About 1780, as its center shifted west, the Hawfields congregation left its log church on the old road west from Hillsborough and built anew on ground now at the back of the present cemetery. During Jacob Lake's ministry, between about 1784 and 1790, members of Hawfields, Eno and Stony Creek gathered a new congregation, Cross Roads. When Lake left about 1790, Hawfields and Cross Roads took one pastor and Eno and Little River another. In 1792 Orange Presbytery ordained William Hodge, raised in the Hawfields congregation, as pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads, after James McGready's revivals of 1789 to 1791 had renewed his wish to preach; Hodge served until about 1799, when he left for Tennessee and Kentucky. James H. Bowman took the Eno and Little River charge in 1794 and held it until 1815, gathering many members during the revival. McGready, who had begun preaching along the Haw River in 1788, stressing piety and conduct over doctrine, drew opposition, and in 1796 his pulpit was taken out of the Stony Creek church and burned and he was sent a warning written in blood.
William D. Paisley, who had served the Union and Buffalo churches in Guilford County, took charge of Hawfields and Cross Roads in 1801. On February 7 he bought a 200-acre tract from James Davis, where by local tradition he built the log house now known as the Paisley-Rice Log House. At a general communion at Cross Roads in March 1801 the congregation broke into the outcries and physical frenzy of the western camp meetings as an ordinary service was ending, and the ministers let the demonstration run its course; a 1966 article in the North Carolina Historical Review dates the start of the Great Revival in the state from this meeting. The revival reached Hawfields, where people from long distances camped on the church grounds in their wagons for several days. The Hawfields church historian credits Paisley with organizing it, and Foote and the 1966 article call it the first camp meeting in North Carolina, though the accounts differ on its date.
In January 1809 a grammar school under Paisley was announced to open about ten miles west of Hillsborough, teaching Latin, Greek, geography and philosophy for sixteen dollars a year; Hawfield Academy, which Paisley had led, had John H. Pickard as principal from 1812 to 1814. 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, where the present church stands; another account credits Thomas White with giving the site. Paisley left in 1818 to head the Greensborough Academy and in September 1819 sold his farm to Elijah Pickard. Ezekiel B. Currie, from Nutbush and Grassy Creek, took charge of Hawfields and Cross Roads in 1819 and served until 1843; he died in 1851 and was buried in the Hawfields graveyard. In 1821 the Synod of North Carolina reported a revival at Cross Roads, where about sixty people had become subjects of the awakening.
Reading on the places and people in this storyline
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
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.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1963).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Little River Presbyterian Church History
1986
A history of Little River Presbyterian Church in Orange County, compiled in 1986. Topics include the church's history, Orange County church history and Orange County genealogy, along with the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. A source for family historians with Presbyterian ancestors in the county.
Wider background: Churches & Faith · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
Miss Mary's Money
Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.
H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.
A Historical Sketch of New Hope Church, in Orange County, N.C
Craig, D. I. · 1891
Rev. D. I. Craig's history of New Hope Church, a Presbyterian congregation in Chapel Hill Township, Orange County, printed at Reidsville in 1891. A closing family history section covers the Strayhorn, Craig, Blackwood and Kirkland families.
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).
Journey to New Hope
Murphy, Barbara A. · 2006
A congregational history of New Hope Presbyterian Church in Orange County, written by Barbara A. Murphy and published in 2006 by Chapel Hill Press. Chapters take up the five successive church buildings, the land itself, the ministers who served, the cemeteries, members who went to war, the church's organization, its music, gifts and memorials, and its outreach to the surrounding community. It also covers Presbyterian experience of the Civil War. 126 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Facing Tomorrow, Understanding Yesterday
1992
A history of Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill since 1832, prepared by the congregation's History Committee and edited by Margaret A. Blanchard with Julia Blackwood, Mildred Stout, Wiley Williams, Kay Creech, Andrea Stark and Shirley Mallard. Published by Taylor Publishing of Dallas in 1992, 161 pages with illustrations, some in color, a facsimile, maps and portraits.
Binkley: A Congregational History
Gardner, Andrew · 2023 · The University of Tennessee Press
Andrew Gardner's history of Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, named for Olin T. Binkley, covering the years between the late 1950s and the 2010s and tracing how a congregation with Southern Baptist roots came to be known for liberal Christianity. Published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2023, 213 pages with illustrations.
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Centennial Monograph
Habel, Samuel Tilden · 1954 · The Baptist Church
Samuel Tilden Habel's centennial monograph on the Baptist Church at Chapel Hill, covering its first hundred years from 1854 to 1954. It pairs a narrative of the congregation with membership lists. Published by the church in Chapel Hill in 1954, 58 pages plus sixteen pages of plates with illustrations, portraits and facsimiles.
A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924
Howell, Almonte Charles · 1945
A. C. Howell's history of the Baptist church in Chapel Hill from 1854 to 1924, published in 1945. Thirty-two pages with one plate; the story touches the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina as well as the congregation itself.
The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill
Henderson, Archibald · 1938
Archibald Henderson's history of the Episcopal congregation in Chapel Hill, the Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross, as the title names them. A short work of Chapel Hill church history and of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, published in Hartford, Connecticut, by the Church Missions Publishing Company in 1938, 57 pages with illustrations and portraits. One copy carries the author's presentation inscription to the North Carolina State Library.
An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, N.C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924
Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1925
Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.
The first parish register of the Chapel of the Cross (1842-1881)
2024 · Chapel Hill Historical Society
Transcription of the first register kept by Chapel of the Cross, the Episcopal parish on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, with its entries from 1842 to 1881. Published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2024 with an introduction and a bibliography, 142 pages with illustrations and portraits.
