia to buy the former Orange County courthouse on Queen Street for twelve hundred dollars and open a freedmen's school in it on June 5, 1866. More than three hundred children and adults learned to read and cipher there.
35. August 5, 1868 Orange County's first elected board of commissioners takes office Elected in April 1868 at the election that ratified the new constitution, five commissioners qualified at the courthouse and chose Lemuel Lynch chairman, replacing the old county court of justices. Within days the newly elected sheriff, treasurer, register of deeds and clerk of superior court gave their bonds. People: John U. Kirkland, Jones Watson, David C. Parks
36. January 5, 1875 Commissioners order a new bell for the courthouse The board authorized David C. Parks to buy and hang a new bell for the courthouse and to sell the old one on the best terms he could. People: David C. Parks
37. 1880s The upstairs courtroom of the Orange County Courthouse is renovated In the 1880s the second-floor courtroom of John Berry's 1844-1845 courthouse on East King Street was renovated; the rest of the interior keeps most of its original finish.
38. March 1913 Three students are convicted in Hillsborough in Isaac William Rand's death At the Orange County Courthouse one of the four defendants was freed after the first testimony, and a jury of Orange County farmers found the other three guilty within a few hours. The judge gave the minimum four months with the option of hiring them out, and their families paid the fees and took them home the same day. People: John W. Graham
39. Late 1914 About 250 county citizens meet at the Hillsboro courthouse for Community Service Week As part of the university's Community Service Week, some 250 citizens gathered at the Orange County courthouse in Hillsboro to take up the county's needs and hear President Graham speak on community service. People: Edward Kidder Graham
40. June 11, 1917 A Sunday rally at the Hillsborough court house gives $400 to the Red Cross War Fund After a week of canvassing by C. H. Robertson's membership committee, a Sunday afternoon service at the court house led by the town's ministers raised $400 for the national Hundred Million Dollar Red Cross War Fund and brought the chapter to 200 members. By July 1 the chapter reported 400 members to Atlanta.
41. July 5, 1917 The Orange County Red Cross chapter organizes permanently under John W. Graham At a court house meeting on July 5, 1917, the chapter read its national authority to organize with jurisdiction over all of Orange County except Chapel Hill and elected Maj. John W. Graham chairman, with Henrietta P. Collins as secretary and Margaret Forrest as treasurer. The Red Cross Central Committee's recognition letter followed on July 17. People: John W. Graham, Henrietta P. Collins
42. August 1, 1917 Orange County women organize the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense About fifty women representing every women's organization in the county met at the Hillsborough court house on August 1, 1917, and elected Mrs. J. Cheshire Webb chairman, Lula Cassidy secretary and Mrs. Isaac Manning treasurer. On Labor Day they replaced township units with one central committee of eleven departments.
43. October 11, 1917 The Orange County Red Cross reports 455 members at its first annual meeting At a public meeting in the Hillsborough court house, chairman John W. Graham reported 455 members since June 4, branches at Cedar Grove and New Hope, an auxiliary for Black residents, a case of 1,453 surgical dressings shipped to Atlanta, about 150 knitters, and $1,535.43 given. The officers were re-elected, and Capt. Stuart Allen of Canada's Princess Patricia regiment spoke on the fighting in France. People: John W. Graham, Henrietta P. Collins
44. October 13, 1917 Eugene C. Branson urges county teachers to back the food conservation drive At a court house meeting of teachers and school committeemen called by J. C. Webb, Branson explained why food conservation mattered, and Mrs. Isaac Manning described her work in the south end of the county. Forty-two teachers attended, and the meeting laid the plan to register every woman at her school house on October 27. People: J. Cheshire Webb
45. October 22, 1917 Hillsborough men enlist in a Home Guard detachment of the state militia Answering Gov. Bickett's call, the Council of Defense chose 25 men on October 20, 1917, and they enlisted for the duration at the Hillsborough court house on October 22 and 24, electing Shepperd Strudwick first lieutenant. The county bought their uniforms, and they drilled twice a week until the influenza ban on meetings. People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961), J. Cheshire Webb, Thomas W. Bickett
46. October 23, 1917 A Liberty Bonfire on the court house square rallies Hillsborough for the Second Liberty Loan On the night of Tuesday, October 23, young Billy Hayes lit a Liberty Bonfire at the corner of the court house square, and seven speakers gave three-minute talks. The county's four banks sold $132,550 in second-loan bonds, and a women's committee under Mrs. James H. Webb raised $79,800. People: Frank Nash, John W. Graham, Samuel Mallett Gattis
47. November 11-19, 1917 Orange County raises about $2,000 in a Y.M.C.A. war fund drive A Y.M.C.A. drive ran November 11-19, 1917, led by N. W. Brown, G. K. Collins and T. M. Grant. At a packed court house rally on November 18, with Maj. John W. Graham presiding, pledges reached $1,400, and the rest of the $2,000 was raised afterward. People: John W. Graham, Samuel Mallett Gattis
48. May 9, 1918 Orange County raises its Third Liberty Loan honor flag at the court house The county subscribed $99,150 to the Third Liberty Loan against a $75,000 allotment, and on May 9, 1918, raised its Honor Flag at the court house, with Judge Bond of Edenton speaking. Hillsborough had raised its own town Honor Flag at the cross streets on May 2.
49. June 15, 1918 The Council of Defense extends into township community councils At a court house meeting on June 15, 1918, J. Cheshire Webb organized community councils of defense for each of the seven townships, choosing the township over the school district as the unit. Their charge was to support every war activity without forming new organizations. People: J. Cheshire Webb, Eugene Cunningham Branson
50. June 22, 1918 Hillsborough dedicates a tablet crediting Daniel Boone with an expedition from the Old State House During a day of patriotic meetings and a war bond drive, Hillsborough dedicated a steel tablet at the site of the Old State House stating that frontiersmen under Richard Henderson, led by Daniel Boone, set out from there for Kentucky on March 17, 1776. A Trading Path tablet was added to the monument on July 4, 1931. The inscription is disputed: the American Revolution tour AmRevNC says Boone was not with the party that left the courthouse that day. People: Richard Henderson, Frank Nash
51. September 12, 1918 A War Savings rally in Hillsborough welcomes home wounded volunteer Jim Cheshire On the night of Registration Day, September 12, 1918, a crowd packed the court house for a War Savings rally to hear two of Pershing's soldiers. One was Jim Cheshire, the first man to volunteer from the town and the first to come home, sent back wounded to train troops. That day 1,727 county men registered for the draft. People: J. Cheshire Webb, Samuel Mallett Gattis
52. September 19, 1918 Orange County organizes for the United War Work drive A court house meeting on September 19, 1918, elected N. W. Brown county chairman for the United War Work drive. The county raised $7,485; Carrboro gave $1,240 on a $500 quota, and Hillsborough Township, under Elizabeth Cornelius, gave $2,300.
53. July 16, 1919 Hillsborough holds the county homecoming celebration for returned soldiers On July 16, 1919, about 15,000 people came to Hillsborough to welcome home Orange County's soldiers and sailors, with a parade, Gov. Bickett's address at the court house and a dinner for about a thousand guests in Cameron Park. J. Cheshire Webb chaired the celebration, and the county Red Cross voted $300 toward its cost, money the celebration fund turned out not to need. People: Frank Nash, Julian S. Carr, John W. Graham, J. Cheshire Webb, Samuel Mallett Gattis, Thomas W. Bickett
54. March 1925 The Mayo family's quarry land near Hillsborough is sold to Duke's land agent for $500 A deed at the Orange County courthouse records that Duke land agent Murray Jones paid the Mayo family $500 in March 1925 for land with a working stone quarry, the source of the stone for Duke's new campus. According to family accounts, George Mayo refused to sell until he was jailed and signed so his family would not go hungry.
55. 1943 The 1844 Orange County Courthouse is rehabilitated The county rehabilitated its courthouse of about 1844 in 1943 and later added an annex, but the building stayed too small, and a new courthouse was finished just south of it in 1954.
56. November 30, 1944 Home demonstration clubs report the year's work at Achievement Day in Hillsboro At the county home demonstration clubs' Achievement Day at the courthouse, the home agent reported that women had canned an average of 350 quarts and that 94 percent made their own clothes, and that the women's curb market in Chapel Hill had taken in $30,280.68 over the past year. Clubs from Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Schley and Murphy had made 699 garments and 744 other articles for the Red Cross.
57. April 1947–March 1949 Journey of Reconciliation comes to Chapel Hill Interracial riders testing segregation on interstate buses reached Chapel Hill on April 12, 1947. The next day police arrested four of them at the bus station and a white cab driver struck rider James Peck. Convicted in Orange County, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joe Felmet surrendered at the Hillsborough courthouse on March 21, 1949 to serve chain-gang sentences. People: Bayard Rustin, George Houser, Igal Roodenko, Joseph A. Felmet
58. November 22, 1949 Orange County voters approve $1.25 million in bonds for schools and a courthouse Following a county-wide school study begun in October 1948, voters approved bonds of up to $1,250,000 for new and enlarged schools and a new courthouse. Voters had turned down similar bonds in 1947.
59. 1952 Orange County sells $250,000 in bonds for a new courthouse The courthouse bonds brought the county's net bonded debt to $1,378,000 at the end of 1952. The new courthouse was then rising beside the old one on the same axis, sharing a courtyard.
60. December 1954 The county school superintendent's office moves into the old courthouse Superintendent G. P. Carr and his staff finished moving into the first floor of the 1845 courthouse, which had been renovated after the other county offices left for the new building in October.
61. March 1956 Patriots of North Carolina hold a mass meeting in Hillsborough and form an Orange County unit An overflow crowd of about 300, observers said all white, filled the courtroom in Hillsborough for a Patriots of North Carolina meeting where I. Beverly Lake urged abandoning the public schools for a private system rather than integrate. W. C. George, the Patriots' state president, presided as members named an Orange County executive committee. People: I. Beverly (Isaac Beverly) Lake
62. November 10, 1957 The Orange County Historical Museum opens The Hillsborough Garden Club, led by Mrs. Clarence Jones, founded the Orange County Historical Museum, which opened in November 1957 on the second floor of the 1845 Orange County Courthouse after the county commissioners approved the space and gave $250. The museum moved to its Churton Street home in 1983.
63. March 16, 1962 Portrait of the late Sheriff Oddie Clayton is hung in the sheriff's office A portrait of the late Orange County sheriff Oddie Clayton, painted by Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick and paid for by public subscription in a drive led by ABC Police Chief Burch Compton, was hung in the county sheriff's office before members of his family.
64. 1964 A bronze plaque honoring builder John Berry is placed on the Old Orange County Courthouse A bronze plaque naming John Berry a contributor to the tradition of American architecture was fixed to the 1845 courthouse he built in Hillsborough.
65. June 24, 1971 The Old Orange County Courthouse is listed in the National Register On June 24, 1971 the National Park Service listed the Old Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
66. October 12, 2006 The 1953 Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough joins the Study List The committee's list of properties approved for the Study List on October 12, 2006 includes the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough. The survey layer identifies it as the 1953 Colonial Revival courthouse on Margaret Lane, not the older courthouse listed in the National Register in 1971.
67. April 29, 2023 Soil collection ceremony at the Orange County courthouse honors Cyrus Guy and four other 1869 lynching victims The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition held a soil collection ceremony for Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Cyrus Guy, all lynched in 1869. One jar for each man was to go to the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial collection in Montgomery, Alabama, and a second jar was to stay in Orange County. People: Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, James Williams

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